Anyone know their stuff about stray voltage? Frags for help!

B

bphelps81

New member
I have been trying to find out why a couple of my fish have been acting up (see my recent post about my blue tang). Anyways, I think I lost a lawnmower blenny last week. I haven't lost a fish in the 4 years I've had this setup........

The blue tang has gotten hermit like (hiding most of the time). From the little bit I see him anymore I'm noticing some legions/holes, and he appears to be "twitching." My assumption is he is starting to develop HLLE and potentially because of voltage.

In the middle of the night last night our power went out for about 3 hours. Being concerned, I went down the basement to figure out a plan, and noticed with my flashlight the tang was swimming around actively (much more than in the last 2 weeks). So my guess is that he was not getting that shock. I have tried unplugging equipment (without a voltage meter) to see if I he would come out after awhile (but didn't have any luck).

I'm looking for someone experienced to help me determine if there is stray voltage, and what is causing it. I'm not really comfortable when it comes to electricity.

I live in Parma, and can trade some frags from my setup for their time.

Birdsnests - Pink, Birds of Paradise, Tri-Color, Green/Yellow
Pocillopora - Green
Hammer - Green/Purple
Acropora - Blue/Green Echinata
Meteor Show Cyphastrea
Ricordea - Orange/Purple
Toadstool Leather - Neon Green
Candy Cane - Teal

Please let me know if you have a few minutes, live nearby and are comfortable helping! Thanks!

Brian 4402210204
 
No, I have never had a grounding probe.

There are so many conflicting views on them, that I don't really know whether to have one or not.
 
funkyman said:
Until you find out for sure what's going on, it's certainly not going to hurt.
Click to expand...

+1 and its a cheap "possible" solution. There are threads about using a voltage meter to test this but I never had any luck with the process. I've had a couple of MJ powerheads go bad on me that didn't affect my livestock. I know they were bad because it shocked me pretty good and tripped the outlet.....
 
bphelps81 said:
No, I have never had a grounding probe.

There are so many conflicting views on them, that I don't really know whether to have one or not.
Click to expand...

Buy a grounding probe and multimeter and measure the voltage difference between the probe and your house ground. I really doubt this is your problem, but it is worth learning how to do and as an extra safety.
 
+1 on the grounding. If you don't have a multimeter, buy a cheap one and check for voltage in the water. I assume saltwater would be conductive so it should be easy to check.
 
If you use a grounding probe, you will want to make sure everything is plugged into a gfci. Otherwise you will just be introducing current into your tank which is much more detrimental to your inhabitants than just stray voltage.
I will shoot you a text and may be able to swing by sometime. I work in parma.
 
I found stray voltage from a power head in my tank. My hands in the tank weren't affected but when tender skin on my forearm entered the water, I felt it. That's one way to check.
 
Update!

Update!

Thanks Brian (Bbaz) for stopping out the other day! Although we didn't completely solve the problem. We learned a few things.

We ran a bunch of test with a voltage meter and it was between 22-27 volts in the system. There were no real large swings that we noticed when unplugging and plugging equipment. After doing research I learned that some voltage is expected in a saltwater system and many pieces of equipment leach some small amounts of voltage. When you factor in the # of things plugged into the system, it can add up even if the equipment is properly functioning.

I guess 22-27 volts in a system in considered low. Reading the forums, under 40 seem to be considered low, and may not cause harm. I'm still not 100% sold that we can rule this out as the cause of my blue tangs recent behavior. I am no expert on voltage..... I replaced my heaters just out of precaution (they were old anyways), and was looking to upgrade my powerheads anyways to new Jebao's. My system is plugged into a GFCI, and do not use a grounding probe. There is too many mixed opinions on these things out there, so I'm just going without it for now. I've had fairly healthy systems up to this point in my hobby life and not had one.

Other than that, although I feed a pretty varied diet, I might try adding something with additional vitamin C.

Brian also mentioned that he noticed the Yellow tang doing a little bit of bullying. I hadn't seen much like this in the past, but the Yellow tang has definitely gotten more "confidence" in the last year and grown significantly.

As far as losing the lawnmower blenny, maybe I just chalk it up to natural causes? I guess losing 1 fish in 4 years isn't bad in this hobby.

If anyone has any further thoughts, I'd be more than welcome to your feedback.
 
Last edited:
Seems like you summed up everything we found. I was thinking about the bullying aspect and doubt that has anything to do with the behavior. I did notice the two tangs doing the "backwards tail push thing" but that's really just a normal behavior between tangs. I would think the blue would have had to have been beat up a lot worse with shredded fins to force him into hiding like that.
It would be nice to hear if anybody else has checked for voltage in their systems and what they came up with. If you have a multimeter and don't know how to check voltage, what I did was put one probe in the tank and one to ground (either the ground on a receptacle, metal conduit, or copper water line)
As far as water parameters go, I did not test any but would have to guess they are spot on. All corals and other fish looked super healthy.
 
I had a hard time finding what was causing mine. I could feel it every now and then. Here is was a pump I had on my apex that was set as On/Off, so when I was testing it with a meter, I found nothing. Be persistent. You will find it. I keep a cheap meter, in my tank room.
 
I'll try to check for stray voltage in my tank. I've always used a probe but when I moved the tank last weekend didn't install it.

Oddly enough I'm a EE, work in power distribution, and my office is in Parma off 130th. And the tank is in my office so not a stretch. I also recommended in another thread and still do here to have a good UPS. It can filter out power quality issues that could slowly damage your equipment and potentially prevent stray voltage from hitting the tank but won't fix the current issue you were experiencing, only help to prevent it. And since many power heads etc... Are not a 3 prong power device the GFCI wouldn't necessarily protect it since ground fault requires a ground to truly work.
 
Sorry for the delayed response. The display tank had a voltage of around 4.5vac and the sump below had a voltage of approx 9vac. I did not really think about the difference between the sump and display until now but it makes sense since I have some equipment (heater + return pump) in the sump and other equipment (power heads) in the main tank.

I may do more tests to see the voltage when everything is off and only certain equipment. I expect some voltage to carry from the sump to the display and vice versa, but it would be interesting to record the voltages both individually and as a system in order to troubleshoot later. I'll also get my grounding probe and see what effect that has on the tank voltage, if any.
 
Interesting...significantly lower than mine. Well if you feel like stopping by sometime to help troubleshoot let me know.
 
I found voltage in my tank when I had one hand in the water and one on the light switch grounding screw. That was a good zap. After getting hit a couple times with it going in one arm and out the other, my chest started hurting on my left side. Turns out it was my lights. Salt creep had built up and caused the exterior frame to be shorted to V+ from the ballast (T5 lights) and me sticking my hands in and out of the water had gotten water on the rim touching the metal legs of the light. My guess is that salt creep on the HOB overflow connected the water on the trim to the tank water, then I completed the circuit to ground. ZAP!
 
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