Stray. Voltage.

iambenfields

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When I lived in Australia my chiller shorted out, i stuck both hands in the tank, and took 240v across my chest - it did not tickle.

Anyhow, apparently not learning from the experience of having my heart continue to run I put my hand in the sump the other day - I often do, but this time it *HURT*... Looks like I had between 12-24v running through the sump all the time... Now I understand electricity and I went through every single piece of equipment, unplugging and plugging back in, and it fluctuated but it was always there!>!>! Most bizarre was turning off the return pump which jumped the voltage from 12-24v.

Now with a probe at least I can dip my fingers in without wincing but can anyone help explain what is happening?
 
May simply be induced voltage. No bigger red herring in the hobby than stray voltage lol. Shorted equipment putting full mains into the water is a whole other kettle of fish .... though I’d have thought that would have tripped the breaker.
 
I’m definitely not tripping my GFCI so it doesn’t seem plausible that I have a live current from an exposed wire anywhere - just googled induced voltage and I’d bet that’s what I’ve got, especially given it didn’t trip the GFCI when I used a grounding probe.

Wild. These tanks just keep getting weirder!
 

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