Obliduty
12/23/2009, 08:46 PM
I rarely post here and that's mainly due to the fact that my tank is exactly where I want it to be and has been running smoothly for a while now. I wanted to share a recent experience though that I couldn't find much info on.
So here goes:
Due to the recent snowstorms on the east coast I was basically "snowed in" at another house for 4 days and in this stretch my sump nearly dried out. So obviously, I frantically batch up some RO water and start to fill it up. In my haste I even poured some into my overflow(my sump is hard to reach so I can only get so much water in there directly.). When I did this it cause my siphon to go fritzo and my display started its best impression of a tidal fjord by spilling over to my carpet. Luckily the house I rent has a slight incline so all the water flowed away from my electrical outlets/cords etc(I set it up this way purposely just for this reason). A half-hour later I get everything back to normal and just as I'm done adding some more salt I go to test the salinity and get the nastiest electric shock when I put the hydrometer in the water.
This is interesting for the fact that I was touching the water for the previous 30 minutes while leveling the sump back out--with all equipment running mind you. I figure that its either the return pump or heater(since they were only in 2 inches of water when I got to the sump). As not to tempt fate I turn off everything for the night except for a decent powerhead to at least provide some flow/oxygenation.
Then today determined to figure this out, I buy a cheap voltmeter and test cord-by-cord all of my equipment to find out where this stray electrical leak is coming from. I am almost sure it will be the heater but to my surprise it ends up being my light(NovaExtreme, though I forget the model). I don't see how this is possible considering it has legs to attach to the tank and shouldn't even be contacting the water at any point. I quadruple tested everything to make sure and it definitely all points to the lights. I'll clean it off tomorrow and try again.
Be careful, we sometimes forget electricity and water do not mix.
-this is all on a 55gal with sump; strangely the fish are fine.
So here goes:
Due to the recent snowstorms on the east coast I was basically "snowed in" at another house for 4 days and in this stretch my sump nearly dried out. So obviously, I frantically batch up some RO water and start to fill it up. In my haste I even poured some into my overflow(my sump is hard to reach so I can only get so much water in there directly.). When I did this it cause my siphon to go fritzo and my display started its best impression of a tidal fjord by spilling over to my carpet. Luckily the house I rent has a slight incline so all the water flowed away from my electrical outlets/cords etc(I set it up this way purposely just for this reason). A half-hour later I get everything back to normal and just as I'm done adding some more salt I go to test the salinity and get the nastiest electric shock when I put the hydrometer in the water.
This is interesting for the fact that I was touching the water for the previous 30 minutes while leveling the sump back out--with all equipment running mind you. I figure that its either the return pump or heater(since they were only in 2 inches of water when I got to the sump). As not to tempt fate I turn off everything for the night except for a decent powerhead to at least provide some flow/oxygenation.
Then today determined to figure this out, I buy a cheap voltmeter and test cord-by-cord all of my equipment to find out where this stray electrical leak is coming from. I am almost sure it will be the heater but to my surprise it ends up being my light(NovaExtreme, though I forget the model). I don't see how this is possible considering it has legs to attach to the tank and shouldn't even be contacting the water at any point. I quadruple tested everything to make sure and it definitely all points to the lights. I'll clean it off tomorrow and try again.
Be careful, we sometimes forget electricity and water do not mix.
-this is all on a 55gal with sump; strangely the fish are fine.