Shocking water

Gator2019 · Nov 21, 2018

I will try and make this long story short. I was leaving for thanksgiving yesterday and wanted to do one last look over my 120g tank. I saw my mandarin was skin and bones and he has been fat for 6months since I first got him. Plenty of pods every where, so I knew something was up. I went to get a sponge from my sump (to potentially jump start putting more pods into the display) and got electrocuted. Long story short it was a defective powerhead and the company is not going to cover the defective powerhead or any livestock lost because of the shock (I lost a coral or two as this happened). I had to leave yesterday night and fed the tank before I left, but nothing looked too hot after I got shocked. All the fish were looking very thin and not interested in food and no coral came out. I had someone feed the tank today, but no one will be home until Sunday. What are the chances that this shock will nuke the tank, ecspecially since I can’t feed them for 3-4 days.

Frtdrmrose7 · Nov 21, 2018

I think there is a good possibility that you will return to a nightmare tbh. But you have a chance since you caught it before you left.

RFL · Nov 21, 2018

I don't know what you'll return to when you arrive home again, but I would like to know if you are using GFCI wall outlets to power your aquarium equipment. My understanding is that you wouldn't have received a shock if you were using GFCIs but would like confirmation of that fact. Other than that I hope your aquarium buddies will be OK when you get home after the holiday. You have a lot to be thankful for this holiday considering how badly you could have been hurt. I'm Glad you weren't!

Gator2019 · Nov 21, 2018

RFL said:
I don't know what you'll return to when you arrive home again, but I would like to know if you are using GFCI wall outlets to power your aquarium equipment. My understanding is that you wouldn't have received a shock if you were using GFCIs but would like confirmation of that fact. Other than that I hope your aquarium buddies will be OK when you get home after the holiday. You have a lot to be thankful for this holiday considering how badly you could have been hurt. I'm Glad you weren't!

I am extremely thankful! At first it just felt like a 9v battery to the tongue, but as I tried to work out which plug was the one shocking me, I actually got light headed and fell off of my stool. It could have been a lot worse. I had my father on the phone the entire time in case something happened. As for GFCI, I had everything plugged into a power outlet that stores energy for if you have a power outage. If it is fancy enough to do that, I would like to think it is GFCI, but I am not certain. Moving forward, I will make sure it is, or I put things that are in the tank on one and leave the battery power outlet for things outside of the tank.

I also want to mention that I didn’t expect the company to pay for lost livestock really (it killed a torch and possibly a few other things if they don’t recover), but I was hoping they would at least cover a new powerhead given the circumstances. I told them the story and they completely skipped over me getting shocked and wanted to know where it was purchased and all the other warranty things.

RFL · Nov 21, 2018

Thanks for the background info and again... good luck with your tank buddies.

JoshH · Nov 21, 2018

#Reefsquad @Brew12 thoughts here? I've been fortunate to not have been shocked... by my tank anyway lol

Brew12 · Nov 21, 2018

Gator2019 said:
I am extremely thankful! At first it just felt like a 9v battery to the tongue, but as I tried to work out which plug was the one shocking me, I actually got light headed and fell off of my stool. It could have been a lot worse. I had my father on the phone the entire time in case something happened. As for GFCI, I had everything plugged into a power outlet that stores energy for if you have a power outage. If it is fancy enough to do that, I would like to think it is GFCI, but I am not certain. Moving forward, I will make sure it is, or I put things that are in the tank on one and leave the battery power outlet for things outside of the tank.

I also want to mention that I didn’t expect the company to pay for lost livestock really (it killed a torch and possibly a few other things if they don’t recover), but I was hoping they would at least cover a new powerhead given the circumstances. I told them the story and they completely skipped over me getting shocked and wanted to know where it was purchased and all the other warranty things.

I'm glad you are ok! One thing to keep in mind with an electrical shock is that you aren't in the clear for around 48 hours. Make sure people you are with know you received a shock. Some people who are shocked develop an irregular heartbeat that only causes problem if they undergo exertion. This typically results in a loss of consciousness. If someone can give this information to first responders it can be life saving. Hopefully, this isn't an issue in your case.

My biggest concern as far as livestock goes isn't the electricity. If your pump had failed it most likely started leaching copper and other potential contaminants into your system. Electricity can irritate fish but it is very unlikely to kill them. Corals response are harder to evaluate imo. I would add carbon and either curpisorb or polyfilters and do as large a water change as possible when you get home.

Odds are your battery backup system does not have a GFCI built in. Battery backups are for maximum reliability where GFCI is designed for maximum safety. They are normally not incorporated together.

Gator2019 · Nov 22, 2018

Brew12 said:
I'm glad you are ok! One thing to keep in mind with an electrical shock is that you aren't in the clear for around 48 hours. Make sure people you are with know you received a shock. Some people who are shocked develop an irregular heartbeat that only causes problem if they undergo exertion. This typically results in a loss of consciousness. If someone can give this information to first responders it can be life saving. Hopefully, this isn't an issue in your case.

My biggest concern as far as livestock goes isn't the electricity. If your pump had failed it most likely started leaching copper and other potential contaminants into your system. Electricity can irritate fish but it is very unlikely to kill them. Corals response are harder to evaluate imo. I would add carbon and either curpisorb or polyfilters and do as large a water change as possible when you get home.

Odds are your battery backup system does not have a GFCI built in. Battery backups are for maximum reliability where GFCI is designed for maximum safety. They are normally not incorporated together.

Thank you very much for the details about the battery back ups! I will likely be making some changes.

As for adding carbon or other purifiers, I did put in a bag of phosban. Will that help with removing any contaminates?

I am starting to become increasingly concerned about the livestock, so I may actually drive back home today to check on it before thanksgiving. I don’t know much about how electricity affects fish, but before I left, I noticed my clownfish was hosting a wall (not uncommon for this little guy), but upside down, with his dorsal fin closest to the wall. I also mentioned that they are seemed to be very skinny before I left. I don’t know what caused that. Could the shock make them not want to eat or was the skinnyness just because they were scared in that moment?