not an emergency, and i know this is going to sound

K

kleankord

not an emergency, and i know this is going to sound like a dumb question..

I'm getting shocked, feels electric, every time i stick my hand in the tank. My gf did it too, and she felt it when she touched the siphon. but not when sticking her hand in the tank. wth?

we're doing a water change and its the first time this has happened. also is this going to hurt the fish or corals any?
 
I think it means that you had better not stick your hands, or your girlfriends hands in the water any more until you isolate where water is making contact with
electricity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A pump or power head could be the culprit. And fish don't like being shocked either! Turn pumps off one at a time and see if it stops shocking you. But please be careful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then get rid of the faulty device!

David
 
You can get a voltage meter at Home Depot, Lowe's, or another hardware store for ~$10. Read the instructions, ground the voltage meter, stick the non-grounded end CAREFULLY in the tank, and check the reading. Then unplug everything. Plug things in one at a time until you find what's leaking electricity into your tank; could be a pump, powerhead, frayed cord, salt creep making contact with an outlet, etc; also could be more than one thing so test EVERYTHING in or on your tank that draws power. Yes, a voltage leak will have an adverse effect on fish and corals - my boyfriend lost something like 5 fish earlier this year till we figured out that a Koralia Nano was leaking a small amount of electricity into the tank.
 
How to test for stray electricity: http://www.reefaddicts.com/content.php/45-How-to-Test-for-Stray-Electricity
 
By the way... this is definitely an emergency! Take care of this ASAP, the last thing we want to do is put together a group to help you sort through ashes for anything valuable that wasn't destroyed by the fire!
 
@DFW wrote:
And everything on your tank should be plugged in to a GFCI circuit! David said:
+1

This can be difficult with electronic ballast, but everything else should be.

Mitch
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thanks guys, I have everything going to a gfci, and one is built in to the plug at the apartments i am in. I unplugged a used powerhead that I got recently and that might be the culprit bc i'm not getting electricuted anymore. the step by step instructions that Marc provided seemed simple enough that I might plug it back in a try it to make sure it was the problem, but i might do that in seperate mixing container instead of my main tank.
 
@diabeetus wrote:
there are also probes you can put into the water that actually draws electric currents out of the water. said:
+1 I am a big fan of probes too, Have them on all my tanks and they do the job.
Click to expand...
 
where do i get the probe and more information please. I thought the problem was fixed, bc i wasn't shocked earlier. its not. i just shocked myself again.
 
@kleankord wrote:
where do i get the probe and more information please. I thought the problem was fixed said:
This won't "fix" your problem, you still need to find out what is streaming current into your tank. Grounding probes are meant to help protect you in the event that something were to start leaking current into your tank. Another thing to note is that the gfci should have tripped if the leaking item is plugged into it.

Cheers,
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