Terrible Advice Tuesdays (T.A.Tues): How To Avoid the Danger Hidden Inside Your Saltwater Tank
When working in your saltwater tank, it is important to wear a grounding strap to prevent yourself from getting shocked by any electrical equipment.
The rest of the story: Wow! Apparently there is high voltage running through your saltwater tank at all times just waiting to shock you! Where is the warning signs for your tank?!
Here’s why this is terrible advice:
Even if you did wear a grounding strap, then you’d still get shocked as the grounding strap would help complete the circuit between the source of the electricity and the ground. The current would flow from the source, through you, then to the grounding strap to the ground. It wouldn’t prevent you from getting shocked at all.
Also, if there was enough electrical current flowing through your tank to shock you, I’d rather you get shocked (keep in mind the shock would likely be slight) so you can fix the problem!
Finally, the use of a GFCI protected outlet is always a good idea around water and electrical equipment.
Forget the grounding strap..it won’t do any good.
Browse the Store! Questions?
seems like a no brainer…….. Everything but you should be grounded!
Hi Mark
Glad to see that there’s someone with a bit of common sense. If you ground yourself as suggested all your doing as you have stated is allowing the electrify to flow easier through your body and shock you even worse than if you didn’t have a strap on. Your natural reaction to the feel of electric when you put your hand in the tank is to pull it out even quicker than you put it in. You may injure your hand but at least you will be alive to put a bandage on the injury.
Keep up the good work and always look forward to watching your videos and tips even though I have been keeping fish both Saltwater and Freshwater for the past 46years. In all that time I have been shocked twice and both times because of wearing shoes which insulated me from the ground lived to tell the story. Also nowadays with Residual Circuit Breakers on the ring mains if fitted properly they should kick out and also stop anyone from having a serious injury or death.
Cheers
Tom Stewart
Something so simple but incredibly important. Anyone whom has felt that current hit them will tell you to run out and spend a few buck to stay safe.
What is your take on ground rods for the tank
Horrible advise good think your on the ball Mark. Besides wouldn’t the dead fish be a giveaway?
Mark always has the best videos and advice. As far as the guy who gave the advice about the ground strap, well, he will learn.
Keep it coming Mark! We all love a little humor at least once a week!
As always great advice Mark. I hadn’t thought about the GFCI circuit before. Thanks.
Grounding straps are to protect UNPOWERED electronics from your static discharge. Not to protect you. Never ground your self when dealing with live electric. Stuff can be replaced. People can’t.
Rinfante…stray electricity in a tank won’t necessarily zap the fish.
just make sure you test the gfi’s every now and then. they will work (carry power) and not trip if the the unit doesn’t work……even the new types that claim they don’t work if the mechanism fails. the ground probes and common sense are the best remedies
Great advice. I do hate it in winter when you touch the water in your tank and the static electricity shock hits you. I always forget to touch something else first.
plz suggest what fishes can i keep in a 3*2*2 tank and appx hom many of them
The first thing I did before setting up my tank was to replace the old receptacle with a GFCI.
Newbie Tuesday….Off I go for a 3hr journey,I think I got everything……….um. I’ve got 2 containers of water, tank 1 & 2,my frozen goby, my living lumpy mealy goby in a bag, my new 6 gal water container, reciepts. Have to stop at 2 shops, one to test one to talk about gobies. And as usual I will most likely return hopeful, yet still confused!
Great advice, one of the BIGGEST misconceptions I come across is that a surge protector we server the same function as a gfi…. Im sure theirs enough on this subject to make a whole video, if you haven’t already.
Thanks Mark again for all your work!
Anyone who works with electricity is taught one simple rule to start. Always try and work with one hand. Its not always possible but by using only one hand you avoid having the current run through both arms and ultimately your heart. Whenever I’m working on the tank I always try and avoid having one hand in the tank and one on the rim or worse a light fixture. An easy way to get used to working like this is to keep one hand in your pocket while working. Like I said its not always possible and the times its not are when extra precautions need to be taken, like powering down.
worst than the shock is the source of the shock– low quality power strips and low quality China made motors. poorly designed light fixtures and other apparatus. I have been in the hobby a long time and only in the last few years have I experienced shocks and even had one strip smoke and flame out. Very scary.
I am not here to tash any one product– just the general lowering of quality once the Germans ( the Germans for heaven’s sake) started using Chinese factories.
Ehiem, Tunze and others have sold out. Such a shame. But I digress—
🙂 JasPR
Did he say strap-in or “strap-on” lol- just a joke I heard on Family Guy – aplogies Mark. I love your stuff
A GFCI is not only a good idea, it is an ABSOLUTE NECESSITY.
All equipment and outlets near the tank NEED to be on a ground fault protected circuit. Case in point, I was working under my tank (live equipment and timers) and broke a hose barb. I might not be writing this if the gfci hadnt been in place and working. They need to be TESTED periodically also.
Thats why I installed them for you Mark! 🙂
Lots of great comments to this T.A.Tues. I see both sides of the GFCI equation: one is the need for the safety cut-off, the other is a potential reef-killing mechanism if it cuts off and deprives your tank of the power it needs to run. Certainly if the GFCI trips because there is a legitimate reason (large amounts of water in contact with electricity), then the GFCI has done its job.
However, just last week my GFCI’s were tripping with just the 2 ballasts for my EcoTech Radion lights plugged into them. No cords ever contacted the tank or any water at all. Yet the GFCI tripped repeatedly for no reason. For the moment i’ve by passed that GFCI outlet until I have time to figure out why it keeps tripping.
Also, when I go out of town, I’m putting the tank on all non-GFCI outlets. Not worth the risk of one tripping for no reason and my tank being w/out power for maybe 24 hrs.
It isn’t uncommon to feel a slight electrical current in a saltwater tank so dont be alarmed. It is natural exchange of electrons between the sodium and chlorine ions.
Most likely you’ll never know what hit you with dangerous high voltage current.
Mark,
Try staggering the on times between the lights slightly. It may be the current spike causing it. My pump hard started while working recently on my tank. I had to replace the pump.
Good advice Mark,I’ve been zapped a few times from worn wires on pumps and a broken tank heater,if I’d been wearing a ground strap I would have been toasted good and propper , but all I got was a heavy tingling in my hand as I touched the water.
I’ll go one step further since we seem to be on a roll here— things like clear check values are REALLY important. Not just to save the rug or wood floor when the power goes off and the returns feed water back into the sump ( many folks are running their sump levels high to take advantage of extra volume and refugium stocking). I’ve seen this event hit power strips and tranformers and nothing is worse than salt water and electricity to fry the units. Sensitive and poorly built remote temperature controlers will be damaged easily. A word to the wise. A simple check vale can save a $250 piece of electrical equipment. JasPR
would it be better to have a its own breaker in the the breaker box. so if it trips for any reason it will not trip the rest of the house.the tank should have its own breaker switch.
Grounding straps are only for ESD (electro static discharge) by grounding yourself it will be a guaranteed electrocution. The worst advice ever. If you get stray voltage in your tank it is harmless without ground, Our pumps heaters, power heads etc. work on 120 VAC which is one wire Hot and one neutral. Lets say you have a broken cord with an exposed hot wire, there will be current in the water, but Gagarin harmless without ground. So unless you are holding something metal and earth grounded there is no way to get shocked. In the event of both wires being broken and in contact with water that is a dead short which will cause the surge protector or circuit breaker to trip. To test your water for stray voltage with a AC multimeter put the black lead to a receptacle ground hole and the positive lead in the water. Unless you Combine hot and neutral or hot and ground the voltage in your tank is harmless to you and your fish.
The Steinhart Aquarium,where are those great LED’s???? Radion crap????
Lecter…the Steinhart using metal halides due to the need to get light to the bottom of a 25′ deep tank.
*boggle* I’m not diggin this man. Led’s cannot penetrate?
Lecter…LEDs can penetrate and an exhibit like this one would be very cautious in making a switch.
Do you have a list of problems that can happen in your tank,that needs to be fixed right away. EG- PH dropped and now how to raise it back to normal A.S.A.P.
To raise PH and to ‘reset’ ALL your water parameters, there is NOTHING better than a SERIES or smallish water changes. What is ‘smallish’? 10- 15%. Do then every three days for a series of 5 events. Your PH will be ‘normal’ due to the dilute effect. Your water qualit will rise in general as your ambient nitrAte levels and ambient ORP rises to a highly oxidative state.
Use RO/Di water for mixing your salt ( in a container like a ‘Brut container’) hold it over night before each water change so you can heat it ( non glass heater to avoid breakage and an ehiem hobby pump to mix salt well over those 24 hours).
Do this and 99% of your problems will go away as your fish get stronger and more resistant to a condition known as G.A.S. ( general adaptative syndrome) and your water quality peaks within the limits of your closed system, stocking rates etc. best of luck, JasPR
Mark, you replace that GFCI? If so, did it remedy your problem?
Brian…I did end up replacing the GFCI with a regular outlet. Honestly, i’d rather experience a slight shock than come back from an extended time away to find my tank dead from lack of power.