Needles in my fingers - Electrical problems Help!!!!!

[Lee's Fragtacular Corals]

HELP!!! When I put my hand in the sump it feels like a thousand needles sticking into my fingers:cry: So I unplugged everything and the pain stopped. So I plugged one piece in at a time and checked the water with my hand, ouch!!!! It seems I get lightly shocked when I plug in the main pump OR the protein skimmer. Can I have two things go bad, both are less than a year old? What can cause this and how can I fix it?
TH!NX

 

[lamarine23]

Their is no way to fix stray voltage, replace the pumps!

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[seareefrun]

Could be a ground fault. Check and make shure you don't have any adapter's on your pumps or any other plugs that go from a three prong to a two prong in your wiring including your wall outlet. If your wall outlet has no ground, then that's a problem all it's own, but easy to fix. In my past 26 years of service & set-ups, I've also ran a grounding probe from the sump water back to the wall providing the wall outlet is grounded. Just some things to check.

 

[pciscott]

Get a volt meter that will read AC volts, put one probe in the long side (neutral) of any open outlet and the other in the tank and measure the volts. Unplug your devices till you find the problem. I recently got more than a tingle when a Maxijet 1200 went bad putting 120 volts in the tank. The GFI did not go off, maybe because I did not have a grounding probe. Gave me a good idea though it would be easy for controller companies to add a grounding probe to warn us so we do not get zapped. Be careful that tingle you feel can kill you if your body were grounded better, like no shoes and a wet floor. On my new system I am not going to use any products that only have 2 prong plugs as this can be part of the problem. Good luck and when you figure out what products are leaking voltage into the tank let us know what they are. Good luck.

 

[Lee's Fragtacular Corals]

Could be a ground fault. Check and make shure you don't have any adapter's on your pumps or any other plugs that go from a three prong to a two prong in your wiring including your wall outlet. If your wall outlet has no ground, then that's a problem all it's own, but easy to fix. In my past 26 years of service & set-ups, I've also ran a grounding probe from the sump water back to the wall providing the wall outlet is grounded. Just some things to check.

OK I'll check into it. Can I run a ground from my tank direct to the outside lightning ground?

Get a volt meter that will read AC volts, put one probe in the long side (neutral) of any open outlet and the other in the tank and measure the volts. Unplug your devices till you find the problem. I recently got more than a tingle when a Maxijet 1200 went bad putting 120 volts in the tank. The GFI did not go off, maybe because I did not have a grounding probe. Gave me a good idea though it would be easy for controller companies to add a grounding probe to warn us so we do not get zapped. Be careful that tingle you feel can kill you if your body were grounded better, like no shoes and a wet floor. On my new system I am not going to use any products that only have 2 prong plugs as this can be part of the problem. Good luck and when you figure out what products are leaking voltage into the tank let us know what they are. Good luck.

Can I get a volt meter at a Home Depot?

Could this electrical problem be affecting my corals as a couple of my Chalices are peeling?

 

[soccerbag]

Yes, stray voltage can wreak havoc on all corals. Likely why you are losing tissue on some of your chalices.

 

[pciscott]

I am not a expert, still learning, my chalice Corals look good still, but my Acans closed up and have acted funny since my problem. Radio shack or HD will have a meter, auto range is a nice feature when looking for stray voltage. I would test your other parameters as well. I had a convict tang who got a taste for LPS last time I had chalice problems. Good luck.

 

[SAZAMA]

by process of elimination, figure out what piece of equipment is putting off stray voltage and replace it. get a grounding prode, and install it. viola

 

[Lee's Fragtacular Corals]

by process of elimination, figure out what piece of equipment is putting off stray voltage and replace it. get a grounding prode, and install it. viola

Both my main pump and protein skimmer

 

[Lee's Fragtacular Corals]

Thread Update! I just checked the tank with the voltage meter and it is fluctuating from 3.3 volts up to 20 volts. I don't understand why it's fluctuating so much. Does this mean there is a bad item in the sump? However, I just went outside and found that the ground was not attached to the house. I just had the house painted so it probably got knocked off at that time. After reattaching the ground the volts dropped to 1.2v max.

Thanks for all the help! You R2R'ers RULE!