electricity in tank

B

bwig333

Premium Member
Got a quick question, what is the best way to tell if I have electricity leaking into tank from one of the underwater pumps? You will have to excuse my choice of wording because "leaking" is probably not the best choice. I had a small cut on my finger sunday and noticed a "bite" in that area. I wasn't sure if it was from the salt or from electricity, so I took a small sample out of tank and stuck my finger in it and did not get the same sensation, so I have decided that it was an electrical issue. Problem is now that the cut has healed I can not tell which pump I need to take out of tank. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated
 
Thanks clay. Can I find a ground probe at home depot/lowes, or do I need to go somewhere specific?

Brian
 
Call your lfs see if they carry them .... You won't find this at a hardware store


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google " stray voltage ", and use a VOM as recommended to determine if you have a bad device ( I found another bad heater last week using the cut finger test (2nd unit) ).
 
Is VOM a voltmeter, or is there something that I am missing? I did unplug my skimmer and noticed a decrease in "tingling" but it was still present so I unplugged another pump (the only two items on a power strip) and the tingling went away. Like I said earlier this was sunday and I haven't actually tried plugging them into another power strip because I was out of town. The only reason I was curious about the pumps vs the power strip is because I did notice a little bite with touching the actual power cord(no visible or tactile nicks). Just found this strange.
 
Bwig333. You can buy it on eBay for less than $20. It keeps you tank from being zap from a heater going out or a pump. It will fried all your corals and life stock.


Clay
Arlington, TX
 
thanks for all the responses. I am off work today am going to make a trip to hardware store and see if I can this figured out.
 
Quick update, bought a VOM with digital display. I am getting a reading of 1.6 with everything plugged in. Is this a significant number? I am going to purchase a grounding rod soon. I am perplexed as to why I got the bite on sunday, I am thinking that 1.6 is low, but not sure.
 
I would be surprised if most humans can detect a stray 1.6 volt flow. Take a 1.5 volt battery and hold it between your fingers. Can you feel it?

Just speaking from my own experience, when I have a cut on my hand from where my pipe cutter slipped, I can feel a significant difference in how quickly pain registers when I insert my hand into the phyto tank which at one point had jumped to 1.035 salinity vs say the FOWLR tank at only 1.23

Do some searching on the board here and you will find an entire thread dedicated to grounding rods for tanks. There is a summary where it is only suggested if you have a GFCI outlet installed and are using that for every single electrical item immersed in the tank. Otherwise, failures are GUARANTEED to force a current through your water with a potential to be much more hazzardous to you and your pets.

My humble $0.02 worth.

--Howard
 
I have one of these installed on each of my GFCI protected power strips: http://www.amazon.com/Reliance-Controls-THP207-Plug-In-Flashlight/dp/B000IF8QDK If the darn thing trips, (and they DO trip a lot given that electricity and water are always around) then you get a flashing light and audible alarm. $15.00 dollar insurance policy against lost fish.

Take a look at this topic: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=100448&start=0&hilit=GFCI#p761015
I would read the part in quotes and make an informed decision from there.
 
@bwig333 wrote:
Quick update said:
ASSUMIING you have it on volts, no, 1.6 is not an issue and I would not waste money on a grounding rod ( although I would never put a grounding rod on any of my systems for the same reasons others have already stated .. they cause a current flow where none exists and that can be a problem for the livestock )
Click to expand...
 
Also just to add, if you bought a cheap Multimeter make sure you have a scale set and you have it set to AC Voltage. If it is autoranging still make sure it is set to AC. it should be a symbol that looks like

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thanks guys, I bought the one from harbor freight that was in the article that I Marc wrote. Had everything on AC gave me options for 200 and 750. On 750 I was just getting whole numbers, on 200 setting it was a steady 1.6, later this evening I did get a 2.0 reading in my sump which is where I believe it is coming from. I cleaned both pumps, that I mentioned above, prior to turning them back on and I also checked the cords for nicks/cuts but didn't see any. I will keep an eye on it and change out equipment as needed I guess.... Thanks for all the info everyone.

Brian
 
Dallas North sells the ground probe you'd need to remove the stray current as a precaution. My mj12 leaks current but I haven't replaced it yet.
 
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