Urgent: tank voltage

[andrewjjones1212]

Doing maintenance and put my hand in the tank and was met with a huge jolt. I’ve turned off everything in the tank and still when I touch the water it feels like I stuck a fork in an outlet. Does voltage normally last when everything is turned off? I suppose it may be the jebao’s but anyone had stray voltage this extreme? Everything is only a couple months old.

edit - my frag tank is doing the same thing with the same equipment. My electrical panel is 30 years old and needs to be replaced, plus it is almost at capacity amp wise. Maybe that’s part of it? This is new for both tanks in the past day

equipment:
Jebao return pump and wavemakers
BRS 300w heater and eheim 150w
Bubble Magnus skimmer
Radions hanging
Tunze ato

 

[andrewjjones1212]

Update - After leaving everything off for 5 minutes it’s gone so going down testing the equipment one by one

 

[civics14]

That happened to be once before and in my case, the stray voltage was from my heater. Do you have a voltmeter?

 

[andrewjjones1212]

That happened to be once before and in my case, the stray voltage was from my heater. Do you have a voltmeter?

picking one up later today

 

[civics14]

ok, don't do any more hands in the water test, lol. glad you caught it.

 

[andrewjjones1212]

ok, don't do any more hands in the water test, lol. glad you caught it.

yeah i had a cut on my hand too, that was a fun jolt

 

[matticus1181]

I wouldn't think your panel has anything to do with it. Assuming all your outlets are on something like a 15/20amp breaker, it would just pop and turn off.

Probably a loose wire in the tank. Scary though.

 

[chuck]

order a grounding probe on amazon $12.00 i got one in all my tanks. But it just prevents you from getting zapped.

 

[Steve Burton]

I've had this happen a few times, once powerhead cord was frayed where it enters the casing, once it was a very old Eheim return pump with no visible damage and the same thing on another brand return pump which I don't remember the brand.

 

[Rainblood]

Same experience as Steve - one of the wires was nicked on a small submersible pump on a media reactor for me. I get a slight tingle when my hand went in the water

 

[hzheng33]

Same thing happened to me before and it was my return pump. Looks like you’re well on the way to find where the voltage is coming from by turning on the equipment one at a time

 

[andrewjjones1212]

Well I’m stumped on this one.

frag tank: running at ~20v but my t5 fixture has three plugs (2 bulbs per plug and one plug runs the fans) and each plug adds 10v that put me at ~50v. They are all plugged into my apex. No idea why since it’s not in the water? The cords do touch the side of that tank if that’s anything

display tank: Came in at 70v (makes sense off what I felt) and I turned everything off except two hanging radions and was still getting that reading. Turned off the radions and back to 0. I have an extension cord from the wall with three outlets (apex EB, radion #1 & radion #2)

So both are related to the lights? Can that be right? Both the T5 and radions are hanging with the cords resting against the glass of the tank. I guess tomorrow I need to test with the cords not touching the tanks and see what happens but both definitely related to the lights somehow. Any ideas appreciated

 

[andrewjjones1212]

Realized I was doing a mix of turning off outlets using the apex fusion app and unplugging outlets. Does that make any impact/difference?

 

[matticus1181]

Glass is supposedly an insulator, so it shouldn't be jumping from cords, I wouldn't think. Maybe it's a slow charge, so it takes awhile to get to zapping levels? Is it possible to check the charge of the water with your tool to see if there are very small increases? I would definitely pull the cords instead of just turning them off at the apex to fully eliminate things.

 

[TTTony]

Most of my tanks I’ve added a GFI outlet or plug,
You will know if you have a problem before you get shocked, and a surge protector . I have gotten shocked before it’s not pleasant

 

[andrewjjones1212]

Update! We have a verdict

Display: Did the manual plug and unplug instead of apex and my BRS 300w heater was putting out 60v. Now the tank sits 36-40v, I’ve heard that’s acceptable right?

frag tank: The culprit was still the T5 fixture. Basically had it plugged into an extension cord then the apex and it was drawing 45v. When I did them individually they only drew 10-15v together. I guess in hindsight not a smart move

anyway, picking up some grounding probes and back to eheim heaters. Count me out of BRS heaters since it was only two months old

 

[andrewjjones1212]

New thought: since both tanks still shock me/are above 40 again my thought is my electrical panel. See below from the inspection for the house a few months ago and let me know your thoughts

 

[Steve Burton]

It's not your panel. Its a piece of equipment in the water, could be in the sump or display. I suggest you unplug everything and plug each item into a wall outlet and check each item individually. It's possible you have more than one faulty piece.

 

[andrewjjones1212]

It's not your panel. Its a piece of equipment in the water. I suggest you unplug everything and plug each item into a wall outlet and check each item individually. It's possible you have more than one faulty piece.

So I tested everything individually and basically everything goes from 0 to 16v. I tried multiple outlets on different breakers and the same result. Even put water in an empty 40 breeder and added equipments like heaters and power heads and they all give 16v when plugged in individually. Is there something I’m missing?

 

[sbfishman]

Maybe I missed it in the post(s). Whats common to the 2 tanks other than the electrical panel? Are they plumbed completely separate or together? Most of us at some point has probably gotten bit by stay tank voltage. Mine was isolated to a faulty heater. The grounding probes will help protect you but wont help you find the problem. But being protected is kinda crucial...lol. Its odd that 2 separate tanks would be experiencing this at the same time.