electricity in my reef

[db7080]

so something in my sump is hitting me pretty hard when i try to reach in there. I know it has to be either heater or pump because my sump tank cracked last night so i ran to store and got another. I brought it home and got everything in it plugged the heater and pump in, then i tried to reach in to turn up my pump and as soon as i touched the water it hit me verty hard. i could have been kneeling in a little bit of water from the clean up of the tank cracking,but that shouldnt make a difference unless something is leaking juice. how can i figure out what one it is without just upluging one and trying for a shock? my tank doesnt have a ground probe either, i will be looking for one at a lfs today.

 

[Paul C.]

Following along on this one. But to the best of my knowledge, unplugging is the only way. Even with a ground probe, u will get bit if theres stray voltage and u touch the probe. Gotta love playing in water with electricity. Lol. Good luck

 

[LILBUDDHA]

Use a volt meter .
Unplug the heater and test . Plug the heater back in and test Etc . Process of elimination .
HTH

 

[Furiousreefer]

Current travels! Was the return running when you touched the water? +1 on voltage meter. Vertex has a grounding probe you might need one after you solved the problem.

 

[db7080]

Well it finally got to me to much last night, so I used my sense of touch as my voltage meter lol. Found out it was the heater. And about 5 min after the test was complete, feeling in my right arm started coming back. The issue was my "voltage meter" would only read when the heater turned on, not only when it was plug.ged in. haha happy now tho

 

[MarineDepot]

The volt meter is a great suggestion. Glad to hear you figured it out. I've been zapped by a heater before and its definitely a sure way to wake you up. Was the heater cracked or anything?

Chris R.

 

[db7080]

Nope no cracks or anything, just a bad titanium heater I guess

 

[Engloid]

I'd bet if you were to cut that heater open, you would find it had been leaking. During warmer months, I had unplugged two of my heaters. I plugged them in the other day and was checking to make sure they were working...pulled them from the water and both were cold....and had water in them. Good thing about glass is you can see what's going on inside them.

I guess I will be going back to the LFS and buying more of the 300W Eheim heaters. Got 2 in already and I'm not sure it will be enough...will have to wait and see, but I like to have more than I need, rather than push them to their limit and wait on a failure.