Electrocution?

craig_08

Member
Ok, lets be honest here. How many of you guys have been working on the tank with wet hands and electrocuted yourself. I have old equipment with frazzled plugs and everytime I am messing with them with moist hands I think I just know I am gonna kill myself doing this one day. Anyone have any good stories?
 

buzz

Active Member
I hate to say it, but yeah, I've done it. On my 60g, I have a few older NO light strips, and a wire keeps coming out on one of them. I have gone to replace it, and closed the connection, thus sending my arm into the top of the canopy. Feels real great! :eek:
 

craig_08

Member
I have yet to electrocute myself despite all the times unplugging with wet hands but the first day I had my 75 I had an experience not soon forgotten. I had bought the setup from someone and had just moved it in, gotten all the original water back in as well as the inhabitants and had the filter running for an hour or so and went to turn on the lights. I turned them on and went to set them on the tank. The way the canopy is set up, to put them in you kind of have to work your way around the pieces of wood made to hold the canopy hood to set them on the glass. I set the light on the glass for a second to slide it under the little piece of wood and since it was a hinged piece of glass it of course gave way under the pressure sending the light and the glass into the tank. Once I unplugged and got the light out I see a blue damsel swimming in corkscrews across the tank. I guess I found out the hard way that Water+Electricity+Fish=not good. Luckily the other fish were fine.
 

krishj39

Active Member
All my wires and connections are sadly still in a heap under my stand. unfortunately, there is a sump under there too, so I have had a few overflows, all of which resulted in electrical smoke pouring out of my stand. I found that while the titanium heaters are indestructable, the thermostat gizmo at the plug end will get fried with only a few drops of water. I've gotten zapped a few times while frantically trying to unplug and move things out of the wetness. I need to re-organize all my wiring and get it all mounted on the side wall of my stand. But it's a daunting job because of the tangle under there now, and it means moving my sump out of there, unplugging everything, and basically just not a fun time whatsoever. I'll do it one day though. Thankfully I haven't been shocked bad yet, no getting thrown across the room or anything.
A word of advice whenever you are working on something that has the potential to shock you is to only use one hand to work on it, and keep the other arm at your side, or away from anything that could ground you and complete the circuit. People die from electricity when the current flows through their heart. If you are working on something with both hands, and it shocks you, the current goes through one arm, then your chest (and heart), and back out the other arm. Working with only one hand means that MOST LIKELY the electricity will ground itself without passing through your heart, just other, less lethal, areas of your body.
 

aarone

Active Member
hasnt happened yet, but im sure its bound o happen. I try to keep my hands dry when unplugging stuff. But no one is perfect.
 
D

daniel411

Guest
Yep, deffinately have poked myself before. Sadly I work in a power plant too! Only small shocks though. And Waterfaller, it is called a grounding probe. Deffinately a worthwhile investment. Only about ten dollars and will eliminate stray voltage in your tanks, which does exist often.
Krish is right about the one hand deal too!
 

hurricanedrift

New Member
If you lived to tell about it you were only shocked not electrocuted. Electrocution infers death. Also your equipment should plugged into GFI (Ground Fault Interruptor)outlets. If not chnage it to a GFI outlet! If you are not comfortable doing it yourself hire an electrician to do it. It may save your life some day!
 

eric4usa

Member
I got a good shock cleaning salt spray off my MH bulbs.
I had the lights off for over 30min, balasts still plugged in.
I was wiping the bulbs very carefully with a klenex barely damp with windex.
The 4th bulb I wiped gave me a good jolt.
I was just touching the glass bulb and not the base.
The whole setup is less than a month old.
Guess I should have unpluged the balast.
 

squidd

Active Member
I'll second the GFI outlets. Do not ask me how I know this!! :eek:
A couple of six way outlet bars, run your wires to the bars (don't forget the "drip"loop) and a rubber band around the excess to keep things neat.
If your real "anal" you could "label" each plug so you know which powerhaed (or whatever) your unplugging to work on. :)
Or you could just push them all in a corner and pile a bunch of stuff on top so you don't have to look at them. ;)
:cool:
 

peasly1

Member
2x now I've felt quite a shock when I put my hand in the tank to feed,move rock ,clean , both times it was a vho light strip to be the cause....
 

dreeves

Active Member
Being shocked is an over rated experience...after the 6th or 7th time...the numbness goes away pretty quick and it doesn;t hurt as bad...GFCI are for sissy's.... :)
 

kreach

Active Member
I myself have never been shocked (knock on wood), but my husband did during the time he used to work at the LFS. He was cleaning one of the saltwater tanks and accidentally bumped the lights, which proceeded to fall into the tank. The shock knocked him back off the bucket he was sitting on! :eek:
 

moopiespoo

Member
There is a GFCI plug that you can buy and you plug it in to the main outlet that your powerstrip is plugged into, I am thinking of geeting a couple. Right now I am just going on faith that I won't get shocked.
 

sammystingray

Active Member
I've been shocked several times.....worst was when I was working on the tank, and had the light sitting there balanced, of course it went in, and without thinking, I grabbed it.:rolleyes: Does anyone else check their pulse real quick after a shock to see if it is still there?:D
 

dreeves

Active Member
No on the pulse...i just try and shake it off really fast..sometimes it works...sometimes it doesnt...
 

javajoe

Member
I hve not electrocuted myself in my tank yet, but i did something REALLY stupid yesterday.
I work for a computer company, providing phone support and also fixing the computers that come in. i was on the phone with a customer and sitting at the workbench. I have a tendancy to 'fiddle' with things when i talk.
Anyway, I was fiddling with a pair of needlenose pliers (NO INSULATION) and there was a computer power cord sitting there in front of me. Here I am, talking to the customer when I absent mindedly STICK THE FRIGGIN PLIERS INTO THE PLUG!!! :eek: (both ends, one in each hole...). duh! BIG SPARKS, burnt hand, threw the phone and fried the other computer i was working on that was plugged into the same power strip. fortunately, no permanent damage- I was laffing my butt off about it 5 minutes later.
 
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