JBeehler Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 Need some help. I have some stray voltage in tanks that I just discovered. Tanks with electronics removed are still reading around 1.5v or less. Is this a problem? Had one heater that was putting 55v in the water when it was heating. But all the other tanks except the tanks not connected to auto water change system has around a volt in it. How much is too much? Is ground probes acceptable to use in every tank and will keep fish safe? haven’t ever ran into this before. 26 tanks. 10 have no stray voltage or .1 v with heaters in the tanks. 16 had 4+ volts in them with nothing plugged in. All tanks have a irrigation valve controlled water supply for auto water changes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 (edited) How are you measuring the voltage leakage? Is it voltage leaking to ground? All of my tanks have ground probes in them and are powered by GFCI protected circuits and I trip and reset the GFCI on the first Saturday of every month after ensuring that tripping has shut the circuit off. In all of my tanks I actively work to minimize energized conductors submerged in the water. The only cutrrent carrying conductors in my tank are for the heaters, and those are energized and de energized by an Inkbird controller so they are not energized all of the time.. Canister filters do have conducters near water yet they are isolated by a plastic wall around the impeller, and while I havent opened the powerhead on them, I would hope that they are well bedded in epoxy… I have had more conductors immersed in water before, ie internal filters, hobs, powerheads, but I am much happier with them gone now… In my opinion everybody should have both a grounding probe in the tank and the electricity to the tank should be GFCI protected. And you should trip and reset that circuit every month. Tripping it exercises the mechanism to prevent it from freezing in place, and if either it fails to shut off or can not be rest lets you know you should replace it. If you only have GFCI, you could have an exposed hot conductor in the tank with no issue to trip the circuit… until a path to ground makes itself available. Now from my perspective Zi am much happier having a grounding probe providing that path to ground to trip the GFCI circuit instead of current passing through my body to a ground source.. If you only have a grounding probe, the circuit breaker will not trip until you exceed its rating… Somewhere in the neighborhood of 2000 watts. It is possible to suffer a fatal electrocution at under a watt iirc. For those that do not know, A GFCI is designed to trip when the amperage returning on the neutral terminal is more than 4 milliamps lower than the amperage leaving the hot terminal…. 0.004 amps time 120 volts is about half a watt… To those relying on a tingle when you have your arm in a tank to alert you to check for faulty equipment, be advised that the threshold for possible fatal electrocution is not a lot higher than the threshold of feeling that tingle… Another reason for a ground probe in addition to a gfci circuit is that power can be leaking out a faulty hot terminal at one sideof the tank and go through a faulty neutral at the otherside, and the gfci doesnt care. It only cares about electricity not coming back through the neutral .. stick one hand near the hot, and another near the neutral and lazy electricity that always wants to find the easiest way home might find your electrolyte filled body a more suitable and hospitable path home… Murphy is a clever fellow at finding new ways to ruin ones day… Former ABYC certified marine electrician and instructor. Former Paramedic Edited March 14 by Pepere 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBeehler Posted March 14 Author Share Posted March 14 Ok. I will replace the one for sure bad heater. And start plugging the others one by one. I left them unplugged over night (garage is sitting around 73 degree area) I will get them all set back up and see if any others are leaking voltage. checked with red probe in water back to outlet ground. I will start getting ground probes installed and hopefully all will be well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lefty o Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 definately find where its coming from. i dont worry about the fish so much as they arent likely going to become a current path, you however can most definately become a path to ground if you stick your hand in a tank with electricity in it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 On 3/14/2024 at 7:32 AM, JBeehler said: checked with red probe in water back to outlet ground. I will start getting ground probes installed and hopefully all will be well. As a general rule unplugging one item at a time while testing flow to ground is a good way to determine offending item. and ensure meter is set for ac voltage of course… current can flow on a ground wire itself and be both ac and dc current…. Can be due to induced voltages from inductive kr capacitive loads near wires… last night I pulled a spare grounding probe still in the package. On the package it specified to ensure outlet powering aquarium is protected by a GFCI circuit… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBeehler Posted March 14 Author Share Posted March 14 Ok sounds good. I will order up some grounding probes. There is nothing electronic in these tanks currently and still showing a little over a volt in the water. super annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 (edited) It sound like it is just noise then. If there is nothing conductive in the tank… Or it could be the meter itself. But I am very much a fan of titanium ground probes and regularly tested GFCI circuits… and if the GFCI ever trips work to determine why. They can trip from artifact as well… Sometimes the feed wire going in to the GFCI needs to double loop through an RF ferrite core choke… Edited March 15 by Pepere 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBeehler Posted March 15 Author Share Posted March 15 On 3/14/2024 at 7:08 PM, Pepere said: It sound like it is just noise then. If there is nothing conductive in the tank… Or it could be the meter itself. But I am very much a fan of titanium ground probes and regularly tested GFCI circuits… and if the GFCI ever trips work to determine why. They can trip from artifact as well… Sometimes the feed wire going in to the GFCI needs to double loop through an RF ferrite core choke… The meter shows 0.0 and 0.1 in other tanks on the same rack. The top rack tanks are averaging 1.8 middle rack tanks are averaging .4 bottom rack tanks are averaging .2 And the voltage is believed to be of no concern for the fish? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 Your top tanks are higher. Do you have flourescent lights overhead? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBeehler Posted March 15 Author Share Posted March 15 On 3/14/2024 at 7:33 PM, Pepere said: Your top tanks are higher. Do you have flourescent lights overhead? There are led converted fixtures for the garage and fluorescent over the tanks with the magnetic ballasts but not switched on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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