Serious dangers of salt water tanks and any tank
 

Hey I've been on this site for a while and in the hobby for about six years nows I've recently tore apart my 80 due to seal problems and started up my old 35 with what I had left over, up until last night I've never had a problem I noticed my skimmer wasn't working right ( cheap boyyo hang on) so I stuck my hand in water to plug the pump to check pressure, the minute I put my other hand on top of my tank bam shocked, it scared the crap out of me so I called around and I guess it happens a lot but they sell under water grounding plugs so just throwing it out there salt water plus voltage can equal death dosnt take much to kill some one specially In water so any and all vetrans plz comment your feed back and solutions, and if there's a fourm already done direct me to it plz!!!! Thanks

Isaac

There are several posts over the years about the dangers of gear and critters in salt tanks. This is due mainly to faulty equipment, although sometimes it's hard to know it's faulty. I got an old Hagen 402 from somewhere, plugged it in and it spun, so I added it to a mixing tank. Plugged it in. Put hand in water and jumped about 5 feet up :) Cracked wire on the cord. Always check new stuff, and routinely check current gear. Keep it clean, remove salt build up, and buy life insurance :)

I admire your bravery put could you be more specific on keep up with maintence for instance! I'm not going to go by a fluke meter to check and make sure my equipment is good because there's no real way to check internal seals on most products? Or is there I'm just putting this out there because most lfs are quick to sell nobody wants to say ya your better off getting hit with 240 or 600 then 120 because of its affect on ur heart

Check cord conditions, use a grounding probe, clean out pumps and powerheads and if you really want, fluke (among others) sells a pen for about $10 that will tell you if AC current is present but doesn't say how much.

But how often do you realy think its the plug? Is your system gfi on wall or internal on your box? If there's leakage into your tank with moisture and salt build up how do you know if its not traveling threw your stand? The I formation within two comments is excellent but there's still more? Isn't there

I spent 12 yrs as a fresh water guy and one thing I did every few weeks was to check any wire that went into the tank this stemmed from an incident I had a fully submersible heater and I had the protective covering over the wire crack after about 2 yrs into its use and when I stuck my hand into the water I had a communion with the big guy upstairs.

Ever since then I check all wires and equipment regularly. GFIs and power bars are good investments however a GFI will only help if it detects current coming from one item so plugging a GFI into a power bar does you no good you have to use a GFI for each piece of equipment you plug in however that being said I have seen GFI power bars but know little about them aside from that they are flipping expensive

electricty and water dont mix...i always assumed that was common sense lol :twised:

So I should stop blow drying my hair in the shower?

Not at all take an internal seal out of one of ur pumps or if u have t5ho have one off set so its not fully on the pronge and hang out with ur feet in two buckets of salt water

I have had my gfci outlet trip when a powerhead in my sump cracked its case. I have two power bars plugged into two different gfci outlets just in case this happens only half my equipment gets shut off. I do agree you should check all equipment on a regular basis. I only have my lights on non gfci outlets as the electronic ballast for the mh trips every time.

[quote=Dearth;763880Ever since then I check all wires and equipment regularly. GFIs and power bars are good investments however a GFI will only help if it detects current coming from one item so plugging a GFI into a power bar does you no good you have to use a GFI for each piece of equipment you plug in however that being said I have seen GFI power bars but know little about them aside from that they are flipping expensive[/QUOTE]