BGK and Stray Voltage.

[aquaculture]

I have .5 DC volts and .5 AC volts as stray voltage in my setup. Iam going to figure out whats causing it tommorrow. And Hope fully I can fix the problem, but if I can't Do so right away I have a question.

My question is how would this effect a Black Ghost Knife?

 

[Bderick67]

How are you measuring this "stray" voltage?

 

[aquaculture]

With a Cent-Tech Digital multimeter set at 200 ACV for AC testing and set at 20 DCV for DC testing with the black probe plugged into the COM jack and the red probe plugged into the Volt/Ohm/mA jack for both testing. And the red probes metal point in the aquarium water and the black probes metal point touching the screw on my electrical outlet in my wall, the screw is connected to the outlest ground.

 

[StevePerry]

I always thought those Cent-techs were kinda crappy...I don't know if I would trust a cheapo multi meter for chasing a half volt...and that you're getting .5 VAC and .5 VDC...Hmm...how accurate is that meter?

What in the tank is running on DC? I can't think of anything that should be. All I can find in my tanks are the leds and cooling fans in my power compact lighting.

With the negative probe to GND, and the red probe tip held between your fingers, what reading do you get?

My bet is on that meter being a POS.

 

[StevePerry]

Also, I read somewhere that stray voltage may be tied to Head and Lateral Line Erosion...something about fish living near hydro electric dams having issues...

As for current passing through your fish...its all relative. Something like 115VAC at 300mA can kill. Thats not very much. People survive lighting strikes all the time. A buddy of mine in the Navy took -7 kV off the back of a CRT in a Radar console and had nothing to show for it.

Any current passing though the fish is BAD...but so many variables dictate the exact effect it may have..

 

[aquaculture]

The meter reads nothing with the negative probe touching ground and the probe tip held between my fingers on both settings.