stray Voltage in our tanks

[reefstarter]

you don't have to feel it in the water , you can't see it but it could be there I just tested my tanks in my basement and found 3 seperate sources of stray voltage and took those units offline when multiple units are "leaking " we got readings that went from 0 to as high as 175 volts the reason for this we believe was having multiple circuits tied in through the water once we had isolated them we found more steady readings and much lower . So I think I found out what caused my fish problems .

 

[myram]

They say the voltage doesn't cause any issues until the circuit is is complete by say a grounding probe.
The current is what you have to be careful off, when the circuit is completed by a person..........the current can get ya.

But if you had 175 volts in the tank.........that's crazy!!

 

[reefstarter]

Yeah the more I read about it the more it says it won't cause diseases. But I consider myself lucky for not having been shocked . I am still left with the mystery of exactly what my fish got and caused their deaths and where it came from . It wasn't from the fish store ,

 

[SquareFace]

you don't have to feel it in the water , you can't see it but it could be there I just tested my tanks in my basement and found 3 seperate sources of stray voltage and took those units offline when multiple units are "leaking " we got readings that went from 0 to as high as 175 volts the reason for this we believe was having multiple circuits tied in through the water once we had isolated them we found more steady readings and much lower . So I think I found out what caused my fish problems .

What tool did you use to check for straight voltage? How did you check?

 

[reefstarter]

Multimeter one end in water other to ground

 

[Jim Tansey]

I'm trying to figure out how you would read 175 volts, even if it orignated from two different sources it would not exceed the line voltage of approx 120 VAC.

Jim

 

[reefstarter]

Yeah that's what I figured too but..... That's what I got thinking it has to do with combined circuits and a 12 volt transformer

 

[myram]

I'm trying to figure out how you would read 175 volts, even if it orignated from two different sources it would not exceed the line voltage of approx 120 VAC.

Jim

LOL.............I didn't even catch that, I was more amazed with the 175v.

You using 3-phase power?
Just kidding

 

[Phinfan]

You sure it wasn't milivolts?

 

[reefstarter]

Posative checked for 120/ 12 only it was jumping all over when I got all the pumps unplugged and plugged them back in one at a time we saw the jumps and kept going isolating each one till no current was detected even my electrician was baffled