Stray Voltage - GFCI Question

[tgurske]

My tank randomly crashed a while back and I just got rid of all of it except a power head, filter, and the lights. Well, I got the itch again and started a new reef aquarium from scratch. Then, a few months into it, the fish randomly got weird and one died. Then, they were all randomly fine again. Eventually I noticed that my power head wasn't running and when I went to remove it the wire fell off. The power wire was broken, corroded and disconnected. I am guessing that it was leaking electricity into the water - not enough to shock me but enough to make it hard for the fish to swim. I trashed it, bought a new brand name power head, and the fish have been fine.

Would a GFCI have tripped in this situation? My breakers are AHCI and they clearly didn't do anything helpful.

 

[JohnL]

Electricity and the Aquarium | BeanAnimal's Reef

Some good info from @BeanAnimal

 

[griss]

Wow, in that situation I would have expected the GFCI to have tripped. I’m also surprised you didn’t get zapped performing maintenance.

 

[tgurske]

Wow, in that situation I would have expected the GFCI to have tripped. I’m also surprised you didn’t get zapped performing maintenance.

I didn't have one installed but I have one coming tomorrow along with a grounding rod.

 

[tgurske]

Electricity and the Aquarium | BeanAnimal's Reef

Some good info from @BeanAnimal

Thank you!

 

[Paul B]

Would a GFCI have tripped in this situation? My breakers are AHCI and they clearly didn't do anything helpful.

Yes, definitely. (if the thing was wired correctly)

(Master Electrician 50 years)

 

[tgurske]

FYI: Added ground rod and GFCI so hopefully in a better place now. Thanks again!

 

[SantaMonica]

Unless... the power supply uses an isolated AC to DC converter, which would put out about 12 volts to a DC motor. In this case the motor should just stop and the power supply should shut down it's power. The AC side would not know what was going on except that the power draw has stopped.