Heater

[saltydog21]

:jumping:
Hi!
I just learned a great leason on heaters! They appareently throw out an electrical current in the water and slowly kill of the fish.
I was doing a water change today and as I put my hand in teh water and everything was shut off except the heater I could feel a tingling in my hand. I figured out that it was a short in the heater when it came on.
I have been wondering why my fish were stressed and dying off. I don't know if there is any way to check for this problem before it becomes a problem, but I thought I would give everyone a shout to let them know to keep an eye out for this problem.

 

[coachklm]

thx for the info but you need to state what kind of heater it was ..

 

[saltydog21]

:jumping:
it is a 300 watt theo

 

[hurt]

I'm not an electrician by any means, but something is wrong with your heater causing it to short. Not all heaters do this, only faulty ones. I also believe that this in itself does not affect the health of the fish because the circuit is not completed. The reason you feel the current is because you are grounded and now the current has a direct path.

 

[gsd]

I have always heard what Hurt stated. It shoud not harm the fish since they arte not completeing a circuit..I reallay dunno, but any stray voltage needs to be fixed ASAP if not yesterday or the faulty item isolated and removed from the setup. No matter hwat product it is or what brand name it is, there is always that slim chance of it leaking current espeically when the device is a submersible item.Its just one of those things, and a ground probe and a GFCI is worth having, or at a minimum a GFCI circuit. I have also seen lights which were turned off, but still plugged in still give a stray current flow to the tank due to salt creep......