[marinemommy]

Well, my 3 year old son decided he wanted a drink this morning...out of the fish tank... He pulled the tubing off the return pump and it sprayed water everywhere. We lost about 12 gallons out of the 90 before we could stop the pump (I got a shock when I reached in to try to unplug it so we had to turn the power off to the entire house).

Anyway, I got everything dried off and plugged back in this afternoon (carefully) and quickly mixed up more salt water and added it to the tank. Everything looked great but I reached in to turn the skimmer venturi down and got a big buzz. I turned everything off again, so now what do I do? I can buy new power cords etc. but is that all I need? They were supposed to have surge protectors on them, but they apparently didn't work.

I don't have to buy all new equipment now, do I? Help.

 

[marinemommy]

So I should be looking for a frayed cord that got wet?

 

[marinemommy]

How much money are we talking for the GFCI? And any idea when my hand and arm will stop hurting?!

 

[marinemommy]

That's what I'm thinking too. I'm going to try another power strip and see how it goes.

I recognize the GFCI now that you've shown me the picture. Problem is I can't get that wired now...I can't move my 90 gallon tank to do that. Definitely for next time though.

 

[marinemommy]

He reached in behind. Locking up wouldn't do a thing. I'll have to think of something, though.

 

[marinemommy]

Tom took the power cord apart and it was fine. I cleaned all the plugs and dried them well. I plugged everything in one at a time and checked (hand method...all I have). Everything seems fine. I do have a glass heater in the sump. I will probably change that over to the non-glass one I have. (Not sure what it is made of). I thought I noticed a spark when I plugged it in, but when I checked it again, it was fine. Gonna watch it carefully, though.

I did remove the clip-on lamp I had over the sump because once the water level rose, it was half submerged. I had a compact fluorescent bulb in it. I'll check it out (out of water) later but may end up having to replace it.

 

[marinemommy]

Ugh. I "think" it's the heater. I noticed the light wasn't on. I went to check it and got buzzed again. So I took it out. No buzz in the tank now. We'll see...

If it's not that, it's the skimmer or skimmer pump. That's where I keep getting the buzz. Could it be the Rio pump? I have noticed it making noise the last few days.

 

[marinemommy]

Actually, the heater's out and I got buzzed again. I just turned it all off except for one powerhead and the lights that are on another power cord. I'm tired of getting zapped for now.

 

[marinemommy]

Don't worry. We're heading out today to buy both of those as soon as we can get a babysitter. Everything is still off until then. I appreciate the warning, believe me. I'm not going near the water again until then.

 

[marinemommy]

Alright. We now have everything on the 90 plugged into a GFI power bar. That was $30 for anyone interested in knowing. We also bought a little $5 plug-in GFI for my 29 gallon. We bought a $20 voltage meter...

After checking the voltage in the water with various pumps turned off and on, we came to this conclusion: the VHO lights are creating 2 volts of electricity in the water and the Rio return pump is creating 7 volts. With everything on, there is never more than 7 volts of electricity in the water at present. We checked the 29 gallon that has been stable and it has 6 volts.

The only thing that has not been replaced is the clip-on lamp that was sitting over the refugium. It was submerged in the water when the sump filled up to the top, but it was not connected when I was shocked the last couple of times.

So...whatever was causing the problem is not causing it now. The plan is to maintain the tank the way it is and "if" we ever have this problem again, with the tank overflowing, we will check the voltage immediately before tinkering with the tank. I also plan on buying some better quality pumps to replace the Rios, in the near future, and a better lighting system for the refugium as budget allows.

Can anyone, who has a voltage meter, tell me what their tank reading is? It seems that 7 volts, though not ideal, is not enough to cause any shocks or problems. I hope this mishap of ours will help others to see the importance of GFIs and voltage meters. It's been an enlightening experience for us. If anyone else has any further advice, including best pumps to buy, I would appreciate it, but at this point we seem good to go.

 

[marinemommy]

Update

We unplugged the lights to see if the timer was causing the extra 2 volts of current, and saw that there was a bit of salt corrosion on the plug. We cleaned it with WD40 and it brought it down to 1 volt.

So then we cleaned the plugs to the two Rio pumps. With the first one (skimmer) plugged in, there was no change. BUT when we plugged in the return pump, it brought it up to 75 volts! So it seems that it's the Rio return pump that got wet and started causing problems in the first place? We're not sure how WD40would create the problem again, though. We can't really see any cracks or anything in the plug, though the cord does come away from the plastic plug somewhat. We're wondering if that's where the problem is.

 

[marinemommy]

It's definitely a GFI power cord. It's yellow as well. Home Depot had nothing, and gave us a strange look for asking. We found this one at Canadian Tire.

 

[marinemommy]

Hmmm...

I have read that grounding probes are not good for the fish' environment.

Oh, and no, I don't believe my son learned a thing!

 

[marinemommy]

Yeah, I'm looking into it.