Shocking discovery

[Travis]

I just stuck my hand in the tank and sump and received mild to not-so-mild shocks.

The frist thing I went for was the Rio... unplugged my seio and tried again (NOT fun) and the zap was gone.

I have been dealing with some pretty unhappy corals recently, this may very well be the issue. Lost just about all my SPS.

I've been doing my best to keep my hands out of the tank for some time now- guess that's a good idea and a bad one... LOL.

[Travis]

Ok maybe that wasn't it... just set up my grounding probe (it was doing me a lot of good in the box...)

It has a three-pronged plug and coming off of that a bare wire with a ring (for mounting directly to an outlet).

Probe in the water, NOT plugged in, I'm reaching to plug it in and I touch the bare metal ring near the plug and get ZAPPED!

What's the best way to identify this problem without shocking the cr@p out of myself?

[big t]

Do you have any GFCI outlets Travis? They should be sensing the voltage in the water if you do. What I would if you do is plug in each piece of equipment individually into a GFCI and see if any of them trip the circuit. That should do it. If that dosn't do it. I used to have the same problem, it ended up being that my house being soo old the wiring was faulty and had a small amount of juice on the ground. So I ran 2 dedicated 20amp circuits for my tank and no more problem.

[Travis]

Yup, everything is running on GFCI already. It hasn't tripped since my WON titanium heater bit the dust.

[Woodstock]

I hope you figure out the problem soon Travis!

[Gina]

It sounds to me that you may have wiring gone bad. I would run out to Home Depot or Lowes and pick up a Receptacle Testers. You can get them for a regular or GFCI outlet. This will at least tell you if things are wired properly at the outlet. That is where I would start.

Good luck,
Mark

[Travis]

Thanks Mark! I tested the wiring when I set up the GFCI but it would probably be a good idea to check it again.

From what I understand, a GFCI will stop you from getting electrocuted, but won't click off just from some stray voltage necessarily- which is why we need grounding probes as well.

No more shocks since I added the grounding probe BTW.

T

[forestal]

Travis, i had the same problem on my old reef, and i could never find the source...however, it was worse if i was barefoot on the concrete (in my basement)...i think that saltwater is a good conductor and i was connecting the circuit with my feet...no shock with rubbersoled shoes..(feet dry even), was wierd

[tx29fan]

take off the grounding probe and stick your hand in the tank one more time to make sure it fixed the problem ! and if you do...take videos

[Travis]

TX29fan --> <-- me

[baja_01]

Sounds like you need to get yourself a multimeter

Some things though:
GFCI trip when there is a large enough difference bettween the positve side and the negative side.

If there is no good ground in the tank, the stray voltage has nowhere to go and wont do anything, untill a ground is introduced(i.e. you)

Electricity ALWAYS takes the shortest path with the least resistance. It may be leaking through the stand or still going through the negative side on some cord, but the second that some path in introduced thats shorter or has less resistance, thats the way its going to go.

Electricity travels in a fairly strait path. If you have a gounding probe in the tank and the device is still leaking electricity, its going from that to the probe and any thing that gets in its way it will go through(i.e. fish, corals, you).

If your house is not grounded well, or not at all, then DONT use grounding probes, because there will be a good chance that you will become the ground for the whole house(trust me, its not fun )



Hope this helps, and if I am wrong about anything some one please correct me.

[Gina]

Here is an interesting read on ground probes. Things that make you go hummmmm. What is worse here is it makes a lot of sense to me. So are they good or are they bad.

[hunterd_67]

What kind of heater do u have?, thats what my problem was awhile back, i unplugged it and the zapping was gone. tickles dont it...lol

[TDEVIL]

what are you doing 'T', dont use your hands to check for current, lol

like Baja said, you need a meter
and just because you dont get shoked with the probe in place doesnt mean the current isnt there, the probe is just doing its job

you will have to troubleshoot your electrical devices, from the return pump to the heater
you can use the probe to help, unplug all pumps/heaters, then unplug the probe, i use gator conectors, but you can tape the lead side of the meter to the ground side of the probe's plug (where you got zapped) then put the ground lead into the ground of the outlet (which completes the circut)
set the meter to volts, plug all pumps/heaters in, one by one
when you see the voltage on the meter go up, then you have found your issue

there are other ways to do this, but that is about the easiest

Jay

[Mike]

Gina very good article! Very informative. Travis it only takes a small amount of current across the heart to kill you. If everything is gfci protected and the ground probe is in the water and connected to a good ground the gfci will trip only if there is a deadly amount of current in the water. I cant remember what the value is that they trip at but I will look tomorrow at work. If it doesnt trip I personally dont think there is a big problem. I would test the gfci with the test button to make sure it is working properly.
If you have a pair of electrical testers handy (not an electrical meter it wont trip it filters out current) test from hot to ground, hot is always the smaller slot. If the gfci is wired wrong you will have NO protection from shock. Good luck