volt meter

[ShAgMaN]

3rds on the fluke. The only multi-meter approved by the military for aviation maintenance.

However they are very pricey....any $30-60 multi-meter would be fine for general use in my opinion. Autozone and Sears have some in this range.

[alton]

With open lamps over your water it is normal to have stray voltage on your meter. What you do not want is current. I have seen voltage as high as 48 volts in an aquarium and never felt a tingle. I have had only two volts and it knock the heck out of me, it is current not voltage that shocks. Your best protection is a GFCI receptacle and grounding probe. Other wise your GFCI will not work because your tank is insulated. I had an old post here on MAAST about stray voltage

[tebstan]

I put one probe on the light reflector thinking I needed to ground it to something. Someone told me that would give a false reading because it would read voltage from the lights. So, I tried again with both probes in the water, and got a reading of only .5

I remember reading that voltage in the water would not be a hazard to the tank, just the person touching the tank. But it can be an indicator of faulty equipment, right?

The grounding probe is what had me confused. How is it safer? Voltage isn't dangerous until it becomes current. Providing a grounding probe would complete the circuit, creating current. So this would be bad, right?