tangale

Senior Member
Location
Murray Hill, NYC
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Hi Everyone,

This might be a real stupid question, but what the heck....

Is it possible for a small amount of electricity to be in the water, without any corals or fish dying? I know it sounds weird, but I was touching the water earlier and it didn't feel quite right...almost like a small pulse of eletricity.

Thanks for any help,

Alex
 

loismustdie

chicks dig beckett men
Location
Brooklyn
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Even though coral and fish aren't dying at the moment, that doesn't mean that the stry voltage isn't getting to them. You may not have noticed it before because your pumps are aging. As they get older, the likleyhood of them dropping some stray volts increases. Ground probes are a great fix. If you can though, find the problem and replace it.
 

tangale

Senior Member
Location
Murray Hill, NYC
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Yep, tried both hands and felt the tingle. Then I siphoned some out into a cup and touched that...no problem.

This is quite scary for the inexperienced (like myself). Hardly read about this in books/articles. Luckily for these forums.
 

tangale

Senior Member
Location
Murray Hill, NYC
Rating - 100%
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One more question...

Does this mean that if all equipments are three pronged, they are already all grounded? And a grounding probe won't be needed?

BTW - I don't plan on skimping on this probe...will go out and get tomorrow.
 

cali_reef

Fish and Coral Killer
Rating - 97.3%
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You need to unplug one thing at the time to figure out which appliance is faulty. Get rid of that item once you have isolated it.


The three prong plugs or the ground probe does not prevent the stray voltage from killing you unless they are plugged into GFIC sockets.
 

Dace

Advanced Reefer
Location
Manhattan
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bad coffee said:
did you try another hand/finger in the tank? It could be a small cut getting saltwater into it.

B
this is so true. the other day i had to shut down my WHOLE SYSTEM because i thought there was electricity in the water, and it turned out to be a cut on my finger
 

tangale

Senior Member
Location
Murray Hill, NYC
Rating - 100%
36   0   0
cali_reef said:
You need to unplug one thing at the time to figure out which appliance is faulty. Get rid of that item once you have isolated it.


The three prong plugs or the ground probe does not prevent the stray voltage from killing you unless they are plugged into GFIC sockets.

So does this mean a GFIC socket is required as well?
 

cali_reef

Fish and Coral Killer
Rating - 97.3%
36   1   0
tangale said:
So does this mean a GFIC socket is required as well?

Good thing to have to prevent that tingling feeling and possible shock:Yikes:.. Some people don't like them because any stray electrical current will cause it to trip and cutting off power to everything plugged into it.

A powerhead and UPS will prevent the tank from not getting any circulation during a GFIC trip and also serve as a power outage back up for few hours.
 

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