Jgoal55
Active member
Scary story and a darn good reason to always be careful with the electrical aspect of our tanks (if you've seen my other thread about GFCI, this is why I posted my last post on that thread).
My sister-in-law calls me today:
Breaker fish tank runs on tripped and tank smells like something is burning. All fish are dead.
I go over to check things out. Sure enough, the burning smell was strong, but I can't tell where it's coming from.
I reset the breaker and everything works fine. I take all the dead fish out sticking my hands in the tank in the process. No problem.
A few minutes after I'm done removing fish, breaker trips again.
Clearly, something electrical was going on. I didn't have my multimeter with me so I couldn't test the water.
I turn all the devices off and reset the breaker once more. One by one I turn each piece of equipment back on waiting about 5 minutes between each device. I assumed that once I turned on the faulty equipment, it would trip the breaker.
Unfortunately, that did not happen.
Check the return pump - nothing. Check power heads - nothing. Everything working fine. No exposed cables.
Next piece of equipment to check - the heater. And so, I grab the stealth heater - I literally was thrown backwards. My wife who was next to me says my eyes went to the back of my head. My arm actually went into convulsions for a few seconds. And the pain was intense.
I'm guessing the reason I didn't feel the stray electricity before actually grabbing the heater was because of the grounding probe in the tank.
After recovering from the shock, which only took about 2 minutes, I unplugged the heater and removed it. The following picture shows what I found.
I'm guessing that the crack seen here happened today causing a huge electrical leak into the tank. And well, into my body. I guess the current flowed right through that crack.
When I took the heater home, I dumped it in my sink and checked the stray electricity with the multimeter - a range of 75v-100v running through the water during several tests.
I will post some videos tomorrow of the smoke bubbles the heater causes (hence the burning smell) and the crazy buzzing sound it makes.
After doing some quick research I come to find out there is a recall on these stealth heaters since 2011. I had no idea. However, the recall is for overheating; nothing about stray electricity. Marineland is going to get an ear full tomorrow. I don't believe they did a good enough job of letting people know about this recall and they definitely didn't mention the possibility of getting a nasty shock.
As for me, I'm perfectly fine now. Ill count my lucky stars. That's the second time in my life I get a crazy shock and come out with no major damage. The first time my water heater in college broke and I was standing in 2 inches of water when I touched the panel to disconnect it. That was way worse. Actually ended up in the hospital. Admittedly, that was me being an idiot. I this case though, I don't think I was being stupid so much as I simply overlooked a key step.
I should have unplugged all the equipment before removing it. Had I unplugged the heater before picking it up, I wouldn't have gotten shocked and I would have seen the crack. That crack would have been enough to show me that the heater was the culprit. Also, always have a multimeter with you when dealing with an electrical issue in your tank. You wanna know how much voltage your about to stick your hand into.
Hope you all learn from my mistake and stay safe!
My sister-in-law calls me today:
Breaker fish tank runs on tripped and tank smells like something is burning. All fish are dead.
I go over to check things out. Sure enough, the burning smell was strong, but I can't tell where it's coming from.
I reset the breaker and everything works fine. I take all the dead fish out sticking my hands in the tank in the process. No problem.
A few minutes after I'm done removing fish, breaker trips again.
Clearly, something electrical was going on. I didn't have my multimeter with me so I couldn't test the water.
I turn all the devices off and reset the breaker once more. One by one I turn each piece of equipment back on waiting about 5 minutes between each device. I assumed that once I turned on the faulty equipment, it would trip the breaker.
Unfortunately, that did not happen.
Check the return pump - nothing. Check power heads - nothing. Everything working fine. No exposed cables.
Next piece of equipment to check - the heater. And so, I grab the stealth heater - I literally was thrown backwards. My wife who was next to me says my eyes went to the back of my head. My arm actually went into convulsions for a few seconds. And the pain was intense.
I'm guessing the reason I didn't feel the stray electricity before actually grabbing the heater was because of the grounding probe in the tank.
After recovering from the shock, which only took about 2 minutes, I unplugged the heater and removed it. The following picture shows what I found.
I'm guessing that the crack seen here happened today causing a huge electrical leak into the tank. And well, into my body. I guess the current flowed right through that crack.
When I took the heater home, I dumped it in my sink and checked the stray electricity with the multimeter - a range of 75v-100v running through the water during several tests.
I will post some videos tomorrow of the smoke bubbles the heater causes (hence the burning smell) and the crazy buzzing sound it makes.
After doing some quick research I come to find out there is a recall on these stealth heaters since 2011. I had no idea. However, the recall is for overheating; nothing about stray electricity. Marineland is going to get an ear full tomorrow. I don't believe they did a good enough job of letting people know about this recall and they definitely didn't mention the possibility of getting a nasty shock.
As for me, I'm perfectly fine now. Ill count my lucky stars. That's the second time in my life I get a crazy shock and come out with no major damage. The first time my water heater in college broke and I was standing in 2 inches of water when I touched the panel to disconnect it. That was way worse. Actually ended up in the hospital. Admittedly, that was me being an idiot. I this case though, I don't think I was being stupid so much as I simply overlooked a key step.
I should have unplugged all the equipment before removing it. Had I unplugged the heater before picking it up, I wouldn't have gotten shocked and I would have seen the crack. That crack would have been enough to show me that the heater was the culprit. Also, always have a multimeter with you when dealing with an electrical issue in your tank. You wanna know how much voltage your about to stick your hand into.
Hope you all learn from my mistake and stay safe!
