Triggers and Electricity

H

HChellette

New member
Hi all, I'm brand new to the boards. My husband has an account and he's tired of me posting under his name, so he's forced me to get my own. ;)

I have a question about a particular Trigger behavior that was recently brought to my attention. I called Dr. F & S to inquire about availability of a fish and got into a discussion about Triggers somehow. The woman I spoke to mentioned that if I plan to house Triggers, that I cannot have any electrical cords in the tank (heater, power head, etc.) because the Triggers will snip the lines and electrocute the entire tank. :eek1: She said that this happens just about every time a Trigger is put into a tank with exposed cords.

I have never heard of this and am worried about my own tank, because I do have power heads with obviously exposed cords. My heater is in my sump, so I don't have to worry about it, but what about the power heads? Has anyone had this happen to them? Was she just trying to scare me? :confused:
 
Yes, Triggers are very curious, and it is not uncommon for them to chew on everything in the tank, including exposed power cords. I am sure there are people on these boards that can speak from personal experiences.
 
Yes, that certainly could happen with a large trigger, but it is mostly out of curiousity as pinkie points out - I've never actually had this happen myself, but I have had heater tubes crack when a fish bumps into them, and I've had the waterproofing on powerheads fail, letting water get inside.
However, the result of any of this will not electrocute the fish - they are not grounded. What can happen is that the current flowing from the pierced wire will cause electrolysis in the water - releasing sulfide compounds that turn the water smelly and grey - and that can kill the fish.
Of course, if you reach into the tank, you'll be at least partially grounded, and will get a severe, possibly fatal shock.
Your aquarium equipment should always be UL listed and connected to a GFCI

JHemdal
 
Ok, I feel much better now. She just really scared me for a minute there. I will definitely get some wire channel just for precaution. And I didn't even think about the fact that my entire tank is connected to a GFCI outlet already, until JHemdal said something. Thank you guys for your input. This is a great place for people just getting into the hobby, everyone is so helpful!
 
My puffer does this, I have to make sure there are no cords in the tank. Powerheads and heaters have to be mounted at the top so the cord is out of the water.
 
My Clown and Titan had about a week long period where they kept pulling on my little wire for my thermostat. They never actually chewed through it, but I'm sure they could have.
 
[welcome]

never really had any trouble with my niger (knock on wood) but i have heard many horror stories..... This is a great place for ?'s and a lot of great people! hope you use it to your full advantage :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12181232#post12181232 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JHemdal
Yes, that certainly could happen with a large trigger, but it is mostly out of curiousity as pinkie points out - I've never actually had this happen myself, but I have had heater tubes crack when a fish bumps into them, and I've had the waterproofing on powerheads fail, letting water get inside.
However, the result of any of this will not electrocute the fish - they are not grounded. What can happen is that the current flowing from the pierced wire will cause electrolysis in the water - releasing sulfide compounds that turn the water smelly and grey - and that can kill the fish.
Of course, if you reach into the tank, you'll be at least partially grounded, and will get a severe, possibly fatal shock.
Your aquarium equipment should always be UL listed and connected to a GFCI

JHemdal
Click to expand...

Probably a stupid set of questions but..............what is UL listed and what is a GFCI? :rollface:
 
Re: Triggers and Electricity

My last titan trigger bit through the heater cord.

I heard a buzzing for about an hour - pretty faint and I couldnt tell where it was coming from till i went to feed the tank. I pulled the heater out obviously - but then I touched :o the damaged part and shocked the **** out of myself.

So yes, it does happen, but in my case the fish were not harmed somehow (it had been at least an hour, crazy).



<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12181100#post12181100 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by HChellette
Hi all, I'm brand new to the boards. My husband has an account and he's tired of me posting under his name, so he's forced me to get my own. ;)

I have a question about a particular Trigger behavior that was recently brought to my attention. I called Dr. F & S to inquire about availability of a fish and got into a discussion about Triggers somehow. The woman I spoke to mentioned that if I plan to house Triggers, that I cannot have any electrical cords in the tank (heater, power head, etc.) because the Triggers will snip the lines and electrocute the entire tank. :eek1: She said that this happens just about every time a Trigger is put into a tank with exposed cords.

I have never heard of this and am worried about my own tank, because I do have power heads with obviously exposed cords. My heater is in my sump, so I don't have to worry about it, but what about the power heads? Has anyone had this happen to them? Was she just trying to scare me? :confused:
Click to expand...
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13202465#post13202465 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fender4string
Probably a stupid set of questions but..............what is UL listed and what is a GFCI? :rollface:
Click to expand...

UL- underwriters laboratory- They inspect all electrical equipment to mack sure it is safe to use as it is supposed to.

GFCI- ground fault circuit interrupter- It is an outlet that watches the incoming current, and outgoing current. As soon as it sees a difference it shuts of the electricity in milliseconds. So if you touch something that can shock you. It will shut it off before you even feel it.
 
Great thread. Might have saved my life. :)

I have a puffer, and trigger fish. So I'm going to be putting some plastic around the cords. Thanks for the thoughts.
 
I had an Undulate trigger who chewed through most of the electrical in my tank.

At first I was like "*** is that" I thought the salt was just stinging various cuts on my hand etc. But after checking the tank out for a few hours I'd see what was actually happening.

Cheeky bugger.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13203007#post13203007 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fender4string
Ok thanks-so is a GFCI like a surge protector or is it completely different? Excuse my ignorance of all things electrical :D
Click to expand...
Different. It actually meters the flow and it cuts the power whenever a surge of electrons flows, whether that means from you sticking your arm into a tank that has a bad cord or something else.

Can save your life for about $15 :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13203814#post13203814 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Recty
Different. It actually meters the flow and it cuts the power whenever a surge of electrons flows, whether that means from you sticking your arm into a tank that has a bad cord or something else.

Can save your life for about $15 :)
Click to expand...

To add to that.
All sinks and running water (bathrooms, kitchen sinks, etc) have these, or are supposed to in MI, but I think it varies by state. It's the little outlets that have the "test" and "reset" buttons.

You can also buy things that are like surge protectors that will do this. The advantage to that is that you don't have to take the old outlet out of the wall to put one in. The downside is that they tend to be more prone to false trips, which can leave your tank without power for an extended period if they happen when you're not around.
 
Here's a link to GFCI installation.

http://www.cornerhardware.com/howto/ht067.html

I have a question about false trips. Should I put my return pump on a separate receptable, by itself, to avoid it being shut off by a trip from another piece of equipment?

What about using a power bar (multiple outlets) with a GFCI?

I just bought three of these, and will be installing them soon.
 
I had a powerhead fail once and shocked the crap out of my arm. I was fine, but I was also pretty lucky. Wouldn't recommend the experience to anyone.
 
LisaD -

I've always kept my main pump on a different outlet since having it tripped in the past.

It's actually the only piece of equipment I have that's routed to an outlet connected to our backup generator (for our house). I may also add the skimmer to that, now that I think about it...
 
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