How to Test for Stray Voltage

Stick your finger in and see if you get a buzz :) At least, that's how I've known it's going into one of my old tanks through my lights
 
haha you can buy a volt meater at any hardwear store for a couple of bucks it will save you the pain and the bad hair day lol.
 
yeah i would put one probe in the water and the other to ground. the thing is, you are always going to have stray voltage in the water. unless you have nothing with electricity that comes into contact with the water.... good luck with that one.

why do you want to test for SV anyhow
 
People in the reef discussion got me worried, saying I need to check for stray voltage as it causes HLLE. I knew this was not proven, but I had to read further and thanks to steven pro I know this is BS. But anyways I heard of someone using a voltage meter to test how much before.

And by the way I have tried the method of taking my shoes off and grabbing a submerged broken heater before and don't recommend it
 
ya like stated befor if you have anything useing electricty touching you water theres gong to be electric spilling into your tank no big deal aslong as you dont have a short somewere in the water but you would know that buy the floating fish.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14878776#post14878776 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bigmatt1992
ya like stated befor if you have anything useing electricty touching you water theres gong to be electric spilling into your tank no big deal aslong as you dont have a short somewere in the water but you would know that buy the floating fish.

Well hopefully, you have your tank on a GFI circuit so this scenario would be impossible. I'd say that's the first thing that every person who's running a tank, even if it's only 10 gallons should do. GFI's aren't expensive, and they even make ones that are affordable (especially in the context of systems measured in thousands of dollars) and plug directly into the outlet like a surge protector. I've had some experiences when I was being dumb (i.e. grabbing a surge protector I spilled water on without disconnecting the power supply first) and also lesser ones (I could definitely feel the voltage in my 125 FOWLR. It was never bad enough to kill the fish, probably because it couldn't get grounded until I put my fingers in the tank.)

I guess that's the other thing you need to realize, is that if your stray voltage in your tank can't get grounded, it will just go where it is supposed to (i.e. back up the cord) rather than zapping fish on its way back into cord. Electricity takes the path of least resistence to get grounded.
 
I lost 12 fish to 'stray' voltage from a broken heater once about 10 years ago...that was a seriously bad day. No, I could not feel it myself in the water....and none of the breakers flipped. No GFI. Anyway, My 150 runs two vortex so there is no voltage in the tank at all.............and my iwaki is external in the basement sump........leaving only my heaters and skimmer pump as potential culprits.....and I have a grounding probe there. No issues. Good design, overpriced water pushers, and cheap probe makes all the difference. My hair stays pretty.
 
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