Powerhead and Timers not working?

[Cheebs]

Alright, so I've got too problem's in my tank right now:

First, my light timers are doing weird things. It seems like they are speeding up and slowing down.  I'll leave for work with the timer set for midnight for one set of lights, and I get home and the timer is way ahead, saying that they turned off at 9pm for example.  It's doing the same thing on my other timer too, although not as much.  Anyways, it's really screwing up my light cycle, and I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this, or knows if I need to get new timers, or if I can fix them.

My second problem is my powerhead. I am running 3 Koralia 4 powerheads in my 75 gallon, but for the past couple days, one of them has been randomly shutting off for a few minutes, then turning back on for a few seconds, then turning back off for a few minutes again.  It keeps doing it, and these powerheads cause quite a big noise sometimes when they start up, not to mention the substrate it stirs up by doing this, and with the combination of my lights screwing up and the powerhead not working, my fish have got so stressed that it looks like my yellow tang has somehow broken out with Ich. To see if it was my power source, I plugged it in to a different cuircuit and everything, but it still just runs for a few seconds then cuts off.  Maybe there's some kind of short happening?

Somethings up, and now I may be forced to QT my fish for weeks. Some the other fish look like they might be showing signs of Ich too, and all this electical BS isn't helping. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Phil.

[kennyman]

Can't say I ever had a problem like this but I was wondering if you are using digital timers and if they can support the stuff running on them.

[veron]

were in ORLEANS do you live. I could stop by. I'm close.

[Cheebs]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies.  I'm not using digital timers, I'm using Heavy Duty timers from Home Depot (Can't remember the brand right now but I'll do some research).  I'm using one timer for two t5 bulbs, and another timer for the other two bulbs.  They've been running like this for over a year now with no problems until now.

As for the powerhead, I've turned it off for now, it's bothering the fish far too much.  I still have over 30x turnover in my tank, but the fish and certain corals really seemed to like the extra flow, but it's not a major issue.  I'm thinking either some minute amount of water is causing it to short out, or something wrong with the wire itself, and the current is jumping through it only every once and a while (Just a shot in the dark, I have no idea about electrical stuff).

I'll screw around some more, but worse case scenario I'll pick up some new timers, and eventually a new powerhead if need be.

Oh and Vernon, thanks for the offer, but I've just recently moved to Nepean! (That's when these problems began, making me think some kind of physical damage might be the culprit). You're more than welcome to stop by, but it's at the other end of town .  If anyone else has any ideas, shoot, if not I'll be dropping some dollars!

[Cheebs]

Some good news... Still no luck with the timers and powerhead, the powerhead remains off and I'm having to switch half my lights on manually, but the yellow tang has been tag teamed by 2 cleaner shrimp, the chromis and a cleaner goby, they were pecking at himf or two night, adn he shows no igns of Ich. Wether it was ich or not I'm still going to keep an eye on him and if it comes back I'll QT immediately.  I'm happy though, aside from a little bit of technical difficulties, the tank is looking great.

[murgus]

Are the timers the ones that are a big dial with little clips you put in (or little levers you flip in or out)?  I've experienced the same thing you are describing with mine and I've attributed it to fluctuations in the house AC frequency.  But not to the extent of several hours in a day.

I've never actually looked into it but I've always assumed that these types of analog timers use the 60 Hz signal as it's timing source.

Is it possible the power is going off during the days for many short periods of time?  That might also account for it.  If you have a VCR should should see the infamous flashing 12:00 if that's the case

murgus

[Cheebs]

Hi murgus, yes they are the timers with the big dial and red/green little clips.  You might be right about the AC fluctuation, it seems like the only logical explanation at this point.  As far as I know the power's been steady though, I've got clocks and other gizmos that would have been affected by it, and there are some days, like on weekends, where I'm there most of the day and I don't notice anything going wrong, at least nothing that I can perceive.

I live right beside Home Depot, so I'm thinking of going to grab some different timers, maybe I'll try going digital, and test them out for a couple days.  If the same thing happens I'll know it's not the timers and I'll return the new ones. It's just so bizarre that it started happening out of nowhere.  I moved a few months ago and I haven't had any electrical problems until now.  Could it be that I have too much plugged in to the outlet and the powerbar is shutting off certain plugs for a given amount of time?  IS such a thing possible? I'm running four 48" t5 bulbs, 3 powerheads, a heater and a skimmer, going into 2 separate power bars which are plugged into the wall.  It hardly seems like a lot, I've ran music equipment and space heaters and all sorts of junk with more wattage from those plugs without issue.