Annoyingly weird GFCI trippage

[::pete::]

Is it definitely by itself? Did they add the outlet in the closet off a loop or its own circut?

[::pete::]

There are no other appliances that are going out ... like clocks on the microwave?

Could just be a bad GFCI

[::pete::]

Isn't that freaky?

... and that halide is on a seperate circut?

Freaky ... scary!! ;)

[JesterGrin_1]

Josh it could be on the same ground and may be getting a bleed back that could cause that as well. You could shut off the breaker in the closet to the outlet that you use and when the Middle MH light is one take a reading of the outlet in the closet and see what voltage if any is bleeding back to that outlet.

[motohead]

sounds like to me that maybe the hot wires of both the halide circuit and your gfi may be crossed somewhere or shorted out together somewhere in the wiring.also could be that the neutral wires could also be tied together somwhere in the line.gfi's are real finicky when it comes to both the hot and neutrals.if you do pull it out make sure that you have the incoming hot wire on the side of the gfi marked "line".the other terminals will be for providing power for additional outlets.in my opinion,because the plug trips when the halide comes on it spells that plug is picking up additional amperage,hence why i think the hots are tied together or shorted together somewhere.this could also be true of the neutral wire.anyway,if one or the other is tied together or shorted together somewhere,it provides a path thru that outlet which is allowing it to pick up the amp load off both circuits.

[Tim Marvin]

So the middle halide is plugged into the same line as the other halides? I'm wondering if the middle halide has some power bleeding into a line that is connected in the closet. Make sure all your power cords are free of salt creep and not touching each other as well as the ballast. See if it does it after isolating the middle halide from everything else. Also I have had a brand new GFCI be bad in the past, or should I say weak. I put in a new one and never had a problem again.

[RobertG]

Check all your cords. I once thought a pump was bad, it kept tripping the GFI. Turned out to be the ext. cord I had on it was causing the problem.

[Tim Marvin]

I've been there before too Robert. Corrosion can cause this problem as well as being a fire hazard.

[SBreef]

Josh,

Are all of your pendantsand ballasts on the same ground. Lets not forget, that the ballasts produce RF and EMI interference. Magnetic ballasts have a lower operating frequency and Electronic at a much higher frequency.
Make sure that all pendents and ballasts ground at the same point. If not, you will a have difference of potential between the ballasts and pendents, and GFI's.

Roy

[alton]

When you added the additional receptacle for your closet did you add plugs for your tank lights? If you did, did they use 12-3 NMS or romex cable. Another words a cable that contains two hots and one neutral or one black, one red, one bare, and one white. When you get into MH or any type of lighting that uses a ballast the grounded conductor or white wire will have twice the amount of amperage that the ungrounded conductors will carry. It's called having Harmonic problems. So what happens when your light comes on it adds a large amount of current to the grounded conductor there fore adding an imbalance to your GFCI and therefore tripping it. Some simple items you can check are after you turn the panel off is go thru and tighten all your conductors in the panel, and make sure none of them are sharing terminal screws. Make sure the bare conductors are are the grounding bar mounted to the panel and are not on the neutral bar. The only place you can bond the neutral bar is at the service panel. This is what causes voltage to run into your tank from grounding probes!

[::pete::]

Sounds like Cliff had it nailed!!

[motohead]

josh i still do think that the wires in question that go to your gfi are somehow incorporated whether by short or by being tied in.i think an easy way to find out if it is tied in is this.take out the gfi.if like you say it is a dedicated circuit,then there will be only three wires there.a hot,a neutral and a ground.now if it is tied into something else then you will have twice that amount of wires and the second set will be on the additional recepeptacle side of the plug.as far as a short my first guess would be that the wires could be stapled together in the wiring.just seems like to me that plug is pickin up extra amps from the halide somehow.

[motohead]

yep that is how i mean it could be stapled together.you have to have a multimeter to check and see if they are shorted.if you have one you would use the ohm setting and then touch the probes to the wires at the same time.you could also have a neutral that is essentially doing the same thing.i would if it was me,find out which neutral goes back to the panel,lift it,then lift the rest off the panel also.remeber which one is the neutral going to your ded plug and touch the probe to that wire and then the other to the other neutrals.one by one.kinda hard to explain in words what one mnight do if they were there themselves to do it.lol.with residential construction it is a big pain in the *** to chase this stuff down.because it is not in conduit and essentially hard to fix without rippin a hole in something.maybe a junction box in the attic.never can tell till you see it.i am gonna shut up and go now.

[alton]

PLEASE TURN PANELS OFF BEFORE WORKING ON THEM Lets try this; starting at your service panel check to see if you have a ground rod, and that your neutral bar is grounded to the panel. I am guessing this panel is outside? Then you should have a panel inside being fed from the outside panel? If so make sure the white wires and bare wires are seperated. Bare are on a ground bar mounted to the panel and the white wires should be on the neutral bar. Just curious is this the same light that was tripping your GFCI when you had it over your sump?

[brewercm]

I think it's the ghost in the closet that's tripping it on you.
New house, possibly built on an old burial ground. :lol :lol

Seriously if you need a multimeter to test them out let me know. I have one somewhere in the garage, still not completely done from the move but I think I could find it.

[alton]

One cheap thing is water around your ground rod with the drying conditions depending on your soil the ground can crack apart and you can have weird things happen with your voltage " A Floating Neutral" syndrom can occur