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Stray Voltage

C

calaxa

I never thought a grounding probe would be such an important piece of equipment until this weekend. This weekend I learned a valuable lesson and hopefully others can learn from it.

Several weeks ago, I got a 5-6" regal angel. He had been eating beautifully. Two Hikari Mega-Marine Angel cubes daily. Bloodworms, blackworms, brine, etc. He has been in a hypo QT doing very well. About a week ago, I noticed he would shake a bit every so often. Didn't think anything of it. My Copperband who is houses with him, also started doing it. Very odd. I figured it was just two delicate fish with strange behavior.

On Friday night, 30 days of 1.009 SG had passed. I started to raise the salinity. Went from 1.009 to 1.011 over the course of 2 hours. I woke up on Saturday to see my CBB gilling rapidly, obviously under a lot of stress. He wouldn't come out to greet me like he normally does. The regal was laying on his side, gilling very rapidly. Something was obviously wrong. I thought maybe the salinity, but no other fish in there had problems adjusting to the salt (not even the guppies which I found had delivered that night as I saw a ton of babies around). I thought, well maybe these two are just so delicate that they can't even take a .002 change in SG. Wait, that can't be right....that would make them almost impossible to ship. I stuck my hand in to try to prod the regal a bit and lo and behold, got a nice little tingle in my hand. I hit me right away that something has been leaking voltage back into the system and had been for quite some time. These two fish, being bigger must be affected more. Increasing the salinity must have made it more stressful as now the water was much more conductive.

Now all my circuits are on GFCI. I wondered why it didn't trip. The GFCI was obviously working but not well enough. I started unplugging powerheads. As soon as I unplugged the heater, the regal snapped right up and started swimming regularly. However, it was not to be. He swam regularly for a few more hours but then he wouldn't get up anymore. I transferred him into a bucket but I knew he was on his deathbed. The damage had been done.

I don't know what long term effects might there be on my CBB now. I'm slowly increasing the SG now without the heater obviously. He's not at all happy. Ignored his usualy live blackworms and is hiding out instead of coming to greet me. I guess I'll be looking at titanium grounding probes in the near future and investing in better heaters.

I hope my story will help others in not making the same mistake I did. I'm quite sad that of all the fish in that tank, it was the regal that went.
 
D

ds4x4

I'm sorry to hear about your loss.. A silent killer indeed. That is one thing that was going on the big tank with a simple Light or buzzer to alert me when there was a charge in the tank..
 
C

calaxa

Yes, I was pretty distraught about it. I was hoping to get that regal into the display next weekend. I was wondering why he had lost his appetite when I had gotten him eating so well. It may have been the reason I lost the maroon in there last week as well. Many of the fish in there had lost their appetite in the last week and I had attributed to being in hypo for an extended period of time. It makes more sense to me now as every time I lowered the SG down to 1.008, they would fare better than at 1.010. The higher salt content must literally have shocked them too much.
 
D

daveh285

That really :-X ucks, I know many sites have had discussions on the use of ground probes both good and bad. I personally feel that they are a blessing because if an item develops a short, with the ground probe it will hopefully cause the GFCI to trip immediately by completing the (short)circut. otherwise without the probe the GFCI doesn't sense the short. Just my opinion,... because I never really liked that tingling feeling in my hand, and my knees buckling out from under me. :eek: ;D
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I too considered a grounding probe after sticking my VOM in the tank and finding a few volts of stray juice buzzing about.

However, here’s my understanding (and boy am I ignorant):  Stray voltage without a ground produces no current.  Current is what kills.  It’s like a bird standing on an electrical wire…no ground, therefore no current…live bird.  This is the same with fish.  If you have no ground there is no current…everybody is happy until you stick your hand in the tank.  At this point, a grounding probe protects YOU when you have your hands in the tank…not your fish.  Electricity takes the path of least resistance, and in this case, it would be the grounding probe.  Otherwise, with you “grounded,” the juice would pass through you…that tinkle…or worse.

If you have a grounding probe with stray voltage, the fish will get fried because you have current.  In your particular case of your fish suffering, you not only had stray voltage, you had an open ground in the tank that produced the current to “juice” the fish.  The grounding probe would not have saved your fish.

I decided not to get the grounding probe…just check the tank on occasion to measure stray voltage…or wait for the tingle and hope it’s not more than a tingle.
 
D

ds4x4

I just want to say that Voltage doesn't Kill, Amperage Does It takes .11 MilliAmps or something to mess up your hearts electrical system.
 
S

saltwaterguy112

Sorry to head that dude i had the same problem in my 55 gallon and i thought i was going crazy everytime i put my hand in there and i felt a shock. Since my upgrade i havent felt any voltage. I just purchased a light fixture and it has this type of plug which is similiar to the Titanium Ground Probe (ESU). Work this be the same as using one of those. It told me to plug it into the outlet and ground to outlet box itself. Thinking about it i guess it might be.
 
tbaquatics

tbaquatics

redfishbluefish said:
I too considered a grounding probe after sticking my VOM in the tank and finding a few volts of stray juice buzzing about.

However, here’s my understanding (and boy am I ignorant): Stray voltage without a ground produces no current. Current is what kills. It’s like a bird standing on an electrical wire…no ground, therefore no current…live bird. This is the same with fish. If you have no ground there is no current…everybody is happy until you stick your hand in the tank. At this point, a grounding probe protects YOU when you have your hands in the tank…not your fish. Electricity takes the path of least resistance, and in this case, it would be the grounding probe. Otherwise, with you “grounded,” the juice would pass through you…that tinkle…or worse.

If you have a grounding probe with stray voltage, the fish will get fried because you have current. In your particular case of your fish suffering, you not only had stray voltage, you had an open ground in the tank that produced the current to “juice” the fish. The grounding probe would not have saved your fish.

I decided not to get the grounding probe…just check the tank on occasion to measure stray voltage…or wait for the tingle and hope it’s not more than a tingle.
Click to expand...

True, that's why you use a probe with a GFCI, if there's stray voltage the GFCI trips and there's no voltage or current....
 
Baxreefs

Baxreefs

Slightly off topic, maybe not, how does stray voltage effect corals?

I just retired a Mag 9.5 because of the tingle factor, pretty strong one at that. My corals seemed to respond positively to its removal even though it was in the sump and the corals in the DT.
 
jimroth

jimroth

Baxreefs said:
Slightly off topic, maybe not, how does stray voltage effect corals?

I just retired a Mag 9.5 because of the tingle factor, pretty strong one at that. My corals seemed to respond positively to its removal even though it was in the sump and the corals in the DT.
Click to expand...
Walt Smith was growing aquacultured corals in the ocean on slightly electrified metal racks, and he reported much better growth. So who knows?
 
M

mkreef

redfishbluefish said:
If you have a grounding probe with stray voltage, the fish will get fried because you have current. In your particular case of your fish suffering, you not only had stray voltage, you had an open ground in the tank that produced the current to “juice” the fish. The grounding probe would not have saved your fish.

I decided not to get the grounding probe…just check the tank on occasion to measure stray voltage…or wait for the tingle and hope it’s not more than a tingle.
Click to expand...

If its a choice between some fish and my son not having a father, well so long fish. I do not care how much I invested (time, money, blood, sweat, tears, etc...), its not worth it.
 
V

vangvace

Hawkeye said:
I use one - but the subject is definitely open to debate.

Older post with some embedded links:
Titanium Ground Probe
Click to expand...

I was just thinking about that thread.

I still think that if you're going to use a ground probe to only use one when you are about to get wet. Murphy's law would say that your gfci will trip just when you leave for work...

I haven't seen any groundprobes at the aquarium in the back. Which reminds me to ask next time I'm down there. Oh and take my camera.
 
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