electric shock w/pics what should i do?-meter reading 41 volts

patrickwebb

patrickwebb

Member
heres how it goes, i have a 20 gallon tall tank that ive been trying to add fish to, however they keep die-ng and i cant keep any fish alive in there, I am new and rule number one is "dont buy any fish, untill you have your equipment"---so i bought a total number of four percula clowns, and two damsel's--how ever the first blue damsel i had lived in there till i took him back to the lfs-and that was about 2 weeks-
story goes--i bought this tank from a guy from craigslist-he said it was running for about a year, i took all his water and set it right back up when i brought it home, let it do its thing for a week, got a damsel, he lasted kept him for two weeks, took him back and bought a pair of percula clowns--one died second day, the other lasted another week so i thought i would go buy two more, they were small little babies nothing big-i only have a 20 gallon tall- they all lived for three days, came home and they were smoked, im thinking, the one did just fine-what the heck- so i did a water change,-not having a test kit i went out and bought one a week and a half later-tested and everthing is perfect, hooked a meter up to my to to see if i was getting electricity in my tank and WOW!
top filter-whisper(30)- 9 volts
top lamp-floresent 11 volts
heater 15 volts
odyessey canister 7 volts
but when its all on together its 29/30
will a grounding probe help my problem???



 
salty blues

salty blues

Active Member
Originally Posted by patrickwebb
http:///forum/post/2503128
heres how it goes, i have a 20 gallon tall tank that ive been trying to add fish to, however they keep die-ng and i cant keep any fish alive in there, I am new and rule number one is "dont buy any fish, untill you have your equipment"---so i bought a total number of four percula clowns, and two damsel's--how ever the first blue damsel i had lived in there till i took him back to the lfs-and that was about 2 weeks-
story goes--i bought this tank from a guy from craigslist-he said it was running for about a year, i took all his water and set it right back up when i brought it home, let it do its thing for a week, got a damsel, he lasted kept him for two weeks, took him back and bought a pair of percula clowns--one died second day, the other lasted another week so i thought i would go buy two more, they were small little babies nothing big-i only have a 20 gallon tall- they all lived for three days, came home and they were smoked, im thinking, the one did just fine-what the heck- so i did a water change,-not having a test kit i went out and bought one a week and a half later-tested and everthing is perfect, hooked a meter up to my to to see if i was getting electricity in my tank and WOW!
top filter-whisper(30)- 9 volts
top lamp-floresent 11 volts
heater 15 volts
odyessey canister 7 volts
but when its all on together its 29/30
will a grounding probe help my problem???
I would have everything plugged into a GFCI outlet. This is a ground fault circuit interrupter. This device will trip when any faulty equipment is plugged in, allowing you to isolate the problem.
 
patrickwebb

patrickwebb

Member
sure did----thats not the problem, unless my setting on my multimeter is incorrect when i did me testing but im sure its not
i have a close up picture to show what setting i have it on
 
salty blues

salty blues

Active Member
Originally Posted by patrickwebb
http:///forum/post/2503205
sure did----thats not the problem, unless my setting on my multimeter is incorrect when i did me testing but im sure its not
i have a close up picture to show what setting i have it on
Is the meter reading 2.9 volts or 29 volts?
 
salty blues

salty blues

Active Member
Originally Posted by patrickwebb
http:///forum/post/2503268
and here the other end..
Well I would certainly think that if you had some equipment that was leaking voltage, the gfci would trip. I am sorry to say I am stumped as to what your problem is.
Of course, it is difficult to trouble shoot via the internet.
Please be careful and I hope you are able to locate the problem somehow.
 
snaredrum

snaredrum

Member
What happens when you pull the black wire out of the ground plug in the strip? Have you tried grounding the black another way?
 
patrickwebb

patrickwebb

Member
it drops to zero--
i have grounded it to another extension cord coming from a different power source-and the same reading is involved
 
snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
a quick solution would be a titanium grounding probe...
Maybe something else is the problem? I see that you have very little surface agitation, and it is a very tall tank. Make sure that you have a powerhead pointing from the bottom of the tank to the top for proper gas exchange. Make sure you have enough internal flow... general rule of thumb is 10x the volume of your tank. a Maxijet 1200 would probably do your tank a world of good.
 
patrickwebb

patrickwebb

Member
i have a oddyesea 320 gph filter that is keeping a good flow, in my 20 gl tank, along with the whisper 30 to direct water from the top to the bottom.
if you look at the picture of my tank you will see the long ugly green bar which is the water return and that does a good job, however i do need a powerhead, but thats not my problem right now-the electricity in my tank is my issue!
 
snaredrum

snaredrum

Member
Have you tried a different wall outlet? I find it kind of strange that ALL equipment is sending voltage into that tank. I can see one of the items but all items? Just don't seem right. It almost has to be the plug or the surge protector.
 
natclanwy

natclanwy

Active Member
Just out of curiosty if you unplug everthing in the tank does your reading go to zero?
I believe that a GFCI won't trip when you have voltage leakage it has lead back to ground and the water is not grounded.
 
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