Stary Voltage

[FB]

The sump sits on the concrete floor and has a Octopus 200 skimmer which I got last week. It has a Mag 9.5 return pump and 3 300W marineland glass heaters.

Anyway starting a couple of days ago when I stuck my hand in the tank I could feel a tingleing in my fingers. Having felt this before on my display tank I new exactly what it was. I took out my volt meter and I am getting 1 AC volt. Last time this happened I had a bad SEIO, however last time I was getting 90 volts not 1. I have since added a GFCI to my display tank, but not yet to my system. I have the GFCI but have not installed it yet. Anyway, I started unplugging one item at a time trying to find the culprit. Everytime I unplugged something the voltage would drop by a very small amount but would not go away. Finally I unplugged everything and the voltage was gone. I then plugged my return pump in and a small amount of voltage was detectable but only about 1/4 volt. So I unplugged my return pump and plugged my skimmer in. Again 1/4 volt. I unplugged my skimmer and pluged in one of my heaters. Again 1/4 volt. This went on and on until I had tested every item plugged in. Each item always registered 1/4 volt. So I decided to plug each item in after each other. Starting with the return pump then the skimmer and then the heaters. Each item increased the voltage by a little bit until everything was plugged in and the voltage was back up to 1 volt. The other strange thing is I have another tank not on the system plugged into the same circuit with a MJ1200 and a 250W heater. I can also detect the voltage in this tank. As I unplug items on my system the voltage in this seperate tank decreases even thought they are not even close to each other.

Your input would be greatly appreciated as I am complety perplexed by this situation. It almost appears that it is a circuit problem and nothing to do with my system. The problem is there is only one plug in my basement and I do have a lot of stuff plugged into it. I'm not sure if overloading a circuit would/could do this. The circuit has a 20 amp breaker and it has not tripped. However the tank stuff does not draw much amperage just watts.

Since writing this message on the other site I changed the power bars I plugged everything into a different socket. I plugged the items individually directly into the socket without power bars. Nothing seems to get rid of the voltage. Should I get a grounding probe. I am going to try and install the GFCI tomorrow and see what happens.

Thanks

FB

 

[Anonymous]

Do you still feel a tingle when you stick your hand arm in? Typically if you have a hangnail or cut or something on your finger it's much easier to feel the tingle.

What I would do is go for the "slightly dumb" method and use your tingling hand to figure out what the culprit is and not the multimeter.

Out of curiosity how exactly are you using the multimeter to test for a potential difference?

 

[Anonymous]

every single electrical device placed in a tank will add to the stray voltage in the tank


welcome to the principle of induction

 

[FB]

Do you still feel a tingle when you stick your hand arm in? Typically if you have a hangnail or cut or something on your finger it's much easier to feel the tingle.

What I would do is go for the "slightly dumb" method and use your tingling hand to figure out what the culprit is and not the multimeter.

Out of curiosity how exactly are you using the multimeter to test for a potential difference?

It was felt on a small cut on my finger and only that finger.

Red in the water Black grounded to the earth. I get no voltage with both probes in the water like I did when my pump went.

FB

 

[FB]

every single electrical device placed in a tank will add to the stray voltage in the tank


welcome to the principle of induction

Thanks for the info, I'll have to look up the principle of induction.

So is a grounding probe the answer?

FB

 

[Anonymous]

I may or may not be in the minority here, but IMO a grounding probe is the worst piece of equipment you can ever put in a tank, simply put it hides a problem that needs to be dealt with.

If you get a really good tingle on your finger, unplug one thing, and put your finger in, unplug another thing, etc until you don't feel the tingle anymore, then that thing you last unplug is your problem. Now it is possible to have multiple problem parts too, so you'll simply have to go through it all over again.

 

[FB]

I may or may not be in the minority here, but IMO a grounding probe is the worst piece of equipment you can ever put in a tank, simply put it hides a problem that needs to be dealt with.

If you get a really good tingle on your finger, unplug one thing, and put your finger in, unplug another thing, etc until you don't feel the tingle anymore, then that thing you last unplug is your problem. Now it is possible to have multiple problem parts too, so you'll simply have to go through it all over again.

I've done that. The tingle gets worse the more things you plug in just as the volt meter shows. It is not a single piece of equipment. A tank plug into the same circuit not even near my system has the same problem. When I unplug things on my system the tingle decrease in a totally different tank!

I JUST DON'T GET IT!

 

[Anonymous]

i get current tingles all the time through 'micro cuts' from handling l/r,scrapes, etc., while working on a salt soaked, damp/wet concrete floor, and our pumps run on 220 :lol:

a gfi should be controlling all outlets used for aquarium devices

a probe will simply re-direct (and not always) the flow of electrons so they don't tingle/zap you when they choose to seek ground through it, instead of you

some think that electrical fields, in addition to steady current, affects many critters negatively, and use ground probes for that-though with the exception of sharks' navigation/orientation capabilities, i've yet to see any conclusive proof that current/electrical fields have ever caused a single 'disease' on a fish (like hlle, for example, which prob'ly has multiple possible causes)

 

[FifeReef]

I had this same problem awhile back. My solution was to check my GFI circuits and wiring by taking each outlet and switch cover off and making sure everything was grounded. (I had wired the pump room myself.) I found two different outlets whose ground connection wasn't connected or had become loose. After correcting those problems, the tingling was gone. Just a suggestion of something you could double-check.