Stray. Voltage.

[iambenfields]

When I lived in Australia my chiller shorted out, i stuck both hands in the tank, and took 240v across my chest - it did not tickle.

Anyhow, apparently not learning from the experience of having my heart continue to run I put my hand in the sump the other day - I often do, but this time it *HURT*... Looks like I had between 12-24v running through the sump all the time... Now I understand electricity and I went through every single piece of equipment, unplugging and plugging back in, and it fluctuated but it was always there!>!>! Most bizarre was turning off the return pump which jumped the voltage from 12-24v.

Now with a probe at least I can dip my fingers in without wincing but can anyone help explain what is happening?

 

[Crustaceon]

Unplug until it goes away. It sounds like you have multiple shorts.

 

[ca1ore]

May simply be induced voltage. No bigger red herring in the hobby than stray voltage lol. Shorted equipment putting full mains into the water is a whole other kettle of fish .... though I’d have thought that would have tripped the breaker.

 

[iambenfields]

I’m definitely not tripping my GFCI so it doesn’t seem plausible that I have a live current from an exposed wire anywhere - just googled induced voltage and I’d bet that’s what I’ve got, especially given it didn’t trip the GFCI when I used a grounding probe.

Wild. These tanks just keep getting weirder!