Stray Voltage?

[Perpetual Novice]

I'm not exactly new to the hobby but I have tons to learn.

I have been struggling to keep my fish healthy in my quarantine tank and several have passed away while waiting to get into my display tank (though there were other problems as well).

while setting up the quarantine tank for my next fish today I got a prickling pain in my fingertips. after shocking my hand repeatedly for trial and error i found it was the heater that was releasing stray voltage. I had never noticed it before because this time i happened to be touching a metal sink basin with my hand when i reached in the tank and was shocked.

I figure the stray voltage has probably been happening all along over these last few months of struggle.

What effect does stray voltage have on fish? I want to see if my fishes symptoms match with symptoms of stray voltage.

 

[AcanthurusRex]

None. Saltwater is a conductor, albeit a poor one. The tank is at the same potential everywhere.

 

[Perpetual Novice]

None. Saltwater is a conductor, albeit a poor one. The tank is at the same potential everywhere.

That's what I was thinking. Logically it doesn't make sense how it would be a problem. But I've read online that fish are very sensitive to this because of electrosensory organs they have. But I've never seen anyone say exactly what symptoms this would cause.

 

[alton]

You didn't have stray voltage you had current which can be deadly to a human.
Stray voltage has no power. On Stray voltage the following is from a fish store owner in Bulverde Texas

(From Richard at CB pets)

We know from experience that certain fish may do poorly in tanks which have stray voltage. One example is an imperator angel we had in qt that was doing really well. Moved him out for sale and all he did was hide in the corner and would not eat. Moved him back to qt and he acted fine. Moved him back out and he quit eating. Hmmmm...so I checked for stray voltage on the tank and it was 16 volts. Added a grounding probe and he immediately started swimming around normally and ate when I fed him. So I took out the grounding probe and he immediately swam to the same corner and would not move. Put it back in and he was back to acting normal.

I guess some fish are more sensitive to it than others but since they sense electrical voltage it is probably a stressor to some degree for all fish.

Some say that stray voltage could be the cause (or one of them) for HLLE.

This isn't proven but makes some sense to me.