Warning... Electricity kills!!

[Potts050]

I just read through a thread that discusses options when fish damage or break glass heaters and feel compelled to remind all readers of something that hopefully is a no-brainer....

Always make sure that your heaters at the very least, and preferably all of your nominal voltage equipment is protected by ground fault circuit interupters. These are available in either receptacle or circuit breaker form.

If something goes wrong with your apliance creating a shock hazard, or a leakage current to ground of more than 10 milliamps then the power is interrupted, removing the hazard. A current flow of 20 milliamps is sufficient to kill you and easily encountered from a broken heater in a fish tank full of water. If this is absolutely impossible to do (although highly unlikely) then use an isolation transformer to eliminate ground faults. With isolation transformers you will need to fuse protect individual heaters and filters seperately.

It would be worth while getting to know a local electrical contractor who can further advise you on how to make your fish room safe, both for you and your finpals. Don't take a chance with electrical safety in your fish room. If you do, your risking not only your own personal safety but also the safety of your friends and loved ones who may pay a visit from time to time...

 

[cbfreder]

This is really important! Getting a GFCI power strip is very easy and could potentially save your life.

Also, a ground probe is a really good investment. A broken heater immediately trips the GFCI and your fish don't get fried.

This is good stuff.

Brandon

 

[Nic]

yea i got electricuted by my old glass heater stealths are what i mainly use now screw glass but all things are now gfci

 

[Redtail_Watcher]

i always perfere to go with sumersible water heaters that have a automatic shut off.

 

[rallysman]

keep in mind, your house has to be properly grounded for those to work. If you live in an older house, look into it.

 

[Potts050]

Ground fault circuit interupters will work even if your house service is poorly grounded. It is important however that your utility owned transformer be properly grounded or they may not work. This is usually only a problem in rural areas where distribution transformers are a considerable distance from the buildings they service.
GFCI's work by tripping in a manner similar to an instantaneous trip circuit breaker found in most residential distribution panels. They measure the differance in electrical current between the hot (supply) wire and the return (identified or neutral) conductor. If there is a differance of more than 10 millamps between the two then the device opertaes by opening the hot supply. A differance in the currents between the two conductors can only be atributed by current 'leaking' to ground and back to the XO point of the distribution transformer. For this to happen, the hot conductor must make contact with something that can act as a conductor to ground, such as your aquarium water, you, your stand or plumbing etc. They are extremely effective protection against shock hazard and save countless lives in North America annually.
Make sure that yours is either CSA or UL approved before you install or use it and test periodically.

 

[ewurm]

My roommate dropped the hood INTO my 10 gallon in college, electrocuted all the fish, all survived. Only 15 watts. My Giant Danios were swimming UPSIDE DOWN for half an hour.

 

[Dr Joe]

Ok, I'm glad NIC and ewurm's fish came back from the hereafter... But ELECTROCUTION means DEAD. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrocution

 

[Dr Joe]

keep in mind, your house has to be properly grounded for those to work. If you live in an older house, look into it.

And rallysman is right POTTS050, bad or corroded connections will trip GFI's (of course at the worst time, like when your not home). I have had blackouts trip them too. And sometimes they don't know how to act after a blackout when there's a UPS on it.

Forget fuses, they're too high a current and too slow to react.

BUT with you, they are the best thing we have going for us (as I recommended in the other post).

It's still up in the air about grounding rods in the tank, because you are now creating a path to ground for current to flow.

Dr Joe

.

 

[pheedbak]

A GFI (sometimes called GFCI) is a must have for any aquarium. If you have big *** fish that can easily break a glass heater than I highly reccomend keeping your heater in a rainbow (pentair) style heater module. There is NO chance that the heater will leak or get broken by some monster fish.