HELP... electrical shock when placing hand in aquarium?

B

BrownBullhead

AC Members
May 16, 2005
97
0
6
49
[Canada] Ile-des-Chenes, Manitoba
HELP... electrical shock when placing hand in aquarium?

Why would I be receiving a tingling electrical shock when placing hands in water after aquarium maintenance? No new equipment... nothing changed except layout of some rocks.

What would be causing this? My girlfriend won't let me turn power bar back ON for aquarium now as she is worried of great consequences to me and possibly the house?
 
Years ago when I kept tanks I had a similar situation. Do you have a heater in your tank? That would be my first guess. My guess is when adding the rocks you may have accidentally hit your heater and cracked it a bit. Exact same thing happened with me.

I'm not sure how you would test it though...I would not really suggest the "hmmm...doesn't tingle now" theory, it could turn ugly and very dangerous to you :eek:

Be careful and hopefully someone with more experience and electrical knowledge will tell you how to "test"
Good luck!
 
I have a light hood that sits on the left lid of the 55...

This lamp always took a long time to come on when the timer engaged in the morning... and I notice it sits above the lid that has a crack in the clear plastic... and the tank also sits slightly unlevel so when filled the water touches that clear plastic... I guess moisture was coming through to the lid...

I discovered all of this in that I unplugged the heater and took out and tried firing everything back up... without the heater in the tank... and NO ELECRICAL SHOCK... BUT... when I touched the hood to put it back on the tank, Zzzappp! Tingle, tingle! So, the lighting hood is toast...

So, now I need a new hood and left side lid for the tank, but not high priority right now. :) 1/2 the tank can live in the dark for now!
 
BrownBullhead said:
I discovered all of this in that I unplugged the heater and took out and tried firing everything back up... without the heater in the tank... and NO ELECRICAL SHOCK... BUT... when I touched the hood to put it back on the tank, Zzzappp! Tingle, tingle! So, the lighting hood is toast...

So, now I need a new hood and left side lid for the tank, but not high priority right now. :) 1/2 the tank can live in the dark for now!
Click to expand...

Holy Cow...not the way to test that I would suggest :laugh: SOrry...it is funny but only because you did not get hurt. :D

I hope you don't have any "jumpers" who could escape in the mean while.

Glad you found out the problem though.
 
GFI is needed!

I strongly suggest you put a GFI in this circut, everyone, on every tank you have in the house.

There are several options to do this, first, you can add a GFI outlet in the place of the outlet the tank is plugged into. About $8.

Or, you can get a small plug in GFI at Sears or a hardware store or Walmart. About $8.

My favorite is the FireShield power strip that has a GFI and 6 outlets like a normal power strip, $12 at Walmart. The one with a surge protector too is about $25 I think.
 
A GFI will trip when there is a fault and it will just turn off your power.. but that doesnt help you figure out where your short is coming from! Still, great to have. Glad you figured it out :clap:
 
kayla said:
A GFI will trip when there is a fault and it will just turn off your power.. but that doesnt help you figure out where your short is coming from! Still, great to have. Glad you figured it out :clap:
Click to expand...


Ahhh but yes it does... If you have a GFI (which just about every bathroom has one) and you plug in your individual equipment into it the equipment that has gone bad should trip the GFI. If you do have one in the house already get an exptension cord (for testing only as extension cords are for temporary power and when used to replace an electrical outlet they are fire hazards) and test your tank.
 
Funny story about electricity, unrelated to fish...

I was wiring a new phone jack for my house and didn't have a wire stripper. So I did what I have done countless times, strip the phone wire with my teeth. It would be more of a hassle to go to the outside phone box and disconnect the wiring there first then it would be to just strip the wire with my teeth in less then 1 second. Phone lines have around 1 to 2 volts of electricity in them and hardly any amps. There is a very very slight tingle doing this, hardly noticable.

Well I stripped one wire and put it aside, then I started to strip the other wire. Right when I had the phone wire in my mouth someone decided to call me. When the phone rings a surge of 120V is sent down the phone line to make the ringer go off....

Think about it...
 
Jericho said:
Ahhh but yes it does... If you have a GFI (which just about every bathroom has one) and you plug in your individual equipment into it the equipment that has gone bad should trip the GFI. If you do have one in the house already get an exptension cord (for testing only as extension cords are for temporary power and when used to replace an electrical outlet they are fire hazards) and test your tank.
Click to expand...

Okay, okay. Individually it will obviously tell you but if you have everything plugged into GFI thennnnnnnnnnnnnn.........yea. :o
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom