How many volts in your water ?

Umm, i dont think so and this is why. There is still 120v returning through the neutral side. Yes, there is leaks in many places. 2 heaters are the biggest source of the leaks and its pathetic because they are new Visitherm stealth heaters. The rest of the voltage leaks seem to be comming from powerheads and lights. Im getting a 2v leak from a flourescent light wich has absolutly no contact with water and this i dont understand. There is a couple of volts comming from my emperor 400's and even a volt comming from my eheim 2260. Even though the voltage is leaking its not going to ground causing the GCFI to trip.
 
Last edited:
Well it might be important to note that there is
a) voltage
b) current

Voltage in itself isnt necessarily a problem. Example - take a bird on a 10K voltage line - aslong as he doesnt touch another line or ground nothing will happen to him.

Current IS a problem. But fact is that currents flowing through your aquarium are probably low to (almost) nonexistant (unless you actually have faulty equipment).
The reason why your GCFI doesnt trip is exactly because of this - its only supposed to when there is actually a (certain) flow of current.

The reason why you detect 2V from your lights is that they create a magnetic field which induces a voltage into the water. So does the rest of your equipment. Wherever there is flow of current you have a magnetic field and induced voltages.
 
Ty for the article that was very informative. I dont see how grounding your tank is going to hurt your fish. Do you ?
 
Nathane, check your values and make sure you are runnig you tester in volts. Probably, you are getting milivolts, wich is 1/1000 of a volt.

40V in the water will likely hit you when you place the hands inside the water.
 
Nathane958 said:
Ty for the article that was very informative. I dont see how grounding your tank is going to hurt your fish. Do you ?
Click to expand...

Yes because if your equipment isnt faulty and you just deal with induced voltages or "fake" voltages (aquarium, voltmeter picks up magnetic field from surrounding devices) then you really dont need to worry about it.

If you have a faulty heater, pump, powerhead etc then thats still not necessarily a problem because the faulty current more than likely will go through the broken device. But as soon as you install a ground probe it will run from the broken device to the ground probe right through the tank (and fish).

I suggest a simple google search on the issue. I find that there is plenty of good material out there from electrical engineers.

Bottom line is - first of all the "simple" volt meter method is very very inaccurate. Secondly - a ground probe is mainly useful (IMO) to protect YOU against death if you have faulty equipment. Aslong as you dont feel a tingle when you touch the water, your arm goes numb or you wake up on the floor next to the tank half an hour after trying to do a waterchange i wouldnt worry about this at all. ;)
 
funny story... well, not really... a few weeks ago i ordered 2 mag drive 7's from bigals. there were submerged in my reef for a few days. i went to do some maintenance on my tank and my arm went numb. i thought i just hit my funny bone b/c my elbow was resting on the tank so i thought nothing of it. then i got the same thing in my other arm. at this point i thought i was just be stupid. i walked away from the tank for a few minutes to get something to drink. i came back and went to put my hand back into the water and as soon as my fingers hit the water i got zapped. i was thinking, "oh boy, this cant be good" so i started unplugging my devices one by one and sticking my hand in the water after each one to see if i would get zapped again. after getting shocked about 6 times i finally narrowed it down to one of my mag drives. i plugged one in and let it sit for a few minutes and put my hand in the water and didnt get shocked. then i tried the other one and once again i didnt get shocked. so i figured that couldnt be it so i plugged them both back in and went to go eat dinner. about an hour later i went back to my tank and bam, got zapped again. once again i unplugged one of the mag drives and voila! i found the culprit. i took the pump out, called up danners customer service and they're shipping me out a replacement pump tomorrow. :clap:
Luckily none of my tank inhabitants were hurt. i attribute this to being that the tank isnt grounded, but yeah, what an experience that was.
 
Wow you must like the feel of current running through your "vains" ... i wouldnt have touched the tank after the first "numbing" experience.... ;)
 
well, i have a good fluke meter i use on a regular basis. Its giving me 40v, no kidding. I grounded my tanks and the fish seem to be doing quite well. I dont think its zapping the fish at all. However , i have the ground probe plugged into my GCFI and its not tripping ?????? I work with electricity on a daily basis
but havent dealt with GCFI's. Im thinking the GCFI should be breaking the circuit but dont know why it isnt. I have the ground probe set up the same on 4 tanks. None of them have tripped yet and all tanks are showing they have at least 20 volts each.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom