Help using voltmeter to find stray voltage.
- Thread starter MHannon
- Start date
Looking for voltage is pointless because if there is no voltage then your meter will read "phantom voltage" due to high impedences in the way it samples voltage. If there is a leak, then the tank water is part of the electrical circuit and the meter works. If there isn't a leak the tank isn't part of any circuit, and voltage meters don't work on "floating" wires. You'll basically be reading the harmless noise voltage in the tank caused by pumps and stuff. If there is a leak, the meter will read it, but if there isn't a leak then the meter won't work and the numbers it shows you will be garbage. You can't tell if it is or isn't giving you accurate info or not. The meter will never read 0 unless you turn off everything and have still water...
Look for stray current instead, very different than stray voltage. Put your meter in 2mA mode, use the MA hole and the common hole. Put one wire on the house ground (use the trick above if you like), put the other wire in the water.
What you will be measuring is actual current flowing from the tank to ground. Static electricity doesn't create current flow, only real power leaking into the tank can create current flow. Unplug each piece of equipment looking for the culprit.
This works because when put in amp mode the volt meter turns into a wire, it becomes your ground probe. This makes the tank part of a circuit and making it possible to do measurements.
Look for stray current instead, very different than stray voltage. Put your meter in 2mA mode, use the MA hole and the common hole. Put one wire on the house ground (use the trick above if you like), put the other wire in the water.
What you will be measuring is actual current flowing from the tank to ground. Static electricity doesn't create current flow, only real power leaking into the tank can create current flow. Unplug each piece of equipment looking for the culprit.
This works because when put in amp mode the volt meter turns into a wire, it becomes your ground probe. This makes the tank part of a circuit and making it possible to do measurements.
Last edited:
PRDubois
New member
I would replace the heater
kcress
New member
caliking; Thanks for the info.
Continuing:
I would next do as garydan suggests except I'd set the meter to it's highest current setting not a low one. If it turns out to be a big leak you don't want to damage the meter.
That's the AC amps settings we're talking about.
Then if the meter doesn't peg keep lowering the amp range to the lowest that doesn't peg the meter.
Let us know what you get.
Continuing:
I would next do as garydan suggests except I'd set the meter to it's highest current setting not a low one. If it turns out to be a big leak you don't want to damage the meter.
That's the AC amps settings we're talking about.
Then if the meter doesn't peg keep lowering the amp range to the lowest that doesn't peg the meter.
Let us know what you get.
BeanAnimal
Premium Member
I have NEVER blown up a meter... EVER... I mean who ever chooses the wrong current mode and does so with high voltage DC that ignores the tiny bus fuse that is designed to protect you and the meter?
kcress
New member
I've blown the shunts out of at least three meters and the fuses in lue of the shunts in another four.
A lot of meters have no fuses.. More these days do.
The biggest problem is that it doesn't often matter what the dial is set to. You pick up the leads and probe voltage while the leads are plugged into the current holesand the shunt (or the fuse) leaves the party.
A lot of meters have no fuses.. More these days do.
The biggest problem is that it doesn't often matter what the dial is set to. You pick up the leads and probe voltage while the leads are plugged into the current holesand the shunt (or the fuse) leaves the party.
BeanAnimal
Premium Member
I am very careful with my analog Simpson... New Flukes are easy to find, well priced analog simpsons are not 
Dunno if this is the right forum; I dont want to hijack, but....
HELP! Im getting crazy readings!
First of all, I will say that I am testing from a power strip plugged into a portable GFCI outlet plugged into the wall. The readings were tested with the ground in a power strip ground slot, AND the extra wall ground slot for control.
With all equipment on, Im getting a reading of ~55V. I removed each piece of equipment individually and each piece contributed to a net loss of between 3.7V and 7V for each of the 5 pieces of equipment plugged in; in theory netting a total loss of ~20V. Is this kind of stray voltage additive? cause I have approximately 35V unaccounted for. So I ran each piece of equipment individually, unplugging all equipment for control. Again, I got weird readings, between 11V - 42V for each piece of equipment, totaling ~140V for each of the five pieces. IE when I unplugged a powerhead, the total voltage dropped to ~51.5V, but when I tested it alone with no other equipment plugged in, it read 23V. All pieces acted in this way. HOW CAN THIS BE? WHAT AM I DOING WRONG/NOT ACCOUNTING FOR?
Measuring for stray current I got a reading of 0.04 amps AC (.01 from powerhead, .03 from lamp?) with the lead in a 300mA port.
Any advice (including directing me to the appropriate forum
) would be helpful
HELP! Im getting crazy readings!
First of all, I will say that I am testing from a power strip plugged into a portable GFCI outlet plugged into the wall. The readings were tested with the ground in a power strip ground slot, AND the extra wall ground slot for control.
With all equipment on, Im getting a reading of ~55V. I removed each piece of equipment individually and each piece contributed to a net loss of between 3.7V and 7V for each of the 5 pieces of equipment plugged in; in theory netting a total loss of ~20V. Is this kind of stray voltage additive? cause I have approximately 35V unaccounted for. So I ran each piece of equipment individually, unplugging all equipment for control. Again, I got weird readings, between 11V - 42V for each piece of equipment, totaling ~140V for each of the five pieces. IE when I unplugged a powerhead, the total voltage dropped to ~51.5V, but when I tested it alone with no other equipment plugged in, it read 23V. All pieces acted in this way. HOW CAN THIS BE? WHAT AM I DOING WRONG/NOT ACCOUNTING FOR?
Measuring for stray current I got a reading of 0.04 amps AC (.01 from powerhead, .03 from lamp?) with the lead in a 300mA port.
Any advice (including directing me to the appropriate forum
) would be helpful
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kcress
New member
It's kind of a hard call. Modern meters can operate on soooOO little current that things that might not matter will seem like they do. Something seems weird here and it's probably your meter. If you are probing the water and a ground terminal near by and you are reading things like 0.01 or 0.03A that's a lot. Too much. Yet. Your GFI will trip at anything over 0.005A. So this makes me suspect your readings.
Have you been shocked by your tank?
No, the voltages do not add. The currents will, sort of.
Have you been shocked by your tank?
No, the voltages do not add. The currents will, sort of.
BadSquishy
New member
I've used the Voltmeter method described by kcress. It works well.
However another method - Simpler, safer, easier and cheaper and equally reliable is to buy a simple AC Voltage detector. (I use EXtech 40130 - $8 at Frys.)
Turn it on and hold it up to the front of the tank. If it chirps and flashes. You have a problem.
Use the unplug method - already described - to find source.
Be sure to test when everything is running. Make sure you test with the chiller/heater running.
Chillers in particular will cause problems (only when running) if the third prong of a three prong plug is floating. (not tied to ground).
Do not assume the outlets are wired correctly - I suspect this may be pschmitz's problem.
However another method - Simpler, safer, easier and cheaper and equally reliable is to buy a simple AC Voltage detector. (I use EXtech 40130 - $8 at Frys.)
Turn it on and hold it up to the front of the tank. If it chirps and flashes. You have a problem.
Use the unplug method - already described - to find source.
Be sure to test when everything is running. Make sure you test with the chiller/heater running.
Chillers in particular will cause problems (only when running) if the third prong of a three prong plug is floating. (not tied to ground).
Do not assume the outlets are wired correctly - I suspect this may be pschmitz's problem.
alton
Well-known member
(The following is an articile I wrote several years back, sorry it is so long)
Stray Voltage
Before I get started “I DO NOT RECOMMEND” to anyone to do the things I have done for my test!
With that I am covering Stray Voltage in and around your aquarium. This does not cover stray current in your tank! If you are getting a tingle when you touch your water, find out what is causing it and remove it, do not go out a buy a grounding probe thinking this will fix the problem. I recommend only using power heads and other equipment that is grounded (Has three prongs). I have never had problems with stray voltage or so I thought till last week when I checked all three of my aquariums. The reason I say that is because I am barefooted on a tile floor with my hands and arms submerged all the time with no tingle, so how could I have voltage? I have checked in the past with a meter with no voltage showing. Just recently I had made changes to my 200 gallon aquarium, but I figured no tingle no voltage right? The following is what I came up with all electrical equipment and lighting for the following tanks:
Tank #1 - 200 gallon, wet dry filter system, Mag. pump for the skimmer, Pan World 100PXX for the return. On lighting, 2 – 250 watt MH, 4 – 54w T5HO, 1 – 160 watt VHO.
Stray voltage – 14.5 volts and yes no tingle, even when I was barefooted and wet floor. Turn off the metal halides and it drops to 8.5 volts, turn off the rest of the lighting and it drops below 2 volts. For a clarification my hood is brand new, with no salt crepe or moisture and the lamps are a minimum of 8” above the water.
Tank #2 – 155 gallon, wet dry filter system, Mag. pump for the skimmer, Pan World 50PXX for the return. On lighting, 2 – 250 watt MH mounted in a 5’ Orbit light
Stray voltage – less than .5 volts with everything running. Clarification light is metal and grounded and the tank has glass tops.
Tank #3 – 29 gallon with an eclipse three filter system. The lighting consists of a 96 watt Quad PC with a 2 ½” fan from Radio Shack for cooling.
Stray voltage – 9 volts and once again no tingle. I grounded the reflector and the voltage only dropped a volt. Turn off light and voltage is below .5 volts. For clarification once again no moisture everything is dry, lamps is mounted only 3” above the water.
Solution: Installed a grounding probe into sump of tank #1 and one into the tank of #3 and voltage dropped below one volt in each.
GROUNDING PROBE – Good or Bad?
Let’s cover the bad things first:
If your service ground is bad outside it will use your tank as a ground and you will get more than a tingle. Example I got a call from a friend and he told me he was getting shocked when he put his hand in his tank. So I took a voltage reading and only 5 volts to the meter but to the hand it wasn’t very pleasing. Took out the grounding probe and voltage and shock was gone. I went to the service and added another ground rod and it took care of the problem. He left the probe out of his tank.
If you have a lightning strike near your home you have a chance of the voltage finding your way into your tank.
If you are going to install a grounding probe lets cover the basic setup for a safe operation:
Check your service for a ground rod some homes in SA do not have one. Go to where your meter is and look below your service panel or disconnect for#6 or larger wire leading into the ground. The ground rod should be buried below. If you cannot find one call an electrician to install one. If you are in soil keep the area moist especially now in dry times, this the main reason we lose our grounding. If you are in rock same thing make sure and keep the soil wet because you have less soil and solid rock does not make a good grounding substance. If you are building a new home add an additional grounding source to your ground rod by attaching a grounding conductor of #4 copper wire to a minimum of 20’ of rebar in your slab and attach it in two places and then attach it to your service panel grounding bar. To check and make sure you do not any voltage on your grounding conductors take your meter and place the probes across the grounding (green) and grounded (White) slots of several receptacles through out your house, the voltage should be 0. And then attach the probes across the ungrounded (black or red) slot and the grounding slot, and then the ungrounded slot and grounded slot. Determining which slot is which is easy. Looking at the receptacle the “U” shaped one is the grounding. The largest of the straight slots is normally the grounded with the smaller of the two being the hot or ungrounded. If you have voltage from the grounded and grounding slots (1 to 50 volts) you have poor grounding, call an electrician. If you have 120 volts then your grounded and ungrounded conductors could be reversed. (Call an electrician) Remember black or red goes on gold and white goes on silver, and of course the green or bare wire goes on the green terminal.
If everything is perfect than install your grounding probe, but don’t forget about it every once in a while you will need to check for voltage. It’s just like checking your GFCI receptacles to make sure they are working properly. Just because you have one doesn’t mean you’re safe. That is why there is a test button.
Stray Voltage
Before I get started “I DO NOT RECOMMEND” to anyone to do the things I have done for my test!
With that I am covering Stray Voltage in and around your aquarium. This does not cover stray current in your tank! If you are getting a tingle when you touch your water, find out what is causing it and remove it, do not go out a buy a grounding probe thinking this will fix the problem. I recommend only using power heads and other equipment that is grounded (Has three prongs). I have never had problems with stray voltage or so I thought till last week when I checked all three of my aquariums. The reason I say that is because I am barefooted on a tile floor with my hands and arms submerged all the time with no tingle, so how could I have voltage? I have checked in the past with a meter with no voltage showing. Just recently I had made changes to my 200 gallon aquarium, but I figured no tingle no voltage right? The following is what I came up with all electrical equipment and lighting for the following tanks:
Tank #1 - 200 gallon, wet dry filter system, Mag. pump for the skimmer, Pan World 100PXX for the return. On lighting, 2 – 250 watt MH, 4 – 54w T5HO, 1 – 160 watt VHO.
Stray voltage – 14.5 volts and yes no tingle, even when I was barefooted and wet floor. Turn off the metal halides and it drops to 8.5 volts, turn off the rest of the lighting and it drops below 2 volts. For a clarification my hood is brand new, with no salt crepe or moisture and the lamps are a minimum of 8” above the water.
Tank #2 – 155 gallon, wet dry filter system, Mag. pump for the skimmer, Pan World 50PXX for the return. On lighting, 2 – 250 watt MH mounted in a 5’ Orbit light
Stray voltage – less than .5 volts with everything running. Clarification light is metal and grounded and the tank has glass tops.
Tank #3 – 29 gallon with an eclipse three filter system. The lighting consists of a 96 watt Quad PC with a 2 ½” fan from Radio Shack for cooling.
Stray voltage – 9 volts and once again no tingle. I grounded the reflector and the voltage only dropped a volt. Turn off light and voltage is below .5 volts. For clarification once again no moisture everything is dry, lamps is mounted only 3” above the water.
Solution: Installed a grounding probe into sump of tank #1 and one into the tank of #3 and voltage dropped below one volt in each.
GROUNDING PROBE – Good or Bad?
Let’s cover the bad things first:
If your service ground is bad outside it will use your tank as a ground and you will get more than a tingle. Example I got a call from a friend and he told me he was getting shocked when he put his hand in his tank. So I took a voltage reading and only 5 volts to the meter but to the hand it wasn’t very pleasing. Took out the grounding probe and voltage and shock was gone. I went to the service and added another ground rod and it took care of the problem. He left the probe out of his tank.
If you have a lightning strike near your home you have a chance of the voltage finding your way into your tank.
If you are going to install a grounding probe lets cover the basic setup for a safe operation:
Check your service for a ground rod some homes in SA do not have one. Go to where your meter is and look below your service panel or disconnect for#6 or larger wire leading into the ground. The ground rod should be buried below. If you cannot find one call an electrician to install one. If you are in soil keep the area moist especially now in dry times, this the main reason we lose our grounding. If you are in rock same thing make sure and keep the soil wet because you have less soil and solid rock does not make a good grounding substance. If you are building a new home add an additional grounding source to your ground rod by attaching a grounding conductor of #4 copper wire to a minimum of 20’ of rebar in your slab and attach it in two places and then attach it to your service panel grounding bar. To check and make sure you do not any voltage on your grounding conductors take your meter and place the probes across the grounding (green) and grounded (White) slots of several receptacles through out your house, the voltage should be 0. And then attach the probes across the ungrounded (black or red) slot and the grounding slot, and then the ungrounded slot and grounded slot. Determining which slot is which is easy. Looking at the receptacle the “U” shaped one is the grounding. The largest of the straight slots is normally the grounded with the smaller of the two being the hot or ungrounded. If you have voltage from the grounded and grounding slots (1 to 50 volts) you have poor grounding, call an electrician. If you have 120 volts then your grounded and ungrounded conductors could be reversed. (Call an electrician) Remember black or red goes on gold and white goes on silver, and of course the green or bare wire goes on the green terminal.
If everything is perfect than install your grounding probe, but don’t forget about it every once in a while you will need to check for voltage. It’s just like checking your GFCI receptacles to make sure they are working properly. Just because you have one doesn’t mean you’re safe. That is why there is a test button.
BeanAnimal
Premium Member
Sorry, but I gotta call you out on this one. The EARTH GROUND is BONDED to the NEUTRAL at the main panel. If you drove another ground rod and "fixed" the problem, you really didn't fix anything and instead masked a poor neutral connection!
Rods, even in good soil, have a fairly high resistance and in most cases have no chance of actually clearing a fault
kcress
New member
Thanks for the info about your tank alton.
For the record I am completely against ground probes. They cause electrical energy to flow where otherwise it would not. This can result in discomfort and stress for your fish and electrochemical reactions that can result in unexpected chemicals in your tank.
We need to back up here. What we're measuring with our spectacularly sensitive meters are electric fields. An electric field represents an 'ability' to drive a current. It's magnitude will relate to the possible current. HOWEVER it does not tell us specifically what the current will be.
Remember that when you measure a voltage around a closed circuit you will measure voltages across components in the ratio of their various resistances. The rule results in a measurement across an open as being the entire circuit voltage. This is because the 'open' represents the very largest resistance in the circuit.
Even if the other resistances are huge the open circuit point will trump them all and you will be seeing the full circuit voltage.
In these cases with our tanks, the circuit is typically, say, a light fixture with a lot of current flowing thru it and a lot metal. The current results in a magnetic field that reaches out from the fixture and strikes the water. In our case conductive water. The water acts as a receiving antenna and couples to the field from the light. It's acting like a capacitor.
When you show up with your super sensitive probe and dip it in the water and ground the other end you are able to see the received and collected electric field.
What you cannot see is what the other resistance is in the circuit. In the typical case it is the extremely small capacitor made up of the air between the fixture and the water of the tank. If you were to try to drive something with this potential you couldn't because the resistance presented by the 'air capacitor' is so large. Indeed it is only because of our modern meters that we can register anything. If you used an old needle meter you would not read anything because the meter itself would consume all the available current provided by the air capacitor.
What's this all mean? Confusion and this is why. Both conducted potentials and coupled potentials can exist in a tank and will look the same to a voltmeter. You should not worry about, nor do anything about coupled potentials. They represent biologically insignificant currents. That is unless you use a ground probe that will take whatever current is available and drive it thru your water, fish, and coral to create electrochemical reactions.
However, we definitely need to detect and remedy any conducted potentials as they represent magnitudes higher energy potentials that could kill us or our tanks.
How do will tell the difference between a conducted and a coupled voltage? One will drive much more current.
Set your meter to ACV and using a confirmed ground on one probe, probe your water with the other. If you get a reading over 60V you likely have a serious conducted voltage into your water. Be very careful.. Do the eliminate-thru-unplugging method to find the culprit. When you find it remove it and destroy it so some other poor sap doesn't use it.
If you measure a potential of less than 40V you likely have only a 'coupled' potential. Switch your meter and probe to ACA and probe again. You should only see tiny currents if any. That would be a current under about 1mA. Measure first with the ACA scale as a serious conducted problem could provide so much current as to blow out your ACmA sense resistor leaving you to mistakenly conclude, "it's safe, no current.." BBZZZZAP.
Recapping: Coupled potentials are everywhere. Ground one probe and pinch the other in your fingers. See that reading? That's a coupled reading. Use your other hand like a wand and wave it near your electrical equipment. See the reading? It will rise rapidly next to your MH etc. Your tank works the same way, like a large human body. Bigger tanks will intercept even more. A 200 would typically have a coupled potential much higher than a smaller tank. Do nothing about these coupled potentials. Do not invite them to flow thru your tank with ground probes as only then do they do work. That's work in the strict physics sense. Work on your fish and work on your tank chemistry.
Conducted potentials? Find and fix them using the unplug method. This would be on any potential able to drive more than about 1mA.
Keep in mind that if one of your devices has a conduction problem what you see in your tank's potential will be that conducted problem plus the inevitable coupled potentials. This means just voltage probing will be confusing. You need to look at the current. Say you have a conducted problem, you unplug something but still see a potential - a harmless coupled one - and think "I unplugged that powerhead and the voltage only dropped a volt or two, it must not be the problem". That would be a erroneous conclusion.
To help with tracking, unplug everything and measure the potential. That will be the coupled potential caused by non-aquarium related wire carrying current in your walls, like to your ceiling fixture. Then run each aquarium device individually looking for an unacceptable current. Weed out those that provide more than 1mA. I would question any that provide more than about 100uA.
For the record I am completely against ground probes. They cause electrical energy to flow where otherwise it would not. This can result in discomfort and stress for your fish and electrochemical reactions that can result in unexpected chemicals in your tank.
We need to back up here. What we're measuring with our spectacularly sensitive meters are electric fields. An electric field represents an 'ability' to drive a current. It's magnitude will relate to the possible current. HOWEVER it does not tell us specifically what the current will be.
Remember that when you measure a voltage around a closed circuit you will measure voltages across components in the ratio of their various resistances. The rule results in a measurement across an open as being the entire circuit voltage. This is because the 'open' represents the very largest resistance in the circuit.
Even if the other resistances are huge the open circuit point will trump them all and you will be seeing the full circuit voltage.
In these cases with our tanks, the circuit is typically, say, a light fixture with a lot of current flowing thru it and a lot metal. The current results in a magnetic field that reaches out from the fixture and strikes the water. In our case conductive water. The water acts as a receiving antenna and couples to the field from the light. It's acting like a capacitor.
When you show up with your super sensitive probe and dip it in the water and ground the other end you are able to see the received and collected electric field.
What you cannot see is what the other resistance is in the circuit. In the typical case it is the extremely small capacitor made up of the air between the fixture and the water of the tank. If you were to try to drive something with this potential you couldn't because the resistance presented by the 'air capacitor' is so large. Indeed it is only because of our modern meters that we can register anything. If you used an old needle meter you would not read anything because the meter itself would consume all the available current provided by the air capacitor.
What's this all mean? Confusion and this is why. Both conducted potentials and coupled potentials can exist in a tank and will look the same to a voltmeter. You should not worry about, nor do anything about coupled potentials. They represent biologically insignificant currents. That is unless you use a ground probe that will take whatever current is available and drive it thru your water, fish, and coral to create electrochemical reactions.
However, we definitely need to detect and remedy any conducted potentials as they represent magnitudes higher energy potentials that could kill us or our tanks.
How do will tell the difference between a conducted and a coupled voltage? One will drive much more current.
Set your meter to ACV and using a confirmed ground on one probe, probe your water with the other. If you get a reading over 60V you likely have a serious conducted voltage into your water. Be very careful.. Do the eliminate-thru-unplugging method to find the culprit. When you find it remove it and destroy it so some other poor sap doesn't use it.
If you measure a potential of less than 40V you likely have only a 'coupled' potential. Switch your meter and probe to ACA and probe again. You should only see tiny currents if any. That would be a current under about 1mA. Measure first with the ACA scale as a serious conducted problem could provide so much current as to blow out your ACmA sense resistor leaving you to mistakenly conclude, "it's safe, no current.." BBZZZZAP.
Recapping: Coupled potentials are everywhere. Ground one probe and pinch the other in your fingers. See that reading? That's a coupled reading. Use your other hand like a wand and wave it near your electrical equipment. See the reading? It will rise rapidly next to your MH etc. Your tank works the same way, like a large human body. Bigger tanks will intercept even more. A 200 would typically have a coupled potential much higher than a smaller tank. Do nothing about these coupled potentials. Do not invite them to flow thru your tank with ground probes as only then do they do work. That's work in the strict physics sense. Work on your fish and work on your tank chemistry.
Conducted potentials? Find and fix them using the unplug method. This would be on any potential able to drive more than about 1mA.
Keep in mind that if one of your devices has a conduction problem what you see in your tank's potential will be that conducted problem plus the inevitable coupled potentials. This means just voltage probing will be confusing. You need to look at the current. Say you have a conducted problem, you unplug something but still see a potential - a harmless coupled one - and think "I unplugged that powerhead and the voltage only dropped a volt or two, it must not be the problem". That would be a erroneous conclusion.
To help with tracking, unplug everything and measure the potential. That will be the coupled potential caused by non-aquarium related wire carrying current in your walls, like to your ceiling fixture. Then run each aquarium device individually looking for an unacceptable current. Weed out those that provide more than 1mA. I would question any that provide more than about 100uA.
alton
Well-known member
Sorry, but I gotta call you out on this one. The EARTH GROUND is BONDED to the NEUTRAL at the main panel. If you drove another ground rod and "fixed" the problem, you really didn't fix anything and instead masked a poor neutral connection!
Rods, even in good soil, have a fairly high resistance and in most cases have no chance of actually clearing a fault
Per 250.52 list 8' min. not maximum, the best grounding is using 3 ground rods in a triangle spaced the length of the ground rods. Although argueing about what is the best grounding means has been going on for a very long time
alton
Well-known member
kcress yours is too long to quote so think of your tank as a insulated container holding current and voltage waiting for someone to grab it. Without a grounding probe a GFCI receptacle will not work properly because there is no where for the unbalanced load to go, so the current in tank continues to grow until it draws more than 20 amps and trips the breaker or the bad equipment explodes
UPDATE: it seems I did not do the math, Im reading .03mA, not .03A for stray current, quite different! And a reading of about 3.5VAC. Apparently using the meter correctly will alter the results; who knew? Frankly, I am humbled and surprised that Im not dead yet. I still sense a "tingling" with my fingers in the water, though its probably psychosomatic, and maybe a little salty vibration from a powerhead.
This thread makes for a fascinating read, though!
This thread makes for a fascinating read, though!
alton
Well-known member
Do me a favor take a old power head nick a wire and place it in either a glass aquarium or a bucket of water. Then plug it into a GFCI receptacle. Now you and I know there is current in the water, but because the aquarium and bucket are insulated there is no place for the unbalanced load to go. Now you have a choice, you can drop a grounding probe into the water and watch the GFCI trip or can do the dumb thing and stick your finger in and get the shock of your life, hopefully you will use option #1(PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT OPTION #2). We do this every day, we stick our fingers/hands in our tanks thinking nothing will ever go wrong. If you do not want to use a grounding probe all you have to do is use an external pump and keep glass tops on your aquarium and never install a power head or heater in your tank. But as long as people install heaters, power heads, internal pumps and electrical equipment in there aquariums we need to concern ourselves with safety first.
BeanAnimal
Premium Member
I am not arguing about what the best grounding means is and never mentioned code. I stated a simple fact regarding the relationship between EARTH and NEUTRAL. I also pointed out that in many (most?) cases the existing earthing means is not sufficient to clear a fault and that it is the NEUTRAL that provides the low resistance path to clear the fault. You added additional earthing and feel that your problem is "fixed" when in fact the real problem is a poorly bonded neutral to begin with, so it was not fixed.
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