Acceptable amount of leaking voltage

[irensing]

Does anyone know the maximum allowable amount fo leaking voltage? I tested 4 koralea and 3 via aqua pumps last night and they all leak about 5-6 Volts each. is this voltage induced because of the electromechanical nature of the design? When you add them up it starts getting excessive. When you ground your tank you create a path for votlage and current to flow. This creates a more direct flow so it's not all over teh tank but the fact of the matter is it is still there and there is really no way to predict what path it takes through the tank. Between powerheads, protein skimmer, filter and reactor I'm running 4 motors and have about 18-24V of voltage. I remember when I first started doing this I was running a lot of motors and some of them had high leakage. I remember measuring up to 45-50V in total and some things in the tank were not happy even when grounded. took me a while to figure this out.

 

[little_fish]

This is a pretty common problem, especially with equipment that is a couple of years old. That total voltage i dont think is too bad as long as you have it grounded. I personally would start replacing stuff if your total voltage is around 100

 

[irensing]

keep in mind when electrical products are developed the safety standard typically says maximum "safe to touch" voltage is 30Vac, 42.4V peak and 60VDC. If you measure 100Vac (rms) in your tank that means you have 142V peak, grounded or not this is unsafe and I don't see how many creatures wouldn't be stressed. Are there any white papers on fish tanks and voltage?

 

[little_fish]

Not that i know of, but how are your critters looking? If they are looking effected, then i would start to worry, but if they are acting normal i wouldnt worry about it too much.

 

[arkansasboy]

How do you ground your tank?

 

[irensing]

metal probe in the tank water to earth ground in an outlet, it's an off the shelf aquarium ground probe. I'm not having issues, just wondering if anybody has a lot of experience on this topic.