Grounding fish tank?

[Capt.Dave]

Anyone ground their tanks? Been researching this topic about stray electrical charges in aquariums and am interested if anyone has experience with this as I feel a slight charge in the water in a cut on my finger. I read it is a more common occurrence than originally thought and the arguments about it's effect on fish health seem to make sense to me

[altaaffe]

Must admit - it's not something I had thought of and I have felt the same sensation you described but I didn't associate it electrical charge as even after grounding and switching the electrics off, the sensation still came in my fingertip.

[Capt.Dave]

Yea even with stuff off a stray charge can stink linger in water column apparently. I will. Ground all my tanks. It can't hurt I guess

[donsfish]

I don't know of any that are grounded. Be sure to look up how to test for stray voltage, and proper way to ground the tank if it comes to that. I really don't know exactly how to set up the ground/materials to use without rereading through the info myself.....

[JohnL]

Never done it but always thought about getting one of these and do some testing. If you follow through with it please post the results.

Ground Probe

[OinKY]

IMO,test for stray voltage. Usually when I get a "tingle" in a cut it's just the chemical makeup of the water as there's no voltage (have a multimeter,check very infrequently). Salinity will do it,nineral content,acidic- neutral pH too (depending on conditions,a tank can function as a weak battery itself). I don't think you'll find any voltage though as enough voltage for you to feel would be making the fish bounce off the sides going bonkers if being discharged from equipment. Could have just been a mild static discharge...the nerves near a fresh cut are pretty sensitive.

No harm in grounding and running all equipment through a GFI outlet though....always better safe than sorry.

[Capt.Dave]

This was electrical charge that I felt. 100%

[callen]

We always ground our tanks and when we had the 2 180's everything plugged in was on a surge protector.

Now not to get off subject but what are you guys thinking... Putting your hands in a tank with a cut on it???

[donsfish]

Now not to get off subject but what are you guys thinking... Putting your hands in a tank with a cut on it???

Not the safest thing to do with some of the bacteria that is in the tank, and the potential for some really nasty bacteria to be present.

[altaaffe]

Now not to get off subject but what are you guys thinking... Putting your hands in a tank with a cut on it???

Sorry Miss. But in my defence - it wasn't a cut. I'm a nail biter and I get the sensation at the end of the nail - bit more sensitive I guess ?

[altaaffe]

... and no - I don't bite my nails after they've been in the tank.

[Capt.Dave]

I have a very strong immune system. 

[TimP]

No harm in grounding and running all equipment through a GFI outlet though....always better safe than sorry.

I actually ground my large tank because anytime there is moving water, there is a potential for an electrical charge. The way to test for any such voltages is to take a volt meter, set to the AC scale and insert the Positive probe into the tank water and the negative probe into the ground lug of your standard wall outlet. Personally I have my tanks on dedicated GFCI wall outlets, with surge protectors between appliances and outlet. I use just made something similar to the ground probe that sells for typically like $20 and it didn't really cost me anything. I just took some thin stainless steel wire and wrapped it around one of my filter inlet tubes and where it came out of the water, I connected it to standard, stranded wire and ran that to connect into the ground lug of your wall outlet. The way to test if it is doing its job is after you setup the ground probe, do the voltage test (mentioned above) again and it should eliminate any traces of voltages.

[OinKY]

Putting your hands in a tank with a cut on it???

In my defense,most of the fish can inflict "cuts" on a moments notice.

As TimP says,a grounding probe is a simple enough solution.

[callen]

I won't be too hard on you guys or post pictures of what could happen. All I'll say is please be careful.