Stray voltage....got any?

[mkengr45]

I noticed that a felt a tingle in a small cut on my finger when moving some corals around today. First thing I thought of is stray voltage in the tank. I grabbed a volt meter, stuck the black probe into the ground hole in the power socket and the red probe into the sump. I see the voltage flicker between 0.5-1V, but then I stick my hand on the sump or my finger in the water and it jumps to ~10V. Thoughts? Seems it has something to do with me grounding something or my body jacking with the impedance of the meter or something.

Anybody have a meter that they can test this out on their tank? Measure without touching the water or anything salty, then put your hand in the water and see if the voltage reading changes.

[Big_Pun]

it's the crown and splash of coke causing tingling

[mkengr45]

it's the crown and splash of coke causing tingling

Haaaaaaaaa! It's only Thursday man, that's a Friday night post for me. LMAO!

[FireWater]

It's your electrifying personality dude.
I find this post shocking.

i could keep going.....but I won't. I don't have a good answer and don't own a tester capable. Maybe Alton will weigh in.

[Bill S]

Do you have a lot of mag pumps in the water? On my 215, I'd get a tingle, and it was ALL from mag pumps. They do put out voltage - not a lot, but when you added up:

1800gph return pump
1250gph closed loop
1250gph closed loop#2
900gph skimmer pump
2600gph Seio
2600gph Seio #2

It all adds up. A grounding probe solved the problem.

[ramsey]

Watch your heaters too. I had a heater in my 12G nano break which caused stray voltage. I noticed some mushrooms and zoos were not opening up so I proceeded to do a 25% water change. When I changed the filter media out, I was greeted with a nice little shock and quickly learned why my softies were ticked off.

[mkengr45]

I unplugged all the pumps and heaters and got the same result.

[alton]

Do you have your equipment on a GFCI and do you have a grounding probe? Also does your service panel have a good ground? What happens if you do not have a good ground at your service panel and you use a grounding probe, your service will use your tank as a grounding means. In the tank this was happening to the voltage was only two volts but would knock the heck out of you. Also what we are talking about is stray current not voltage. Voltage has no power, current is what kills. Stray voltage happens when you have open lamps to your water, power heads, submersible return pumps. You could see as much as 50 volts on your meter and never feel a thing. One last thing, GFCI breakers trip at 5 milli amps with plugs tripping at 4 to 6 milli amps. You will start to feel a tingle at 1 ma and 5 ma is a pretty good shock.

[alton]

Oh yea I forgot to add, I grounded the service and the shocking went away.

[mkengr45]

Not on a GFCI, and not running a grounding probe. I will try and get one in town today. I know it is the current that gets ya...I measured current also and got zero mA. I used a Fluke multimeter. Can you recommend a way to tell if my service panel has a good ground? Measure resistance from where to where? I am familiar with working with this stuff and have all sorts of instrumentation. I am a mechanical engineer, but do a good amount of electrical and instrumentation work at my job. I'd like to get this taken care of today...

Thanks for the help folks

[mkengr45]

Oh yea I forgot to add, I grounded the service and the shocking went away.
What did you use to do this?

[alton]

#4 solid and a 8' ground rod. Hopefully you received my pm. And if you think people argue about led and mh you should hear the arguments on grounding