Stray voltage help.?????

[s dubay]

OK i have 06.8 coming up on my multimeter set on 200 ACV.What the heck does this mean?Is it acceptable stray voltage?Too Much?
My meter does not have a 120AC setting as i read that is what i should test it on?
Please help!

[Paul B]

06.8 is acceptable and a normal voltage. All the electrical appliances in your tank will induce a voltage. I have 60 volts but with the ground probe it is zero. There is no amperage associated with it and it means nothing.
Paul

[s dubay]

Thanks Paul,but what about this.....
If i have a cut or hangnail on my finger sometimes i will get a "small"(and i do mean small,i wasnt sure if it was just salt burn) shock when i put my finger in the tank!
Is this normal?
And on a side note,last night i tried this and i put the ground probe in my tank and the shock slightly intensified!

[s dubay]

I appreciate the help with this since i see you are an electrician.

[Paul B]

S Dubay, you are reading 6.8 volts of induced electricity, it is probably just salt on a cut. If you are using a GFI receptacle (and you should be) if the thing does not trip it is fine. There is induced electricity in just about all water that has an electrical appliance in it. You should also have a ground probe. You can buy one or use a silver or stainless fork, knife, antenna etc.
Paul

[s dubay]

Paul i am not using a GFI receptacle.
Well how can you explain that the "burn" intensified when i put the ground probe in the tank?
As for a ground probe this is a statment which i have heard over and over.........

"Ground probes are great for you but horrible for your tank inhabitants"
they create current instead of just stray voltage...right???

[BigWaveDave2]

[i]<a

"Ground probes are great for you but horrible for your tank inhabitants"
they create current instead of just stray voltage...right??? [/B]

I've heard that too, and I've always believed it, as voltage isn't what causes harm, its current which does, and if you are grounding something that is in your tank you are creating a circuit which will allow current to flow. Thus helping you because you aren't the thing that is grounding your tank, but harming the animals in your tank because they are exposed to the current.

I could be horribly wrong on this, so correct me if I am.

[Paul B]

If you are not using a GFI you should be but besides that, if you are not using one you don't need a ground. Of course you would be a lot safer with one (I am an electrician 40 years)
That ground probe causes a lot of controversy about the health of fish. All I can say is my reef is 35 years old, there is a ground probe in there, all the fish live to die of old age which is about 10 to 18 years, no disease. How bad could it be.
With induced currect there is no appreciable current in the water and with a GFI you should not get a shock, if you do it is not working. If you are getting a shock and you have no GFI, keep your hand out of the tank.
Paul

[deepboy]

I agree with Paul, I have a ground probe in my tank and I never had a untimely death and my Clowns spawn like clock work.

[stugray]

I have posted on this topic before, and I am one of the people who says that:

A ground probe WITHOUT a GFCI is bad. You could have current running through the tank, and you would never know it ( because you wont get shocked as much anymore ).

If you have a GFCI AND a ground probe, the GFCI will trip immediately if there is any current through the probe/tank & you will know something is wrong.

ALSO - you should definitely have a GFCI on your tank ( lights can be an exception ) for personal safety reasons.

Newer houses have GFCIs built into the circuit breaker panel.
You can install your own GFCI in the socket that you use for the tank, build one into a power panel - like this:

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/60772electrical1.JPG

( GFCI is on the far right & protects all the other sockets as well )

, or buy a power strip with one built in ( this is DIFFERENT from the circuit breaker on the power strips most of us are familiar with ).

However the best combo is GFCI & ground probe.


My GFCI has already saved me from a fire. I accidentally soaked a 'apparently-sealed' pump plug in SW over night. I dried it off thoroughly, and when I plugged it in it tripped my GFCI.

If the GFCI had not tripped, the current thru the salt was not enough to trip my circuit breaker, and eventually the plug would have caught fire.



Stu