Voltage leakage

[nzafi]

Does anyone monitor for voltage leakage? I know this is big in saltwater with some believing in grounding probes and others don’t.

is there a way to automate the measuring of voltage in an aquarium via something like an Apex or other controller?

 

[DThompson]

Does anyone monitor for voltage leakage? I know this is big in saltwater with some believing in grounding probes and others don’t.

is there a way to automate the measuring of voltage in an aquarium via something like an Apex or other controller?

I just bought an Apex for my freshwater tank for these exact sort of situations. Apex is tuned more towards the saltwater community but it still have a lot of benefits for freshwater. I have all my pumps and heaters and lights hooked up the the apex 832 energy bar and after you've had everything running on the apex for a couple days it can determine the normal operating amps and watts. Then you can set alarms to tell you when a device is operating outside of the standard limits you set.

 

[nzafi]

D DThompson thanks for the response. After going through the saltwater forums it looks like people don't really monitor for voltage. They track the watts as you mentioned and then run a grounding probe that if you do it correctly can send a notification.

 

[duanes]

If I have a little cut or scratch on my finger, and put it in the tank, the slight tingling shock, is my measure for stray voltage.
At that juncture I start to unplug things one by one, testing after each for shock value.
When I determine which piece of gear it is, I replace it.
The most common compromised pieces of gear for me seems to have been heaters, but even lights that sit on aquarium top glass have been stay voltage culprits.
I have used the titanium grounding probes, and they seem to lessen the intensity of the shock, but only work 1 per tank, even with a shared sump (between more than one tank), when I had 20 tanks this became unaffordable)

 

[nzafi]

If I have a little cut or scratch on my finger, and put it in the tank, the slight tingling shock, is my measure for stray voltage.
At that juncture I start to unplug things one by one, testing after each for shock value.
When I determine which piece of gear it is, I replace it.
The most common compromised pieces of gear for me seems to have been heaters, but even lights that sit on aquarium top glass have been stay voltage culprits.
I have used the titanium grounding probes, and they seem to lessen the intensity of the shock, but only work 1 per tank, even with a shared sump (between more than one tank), when I had 20 tanks this became unaffordable)

My primary experience is also with heaters. Unfortunately, I had stray voltage that I could not really feel it or was not noticeable to me, but caught it when I tested with a voltage probe. Unfortunately, I only caught it after my 17 yr old rhom died, had quick deaths with an aimara and gatf, and then a new aimara got sick really quickly after introducing him to the tank.