Voltage in STINGRAY tanks.....PLEASE share your input!!

[ronin_man]

oh alright, i was thinking it might be something like a water heater ground that has to be bonded or grounded to road side of your water meter or something... though that would seem fairly excessive for an aquarium.
thanx, im going to look further into this as i dust off the old CEC (Canadian Electrical Code book)

 

[DB junkie]

Glad I have someones attention. Anyone have any numbers without probes installed? Got 53 volts here. Under 20mv with probe installed. The stealth heaters are only a few months old. No pumps installed yet.

 

[Bderick67]

grounding probes will help if not take all the stray out of the tank but in all reality in the event of a catostophic failure say a heater cracked or UV bulb breaking or power head getting water in it your iving all the current a way to ground in your tank not just a little weak point but a ood strong ground

its like having a amp in your car install shops will remove the paint and screw the ground lead to a good bare point for a strong ground allowing maximum power to flow but if you just screw the ground to pain you only allow a small amount of power causing noise or nothing to work at all

so in all reality a grounding probe in your tank when a failure happens = strong path to ground

IMO

Adding a ground probe to a fresh water aquarium does not remove the"stray voltage" But it does add current to the tank between the voltage source and the ground probe. Giving you exactly what is highlited above

 

[ronin_man]

woa... i just tested my tank for voltage, and wouldnt you know... 11.3volts
and yes i have GFI protection on all my equipment.
well dont i feel like an idiot now...
my thoughts would be induction and or magnetic flux lines from heaters, pumps and filters...

i would never have thought.
i have been working as an electrician for 7 years now and it never even crossed my mind about these things affecting my tanks.
i had never even heard of aquarium ground probes till about a month ago and i just figured it was maybe for super sensitive marine set ups or something, apparently not,

Check your Voltage people! , i can only assume that this voltage will throw off the lateral line complex of fish (sensory organ).

im going to make a ground probe tomorrow and drop the one end in my HOB filter.
glad i took the time to read this thread.

 

[Bderick67]

woa... i just tested my tank for voltage, and wouldnt you know... 11.3volts
and yes i have GFI protection on all my equipment.
well dont i feel like an idiot now...
my thoughts would be induction and or magnetic flux lines from heaters, pumps and filters..

Even with the GFCI protection the tank is isolated not grounded so nowhere for the current to go, no diffence of amperage between the hot and neutral so the GFCI will not trip. If you ad the ground probe and there is a fault then the GFCI will now trip.

I'm Thinking the voltage is being induced into the tank though. So unlikely the GFCI will trip. One thing to consider, the induce voltage would be localized around the equipment that is the source. When you ad the ground probe you will introduce current path between the source and the ground probe. IMO this is not a better solution.

 

[Miles]

Any recommendations for solutions if a grounding probe is not the way to go?

 

[T1KARMANN]

mmmm not hot on this subject

but all of our plugs a fused hear in the UK not sure if this is what stops us having problems but the fuse would blow if anything shorts out with water in our tanks

wouldn't putting a power surge extension lead on all the fish tank plugs stop you having problems them things are cheap must be worth the money with rays

 

[ronin_man]

well i have tested the ground probe idea today, and it sure does what it says.
last night i had 11.3 volts this morning i turned everything on, lights, heaters, everything. i now had 20.6 volts in my tank.
i introduced my ground probe, plugged it into my GFI and wouldnt you know, 0 volts!, 8 mili volts if anyone wants to get technical.

 

[Bderick67]

well i have tested the ground probe idea today, and it sure does what it says.
last night i had 11.3 volts this morning i turned everything on, lights, heaters, everything. i now had 20.6 volts in my tank.
i introduced my ground probe, plugged it into my GFI and wouldnt you know, 0 volts!, 8 mili volts if anyone wants to get technical.

Sorry bud, the voltage is still there you just can't measure it, because with the ground probe installed there is no difference of potential.

Your an electrician, right? Have you ever tested voltage on a single pole light switch. With the switch open(light off) you will read 120volts between the two terminals. When you close the switch(light on) you will now read zero voltage between the two terminals. Reason for this is that there is no longer a difference of potential between the two terminals, yet we know there is voltage present because the light is on.

 

[Bderick67]

Any recommendations for solutions if a grounding probe is not the way to go?

i would say move as much of the equipment to a sump isolating the electric fields. Test all equipment and make sure the is no faults in insulation. With equipment that has to be in the tank, if you find it is inducing voltage it would be best to place your ground probe as close as possible to the equipment. If you have to use multiple probes, one for each piece of equipment.

You may also fish that the fluoresent lights are inducing voltage, if this is the case then elevate the lights moving farther from the waters surface.