HELP! Fish Acting Very Strangely

[Craigar]

I also minimize risk by not having anything electrical in my display tank. The only piece of equipment in my DT is my MP40's and the electrical part of that is on the outside of the tank, everything else is in my sump.[/QUOTE]

If you have stray voltage anywhere in your system no mater where your equipment is tge electrical current will transmit throughout your whole system. Water is a great conductor of electricity so say you have a heater or pump in your sump leaking voltage it will transfer through the water your pumping to your display tank. If it completes the circuit you would have just as much electricity as before. Those of you that don't have grounding probes take a volt meter and stick the two leads into the water there will be some stray voltage unless it may be small but you will have it. Then take a grounding probe and install it and test again I bet 98% of tge voltage is gone meaning less voltage in tge water how can that not be better for the fish? Any voltage in the water at all is like getting shocked all day long how would you like to have a 9v battery touching your young 24/7 it would irritate you! Even though it may be minute that's tge same thing that happens to fish

 

[a bag of it]

It sounds like every tank has some stray voltage, but it doesn't seem like the type of thing that would cause such a rapid change in behavior.

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[djkms]

I said, minimize, not eliminate. My point was that I try to keep as much electrical parts away from water as possible. I understand that having heaters and such in the sump can cause problems just the same as if they were in the display. One of the reasons I like MP40's over other pumps is due to the fact nothing electrical with the pump is touching water.

 

[a bag of it]

So I just tested it, there's about 27 volts going through the water, I'm assuming that's not good. When I unplug the skimmer it drops about ten volts and a little more when I turn off the return

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[Haulin Oates]

Did you put your meter on AC or DC? That's a ton of stray voltage!!

 

[a bag of it]

It's AC. 10w from the skimmer 5w from the return and about 8w from the heater

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[Haulin Oates]

Watts don't equal volts. Think of watts as flow and volts as pressure. So everything in your tank takes the same pressure (110-120 volts AC) but need different amounts of flow that they need to run (watts). If you are truly getting 27 volts, it tells me that one of your pump windings is exposed to water. Get a ground probe as fast as you can and try to isolate and replace the pump that is damaged.

 

[djkms]

If you are going to use a ground probe just make sure to have it going to a GFI circuit. Jahmics post summed everything up nicely.

Here is another good read:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=898147

 

[a bag of it]

I meant volts, phone must've auto corrected

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[jahmic]

If you are going to use a ground probe just make sure to have it going to a GFI circuit. Jahmics post summed everything up nicely.

Here is another good read:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=898147

To add to this...Conor as you mentioned you don't have a GFCI outlet installed at your place, there are definitely work-arounds. They sell GFCI enabled power strips, as well as stand-alone single plug GFCI adapters that you can hook into a standard 3-prong outlet. Either option will serve the same purpose as plugging into a GFCI receptacle. Stray voltage aside, a grounding probe without a GFCI can be bad when things do go wrong.

 

[a bag of it]

It sounds like the ground probe is to protect me more so than the fish. I don't get shocked at all when I touch the water and the fish seem to be acting normal today. In one of those links it said the current was more important the the voltage, and there is very little current. .02 mA I think? I had it plugged into the 300mA spot so I assume that means its in mA?

 

[Haulin Oates]

Id get a probe, but I don't think you truly have an issue... 27v at .02 amps would have killed you almost instantly once you touched the water... I think your CUC addition is what got everyone all stirred up for a day. It happens in my tank anytime I add anything. Keep an eye on the clown that's flashing though...

 

[a bag of it]

I must not be using the multimeter correctly, though it does read 120v from the outlet

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[a bag of it]

plus i think it's .02mA which would be .00002A? would that make more sense?

 

[Zooid]

I don't get shocked at all when I touch the water and the fish seem to be acting normal today.

I'd bet that if you cut your fingernails too short or you have an open cut on your hand, you'd feel it. It doesn't feel to great hehe.

 

[CRW Reef]

How were the fish today Conor?

 

[a bag of it]

Everyone looks great, the patches on the clowns have filled back in and the wrasses are acting normal. The Mandarin is eating mysis and some rod's even though he's hunting all day long, so everything seems good. I have no idea what to make of the other night. I guess all the clean up crew made them a little crazy, though I've never seen them act like that with other new additions. I'm definitely still confused, but more relieved than anything.

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