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.

 

[zappa]

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.

I know this

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.

I know this is very late after the fact , but for the GFCI to trip amps/ current would have to flow to ground.

 

[oreo57]

I know this

I know this is very late after the fact , but for the GFCI to trip amps/ current would have to flow to ground.

No.. GFCI trips when the current in neutral and hot is unbalanced. Has nothing to do with "ground"if you are referring to the 3rd "green" wire.
GFCI protect non-grounded circuits just fine.

So you may be asking, how does this work?
A GFCI outlet or breaker can detect when more current is coming in on the hot wire than is exiting on the neutral wire, and will shut off the circuit quickly before the current can stray to alternate paths.
It should be noted that the GFCI outlet or breaker does not actually create a path to ground, nor does it make this a grounded outlet. It simply makes the un-grounded outlet safer.

 

[SantaMonica]

Is all good now?

 

[wvned]

No.. GFCI trips when the current in neutral and hot is unbalanced. Has nothing to do with "ground"if you are referring to the 3rd "green" wire.
GFCI protect non-grounded circuits just fine.

It has everything to do with ground. The one beneath our feet. The Earth that the green wire is attached too through the buss in the circuit breaker box that is connected to the Earth by a ground rod and the neutral from the pole that is also connected to the earth at every other place it goes.

A ground probe in the tank causes the imbalance between the neutral and hot by giving a second path to Earth or ground.
This prevents the human placing their hand in the tank to be the second path to Earth and discovering the fault.

Is all good now?

That last occurred a very long time ago for me. I have taken my meds and am getting by like usual.