Stray voltage and grounding probes.... Im Buzzed

hustler

hustler

New Member
So I added a bunch of salt to my tank and turned the heat up dealing with some aro issues, something i have done many times before but a first in my new tank. Last night i went digging around in my tank cleaning the sand and removing the driftwood and i swear i was getting a bad sting on my fingernails..... I chaulked this up to the salt content.... I have a ground probe on the tank so i decided to unplug it and move it into my sump so i didnt see it. after going in and out of the water with my hands i took a short break then went to continue and ZAPPPP as soon as my finger touched the water i got a good little buzz.... In disbeliefe I tricked my wife :) :) :) into touching the water and sure enough there was voltage leaking from something.... so i had her unplug each item one by one while i tested the water and sure enough.... a brand new 500W titanium heater was the culprit. So i pulled that out plugged the ground probe back in and now i will be borrowing a high end volt tester from a friend this week and checking EVERYTHING....
I guess the salt amplified the volts and the odds of the heater being on while i was in there are few and far between but i sure am glad i caught it.
Anyone else ever get this? Anything else i can do to safeguard my tank?
 
I would go exchange the heater if you hAVNT ALREADY.
I hear those ones are pretty expensive and its def faulty
 
I would strongly recommend a GFI breaker for electrical components on your tank. IMO this is a must have that is often overlooked. You don't want to become a light bulb filament:eek:.
 
I am going to wire one up for sure, But ive read everywhere not to put the main pump on a gfi or it will cut out? safe but unreliable?
 
I wouldn't recommend use of a GFCI on inductive loads. IE anything using magnetic fields. The magnetic fields collapse and can cause enough momentary current imbalance to trip a GFCI. Some fluorescent lights can even cause nuissance tripping.
They will work for heaters which are a resistive load.
 
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I do agree with putting your euipment on gfi's but like ryan mentioned it can cause trips on inductive loads. This is one reaon I allways suggest using 2 different pumps for your filtration and put them either on seperate circuits or build a plug assembly with multiple gfi receptacles to feed your equipment so if one thing causes a trip everything doesn't shut down. The gfi's are for human protection and not your fish. Another thing you can do if your electrical is allready ran and you are getting nuisance trips is make sure you have a normal receptacle and put a gfi breaker in that has a 30ma trip ratng instead of 5ma. I'm also on the fence about groundig probes. Lets say your heater breaks (2-wire type no ground) and you don't notice, most fish tanks may have nothing in them that will actually complete the circuit to ground so even tho there is stray voltage in the tank there is no current thus nothing harming your fish.
 
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