Help me with STRAY VOLTAGE!!!

[SteveSTL]

swap the heater in your display tank and see if it still happens.

 

[Velcro]

Lots of people suggesting grounding probes, but from my reading all that does is provide a path for current if there is a potential in the tank (which is bad).

 

[xREEFINaintEZx]

If you use a probe and have bad "leak" as soon as you touch the water you can get shocked. If you don't have a probe and have a leak you won't feel anything untill your elbow touches a light fixture (a ground). I look at it like this... Do I want to get shocked as soon as I touch the water or possibly creating a ground with a whole limb of my body submerged. That said, I myself am still on the fence and my probe is sitting on the floor next to my tank. Bottom line, a probe is a band aid

 

[Frop]

Did you test all the equipment in the tank that works?

 

[JEREMY82]

I have dealt with stray voltage several times.sometimes it's more then one pc of equipment that can fail.heaters return pumps and power heads . I just leave the probe in tank on ac voltage and start to unplug stuff once reading drops under 1 volt I know that this is the problem. I always getting usually a small .005 reading with just lights on. Anything under a volt I consider phantom voltage anything over I throw out buy new, just cause it's new don't mean it can't be defective

 

[Forsaken77]

If you use a probe and have bad "leak" as soon as you touch the water you can get shocked. If you don't have a probe and have a leak you won't feel anything untill your elbow touches a light fixture (a ground). I look at it like this... Do I want to get shocked as soon as I touch the water or possibly creating a ground with a whole limb of my body submerged. That said, I myself am still on the fence and my probe is sitting on the floor next to my tank. Bottom line, a probe is a band aid

I suppose you could consider a grounding rod a band-aid, but it's better to have one than not. Even if your tank have no voltage leakage at all, it will eventually happen. So it's better to have the rod for when it does happen.

And the rod basically grounds the water and everything in it. The current leaves through the rod instead of affecting the inhabitants in your tank. It's another form of safety precautions. What if every piece of equipment in your tank is giving off small amounts of stray voltage? Are you going to throw out hundreds, or thousands, of dollars of equipment? Or use a grounding rod that will safely eliminate ALL VOLTAGE in the tank?

I can see if it's a heater, which seems like your worst piece of equipment, but once you start hitting $300 return pumps, I'd go with the rod.

You'll still have voltage leakage but it'll be pulled right out of the water before killing fish and corals.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

Just get one of these to prevent stray voltage from entering the tank. It's grounded. I have my apex energy bars connected to one, just in case. They work wonders and better then grounding probes.

https://www.amazon.com/Philips-SPP5...86920077&sr=8-3&keywords=phillips+power+strip