Just got zapped hard!

[FishyFishy!]

Originally Posted by kien

holy frak! Glad to hear you're ok! Would hate for you to have yet another excuse not to finish your build.

All kidding aside, keeps us updated on what you find! You've got me scared to put my hand in my tank now!

LOL!!!! No excuse...YET. I'm still kickin! haha.

After work today I'm going to take the heaters out, and inspect all the powerheads as well. See if I can find anything obvious.

[AquaticExpressions]

I would not recommend a grounding probe. A grounding probe might seem like a good idea to draw out voltage from the aquarium but it tends to draw more voltage into the aquarium that can lead HLLE and doesn't solve the issue of stray voltage in the aquarium. It is best to find out which piece of equipment is leaking voltage and replace. Just my 2 cents

[Samw]

I use one of these NOMA GFCI powerbars. It says not for use with aquariums but I use it anyways.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/no...l#.U9fXfa3n-Hs

[Kellyscoral]

Wow - that is a hazard of the hobby I had never considered! I am glad you are okay. I stick my hands in my water all the time without a second thought. while doing a water change on the weekend, I accidentally dumped a bunch of water on my power bar and it started hissing and spurting. If the toxins don't get us the electricity will!

[FishyFishy!]

Originally Posted by Kellyscoral

Wow - that is a hazard of the hobby I had never considered! I am glad you are okay. I stick my hands in my water all the time without a second thought. while doing a water change on the weekend, I accidentally dumped a bunch of water on my power bar and it started hissing and spurting. If the toxins don't get us the electricity will!

LOL, yeah thats the last thing I was expecting when I dumped my hand in the water!! Now im totally scared to do that again without using a multi-meter first! haha

[FishyFishy!]

Well.... sure enough.......thats what I got zapped with!



Did the whole pull all the plugs one at a time, and found an obvious culperit....not a heater!! Slight cut in the return pump cord. Also melted my power bar a little bit. Glad this didnt turn into a fire.

[mike31154]

So the return pump is submerged? I'm in the "the fewer electrical cords in the water, the better" camp. I don't have a return pump on my sumpless set up, but once I upgrade to something with a sump, it will have an external pump. Haven't measured tank voltage in a long while, I have VorTechs as well, so no powerheads with cords in the tank. Heaters & skimmer feed powerhead are the only electrical components physically in the water & I make sure the cords on those items are above the surface.

[FishyFishy!]

Yup. Submerged pump. I prefer submerged over external myself, as most do (due to space under stands).

But this one was just an old small biocube one I always used as my ATO pump. It just circulates the water to keep it moving while I store the live rock. Lucky for me I have 5 more just like it lying around, so it was easy to rig up a replacement.

I checked the new pumps cord thoroughly lol

[mrhasan]

Damn that looks like a significant current! Glad you are alright. Always wear flip flops (the insulated ones) while working with water. Every hobbyist should have few pairs (one for the hobbyist and rest for the visitors) beside the tank; you never know when there's gonna be stray currents