Well i noticed my biowheel not spinning on my 55 cichlid tank so i went to clean the bearings. just so happens last night i clipped one of my fingernails to short so had the super sensitive skin area. felt the electricity when i put it in the water. obviously there is a short so i started unplugging things one at a time to see what it was. well it happened to be 2 things. first was when i unplugged my biowheel. the voltage dropped ALOT. but i was still getting a bit of a tingle on that finger. which btw i could only feel it on that one finger. so i started unplugging things again and it stopped when i unplugged my heater. so one of the filters on the tank was shorting and so was me heater. considering i only felt the voltage with that one spot of thin skin on my finger it makes me wonder how long it has been shorting. and i'm glad it didn't kill all my fish like the one heater shorting did in my 30 gallon and i lost all but one of my brichardi. guess i'm stopping at my lfs tomorrow on my way to work. thankfully i got a spare heater to put in the tank. don't realy need it. my unheated tanks are at 74 but might as well be safe with my cichlids. I've lost the tank once before due to an ice storm in the middle of winter. i had a lab holding eggs/fry (cant tell) and hope that it didn't kill them.
electricity in the tank
- Thread starter exhumed07
- Start date
That's true, and typically when a coil shorts, it doesn't work at all. That's all the "motor" is on HOBs is a coil of copper.
Brandon, you REAAAAALY need to plug your tank stuff into a GFCI. This isn't the first time you've reported noticeable electricity in your tanks. That could kill you in an instant. People die from a simple ~120VAC shock depending on how it hits you.
Brandon, you REAAAAALY need to plug your tank stuff into a GFCI. This isn't the first time you've reported noticeable electricity in your tanks. That could kill you in an instant. People die from a simple ~120VAC shock depending on how it hits you.
it is on a power strip, everything i own thats electronic is plugged into one. pc, tv, tanks, everything. but what i think happened is the sand that gets sucked up into the filter may have worn through the plastic around the impellar over the past 6 years. i've replaced probably 3 impellars on that filter over that time due to the sand grinding down the impellar shaft.
As for the getting killed by the electricity i'm personally not to concerned. I've been popped by simple stupidity by 120 as well as by a joke from friends. be doing a light switch and they flip the breaker and pow. such is the fun of country folk lol. I am aware of the danger. I'm not trying to be ignorant in any way. just with all the times i been popped by 120 and electric fences i just don't worry about it. I use a shocking rod to get worms in the summer. it's an extention cord with a copper rod about 18 inches long hooked up to the power and you shove it into the ground to get worms to come to the surface. typically i'm less then a foot away from the rod grabbing worms off wet ground. every now and then u feel a tingle lol.
But back on topic i'm more worried about my fish then myself. tomorrow i'm going to my lfs to get a new filter and i'm going to disect this filter to see if i am right on the problem. makes me happy that i run 2 penguin 350s on both my 55s. one happens to go bad, but u still got filtration. and worse comes to worse i can run these tanks without a filter for a while with the use of a powerhead and water changes.
As for the getting killed by the electricity i'm personally not to concerned. I've been popped by simple stupidity by 120 as well as by a joke from friends. be doing a light switch and they flip the breaker and pow. such is the fun of country folk lol. I am aware of the danger. I'm not trying to be ignorant in any way. just with all the times i been popped by 120 and electric fences i just don't worry about it. I use a shocking rod to get worms in the summer. it's an extention cord with a copper rod about 18 inches long hooked up to the power and you shove it into the ground to get worms to come to the surface. typically i'm less then a foot away from the rod grabbing worms off wet ground. every now and then u feel a tingle lol.
But back on topic i'm more worried about my fish then myself. tomorrow i'm going to my lfs to get a new filter and i'm going to disect this filter to see if i am right on the problem. makes me happy that i run 2 penguin 350s on both my 55s. one happens to go bad, but u still got filtration. and worse comes to worse i can run these tanks without a filter for a while with the use of a powerhead and water changes.
I've seen too many OSHA training videos to not use GFCI. Also I think the fish would not be a good indicator of a current, wouldn't they technically be grounded to the tank? Or in my base understanding, the water around them is the path of least resistance and thus their bodies would not be affected... at least immediately?
Yep. Did you ever see the one, where the mom was videoing her son, washing his vehicle before heading off to college? He simply reached down to push the power button on the shop-vac, while standing on damp driveway/lawn. He just fell right over because the current path instantly stopped his heart. Instantly passed away.
I think I watched that one when I got my OSHA 30. But just in the last two months someone in my local was up on a JLG doing some grinding work. He got within a few feet of a power line, it arched and killed him. Poor guy left behind 5 kids.
There was one we watched where some guy in India was hitchhiking atop a train, when the train stopped he stood up and casually grabbed one of the power lines. He instantly exploded into a puff of smoke and all that was left were his boots.
There was one we watched where some guy in India was hitchhiking atop a train, when the train stopped he stood up and casually grabbed one of the power lines. He instantly exploded into a puff of smoke and all that was left were his boots.
electricity is wicked stuff if you are not careful. but in a sense i think the fish in the tank are more or less like a bird on a wire. they are insulated like the bird is. sure there is electricity building up in them but as long as they don't ground there is no current, and are fine.
But anywho i got a new 350 today. amazing how fast 80 bucks just goes poof. 50 for the filter and 22 something for 6 more angels and tax lol. again one of those issues. go in for one thing and come out with 6 or in my case 7.
But anywho i got a new 350 today. amazing how fast 80 bucks just goes poof. 50 for the filter and 22 something for 6 more angels and tax lol. again one of those issues. go in for one thing and come out with 6 or in my case 7.
Took a lot of prying and cursing but I got the plastic to separate from the epoxy around the coil. I was right. there were several scratched holes going through the plastic housing around the impeller. there was also a manufacturing defect. there was a bubble in the epoxy allowing the copper to be exposed. so with that tiny unsubstantial defect and my love for sand in a tank it combined to allow for a minor short into the water.