Getting Shocked, is it stray voltage or current

[Europhyllia]

current only happens when there's something to complete the circle/ground it. No?

[Europhyllia]

like a lizard walking on the electric tape fence around the pasture just fine but as soon as it touches the wire fence below: fried

[StevenSeas]

no becuase there is current and voltage going through the electric fence. If you are making only 2 point of contact (or 4 in the lizards case) and all are with the electric fence then the electricity (both current and voltage are going through you, but not so much because its a longer path so more resistance) but once you ground yourself on something like another wire then essentially what you have done is completed a parallel circuit instead of a series circuit. So the electricity has now found a new path of least resistance.

The reason you feel electricity is from high current, but you have to have voltage to have the current or you have no electricity. The higher the current the more you are going to feel it. high current is what kills something not the voltage.

[allan]

lol, yes you are correct.

We always call that potential. If the potential is there all you need is someone to complete the circuit. Once that happens you are instantaneously aware of the problem as it attempts to travel through your arm at something less than 186,000 miles a second. When I work with voltage in the house I typically don't turn off my circuit... I just work with one wire at a time and remain ungrounded (wearing shoes and not touching anything that may be grounded). Doesn't always work and occasionally I feel the bite, but it does save me a trip upstairs to turn off the breaker.

Here's where I'm foggy. If the potential is there, but no path to ground... why are the fish affected? I know they are, and have seen the HHL thing on one of my fish when I first started in the hobby. But why is it an issue?

And on another note, the other day when my pump went out and I started feeling the shock... none of my fish reacted to it. Why is that? Coral and fish were perfectly (on the surface) unconcerned with the current in the water.

[allan]

Uh... steven, I'm not certain I understood you. Electricity, like water, seeks the path of least resistance to ground. If you have two lines and one is a positive wire and the other is the neutral... you can touch either one of them all day long and not feel a thing unless you are suddenly the path to ground. The lizard traveling on one wire will not be a path to ground at all because he isn't standing on the other wire at the same time.

If you take two wires of a line that is plugged into an outlet you will have the potential of about 115 volts (and the associated current). Just potential. You can actually touch either of the wires individually. But you can't touch them simultaneously. If you touch them together you have sudden path to ground which will register at your breaker box as an increase and pop.

Then there's the other aspect to electricity that makes it dangerous... and a little foggy here as well on the cause. If you are hanging from a wire and not touching anything else in theory you would be safe. However, if electricity potential is there and seeking ground it can jump from your body to the other line or to the earth. This is what happens when folks lose their feet or a hand where the electricity attempts to find ground. Always there is much burning.

Here's the foggy part. Does a power spike in the line become a requirement for this to happen? Why would it happen to Joe, but not Sam when hanging from a single line? Does distance play a factor? Humidity? An electrical storm? Power surge? Luck?