Guarding against electrical shock: What steps do you take?

[Soren]

1. Outlet behind tank will be equipped with outdoor weather cover to try to prevent water contact, outlet is 12"+ above floor, power to equipment will be through surge-protected power strips that will be in a separate enclosed portion of the cabinet to protect from salt creep, cords have drip loops, GFCI outlet may be used if I can prevent it from tripping randomly often like some of the older ones in my house do.
2. I've not yet been shocked by my reef, but I know enough about electricity and saltwater to take precautions!

3 times. All were hydor wavemakers leaking electricity

Twice for me, same type

Multiple times, all due to crappy Hydor Korallia pumps.

Is this still a current issue (I mean chronology, not electrical current... ) with Hydor Korallia wavemakers? This happens to be what I bought a couple months ago while preparing my reef setup... I have not tested them yet.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Oh the timing. Yesterday 4 of my fished died and a shrimp over night for seemingly no reason.

I really want to hear the stories of finding stray voltage. I tested my tank and am getting .8 volts in the tank. 3 of the other fish are acting and look normal. The mandrin, female clown and Mel wrasse. And corals look to be the same as before.

I'm having a hard time figuring out what could kill a tang, clownfish, 2 firefish and a shrimp over night but the others are fine.

My only thought is stray voltage. How do the fish act when stray voltage is coming in? How fast is the death? It would depend on the amount of voltage right? If it's a slow leak could it stress them out over time and kill them off all at once? I've been able to test the water when the last fire fish was swimming all crazy and there was no voltage at that time.

Stray voltage won't kill fish in an aquarium, they are not grounded, so there is no electrical potential. This is the same reason that birds can perch on uninsulated power lines. If one of the birds stretches a wing past the insulator and touches the metal power pole - blammo!

Jay

 

[Bruce Burnett]

Anyone that goes back to freshwater with the metal hoods and incandescent lights will be familiar with getting shocked every time they touched the hood. Had a power strip catch fire before they don't like saltwater. All pumps are low voltage and all power strips and controllers are in a completely separate cabinet. But never a real shock from my salt tanks. But have been hit with 440 volts.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

When I was about 12, I came home from school and saw my 29 gallon tank was full of gray water and the heater was "bubbling". The fish were swimming around, so I reached in to retrieve the heater - ZAP! I got knocked off the chair I was standing on and back onto my bed!

I now rely on GFCI, UL or CE listed equipment, drip loops, power strips, only work wearing dry bare shoes, with only one hand in the water, and always stop working on a tank if I feel the "tingles".

Jay

 

[thermoJoe]

I always make sure not to be well grounded; consequently, I have rubber mats all around my aquariums for when I forget to put shoes on. You might get zapped, but if you not grounded you will usually be just fine.

Just yesterday I happened to touch a Masterflex pump that zapped me. I still need to take it apart to see where the short to the case is. It should have a case ground, but that doesn't seem to be working either (so I need to check that too). Fortunately, I was on my rubber mats.

 

[Steelheader09]

Got lifted doing maintenance 1 time from stray voltage off a light. Also had another leak run down a power cord and burn out and outlet.

 

[Foneman02]

I did something stupid. Working under my display tank I knocked a fluorescent fixture into my sump. I immediately grabbed it while it was in the water. I got shocked and couldn’t let go of wrought iron stand. I managed to get my leg between me and the stand and pushed myself off. I had to lay down for a few hours became very dizzy. How stupid am I.

 

[Clo]

I was trying to set up a grounding probe and messed up. Blew out the outlet, and lost power across the wall joining that outlet to the master bedroom.

My husband was furious because I could’ve been hurt.

Electrician came the next day and fixed it easy peazy. I haven’t tried to put in a grounding probe again since then.

 

[uscggirl]

Also related to electricity, does anyone have a surge protector that is covered for aquariums? I have my tank equipment and Apex plugged into a working GFCI, but would like to somehow get a surge protector inline as well. When shopping for them, I see most do not cover use with an aquarium. How does everyone handle this? As far as getting shocked, during my time in the Navy as an electrician I once welded a wrench to a battery stack while doing maintenance. Been pretty careful since…. Haven’t shocked myself yet with tank stuff.

 

[GMF21]

In addition to GFCI outlets and drip loops, I put these covers over the outlet to prevent water from splashing on them.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commerc...?MERCH=REC-_-PLP_Browse-_-NA-_-300849073-_-N&

 

[Ramberto777]

Yes, I had a hob skimmer that was too close to an outlet. That was fun.

 

[DrZoidburg]

Been shocked at least 9 times that I can think of aquarium related anyway haha. 3 times it was heaters, 1 time it was a cheap t5 with salt creep and bad ballasts, 3 times bad pumps, and 2 times wet power bars. (don't do this). One power bar incident was because I was doing maintenance, left the bar partially on floor, and fell asleep. It rained a lot that night, and basement was flooded. The storm was causing power outs also. Woke up quickly when power went out, power came back on a few seconds later, and going to unplug it from outlet got zapped. Other time similar except it was a hob skimmer that over flowed causing it to get wet and burn out. Wasn't sleeping this time but started smelling smoke. This one wasn't on the floor. Burnout was just from the splashing that hit the bar. Both times were power strips with on/off and a fuse inside. They got so wet that it by passed the safety feature but not wet enough or enough current to burn out fuse or set off house breaker go figure. The power bars with direct 120 volt were the biggest shock. The other times were just baby voltage tingles in comparison.

 

[DrZoidburg]

Also related to electricity, does anyone have a surge protector that is covered for aquariums? I have my tank equipment and Apex plugged into a working GFCI, but would like to somehow get a surge protector inline as well. When shopping for them, I see most do not cover use with an aquarium. How does everyone handle this? As far as getting shocked, during my time in the Navy as an electrician I once welded a wrench to a battery stack while doing maintenance. Been pretty careful since…. Haven’t shocked myself yet with tank stuff.

Places do make covered surge protectors. I'll 1 up that plan though. In the future I intend on installing a whole home surge protector. Hooks right up to mains voltage.

 

[stefanm]

I always let my wife go first!

Seriously though I had a voltage stabilizer hooked up to the chiller that went bad and was causing shocks all over the complex...the other thing was my electrician didn't put earthing on the fish tanks sockets and the chassis of a meanwell PSU was live, I though it was faulty but it seems they require earthing.

 

[mainereefer]

800w heater broke in my sump... I worked on cleaning tank for over an hour standing on a stool. Finnished up cleaning reached over the tank my arm touched the water. Shocked me, burned me and my arm splashed and broke a mh bulb... was a complete suprise I had just had my arms in the tank no issue ( but I was standing on a stool)
And no I will never have a ground probe, its unimaginable to have my fish and coral getting shocked like I did

 

[Dburr1014]

Those bad Rio pumps years ago... It started bubbling in my tank. It looked like it was boiling! Lucky for me, I was home and when the lights dimmed and a weird noise was coming from the tank I unplugged it. My lucky day... Er, bad luck day?

 

[Brew12]

Stray voltage won't kill fish in an aquarium, they are not grounded, so there is no electrical potential. This is the same reason that birds can perch on uninsulated power lines. If one of the birds stretches a wing past the insulator and touches the metal power pole - blammo!

Jay

Jay, this isn't exactly correct. Well, what you say about the bird is correct, and it would also be correct for fresh water fish, but it isn't accurate for salt water fish.
An electrical potential (Voltage) is almost never a problem by itself. What we need to be concerned with is current. Current only flows when there is a difference in potential connected by a conductor. A bird landing on a 46,000V transmission line will be at 46,000V. If they reach across the insulator to ground, they now have a 46,000V difference in potential across the relatively low resistance of their body so a massive amount of current will flow. Blammo.

With marine fish, they live in a conductor. If your tank is grounded, either through a ground probe or grounded titanium heater (or salt creep) than the fish will be grounded. If your system is ungrounded, the fish will be at whatever potential the water in the tank is at. Since salt water is so conductive, the voltage anywhere in the water will be within a few millivolts of anywhere else in the water. It is physically impossible to develop a large difference in potential across the fish to get current flowing through the fish. This would be similar to the bird living inside the wire. It wouldn't matter what voltage the wire was at or if the wire touched ground next to the bird, you wouldn't be able to shock the bird.

Hope that makes sense.

 

[Cool tangs]

Hope my equipment doesnt fail so i dont get shocked

Jokes, jokes!!

Here in aussie land, its a legal requirement for all new homes to have RCD protection.

 

[Freenow54]

I posted a reply about this very thing. The picture on the lower left at the beginning of this thread was my first experience. It was caused by my skimmer overflowing, and my negligence of not having drip legs on the cords. It happened sometime between 12;30, and 2:30 one PM. I entered the home, and because I am an HVAC ( heating ventilation, and air conditioning ) tech. I knew it was ozone. Please be clear. This from an electrician friend CGI bars will not stop this. Nor outlets. They only measure the amperage going out, and returning. They trip I think at .2 of an amp. What everyone is talking about is Not a ground fault situation there is no load to cause an amp drop. The only electrical device that will prevent it is an ARC fault device which is exactly what is occurring. The second stupid experience was to remove my skimmer off the back to clean it. Not realizing that I spilt water on the receptacle of my extension cord. When I put it back, I picked up the cord with my right hand. Immediately voltage surged up my arm through my chest, and was tingling in my left hand. Thankfully was not grounded.

 

[RichReef]

Twice. Both times Hydor pumps.

I have inline GFCIs at the breaker box for my voltage supply lines. Having 10 gauge wire running from the breaker box to the receptacle box makes it hard to use a receptacle type GFCI. The wire is just too stiff.

Grounding probe in the sump.