Anyone Ever "recieved An Electric Shock"

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I got shocked from a broken heater in a fish tank years ago.
I was emptying the tank of fish (as i was moving place) but i decided to keep the heater on so the water didn't get too cold before i had taken all the fish out. Well after i had got all the fish out of the tank, i completely forgot the heater was still switched on as i started to do water changes and lower the water level in the tank.
After emptying out a particular bucket of water from the tank, i came back to hear something sizzling- the heater was half out of the water and was attempting to heat the air around it, but was boiling the water around it instead! So i quickly pushed the heater underwater and turned off what i thought was the heater plug. Instead i just accidently turned something else off and as i put my hand in the tank to take out the heater i got a very nasty shock . It turned out the heater had cracked while it was under water and electrocuted the whole tank.

Thankfully there were no fish in the tank at the time, but getting electrocuted is a very weird and nasty sensation. I've had worse electric experiences though.
Even now days, i still leave the heater on in the tank while i do water changes, however i've never forgotten my experience with that broken heater shock experience and i always keep a close and wary eye on the water level in the tank- i never do more than 60% water changes, so i just keep the heater stuck below that level.

 

[Torrean]

that post brings me to another question. If something like a heater busting does occur, will the fish in the tank suffer from it? I've never heard of anyone's fish dying from electric shock but I've heard several "I got shocked by my fishtank" stories.

 

[atmmachine816]

Once plugged in a plug before drying my hands off, got a nice shock from that.

 

[flamingonhot]

Dropped a hood in once and just grabbed at it... it tingled but wasn't really bad... sadly I did it a few minutes later.

I've blown a fuse a few times-latest was a month ago when I was messing around my new 5 gallon sw lmao.

I was shocked by a messed up emperor filter... sadly intentionally. My cousin "just had to show me this.." so I stuck my finger in. It's the wierdest feeling ever. My arm wobbled and kind of just pulled itself out of the water..

I get freaked out when that stuff happens, but usually it doesn't do much. I've blown a fuse prolly 3 times more than i've had something zapped.

 

[chris mobberley]

i got an electric shock from my pond about a year ago, came home and found a hedgehog floating in the pond so reached in to get it, felt like i,d been
kicked in the floats. turns out that the pump was shorting out, funny thing was the fish were fine.

 

[The-Wolf]

If something like a heater busting does occur, will the fish in the tank suffer from it?

no because they are not grounded. think birds sitting on the live rail of a traintrack

 

[andywg]

If something like a heater busting does occur, will the fish in the tank suffer from it?

no because they are not grounded. think birds sitting on the live rail of a traintrack

It all depends on the fish and the situation. Almost any tank will have stray voltage caused by te equipment in, on and near a tank (one of the worst culprits is a florescent light, even if it is out of the water and working correctly).

Fish that are highly sensitive to electrical fields (such as SW sharks) can suffer and ultimately die from going off their food in a tank with too much stray voltage.

Earthing this stray voltage with a titanium earthing rod removes the far higher than normal voltages and replaces them with a more natural level of current.

For most (read almost all) fish in FW though, an earthing rod is not necessary,

 

[Nauplii]

I have had my hand in a tank and feel the electricity pulsing through my arm, but i figured that the only time i had a shock was when i had my arm in the tank, and with the other arm touched the glass of the tank...

Shocking

 

[Tolak]

http/www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infelectrical/infgfi.shtm

Cheap saftey device.

 

[modaz]

come on guys keep me

 

[lilmolly]

I got shocked by a faulty heater. The glass broke, no fault of my own. It killed my red devil but the convict lived. Talk about a bullet proof fish.!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

If something like a heater busting does occur, will the fish in the tank suffer from it?

no because they are not grounded. think birds sitting on the live rail of a traintrack

It all depends on the fish and the situation. Almost any tank will have stray voltage caused by te equipment in, on and near a tank (one of the worst culprits is a florescent light, even if it is out of the water and working correctly).

Fish that are highly sensitive to electrical fields (such as SW sharks) can suffer and ultimately die from going off their food in a tank with too much stray voltage.

Earthing this stray voltage with a titanium earthing rod removes the far higher than normal voltages and replaces them with a more natural level of current.

For most (read almost all) fish in FW though, an earthing rod is not necessary,

I've heard that Elephant Nose fish can also suffer pretty badly from stray eletric currents as well in tanks. I think that this also goes for quite a few other fish which sense their food and each other via tiny eletric signals.

 

[MHunt]

I've never had a belt via my aquarium. 240V straight from the plug is enough for anybody! I should know! I dread to think of the consequences of that much voltage (in the uk at least) and water being mixed. A short dry shock even at 240V shouldn't be enough to hurt anyone seriously. But the addition of the water (or the minerals in it to be precise, it's supposedly impossible to get a shock off distilled water, i've never tried or have the intention of trying. ) being a surprisingly good conductor of electricity makes it very dangerous. Remember the difference between the wet and dry sponge in the green mile! Ok not a good analogy but put simply, the water makes electricity so much more dangerous!

The simple rule is if something electrical drops into the tank which isn't insulated properly like a flter or heater, turn the mains off BEFORE trying to retrieve it.