Volt control titanium grounding probes are commonly used in electrical grounding systems to help mitigate the risk of electrical shock and equipment damage.
I am an electrician and I have no idea if ground probes are the way to go. A ground probe wont stop things from going bad. I believe its Ryan from BRS who says the only real solution to this problem is to replace equipment before it goes bad. In other words just have a predetermined life expectancy for everything and preemptively replace stuff. I do take it with a grain of salt because of course he runs a supply company but even so I think that's the best way to keep this from happening. That and having reef controllers watching the watts of everything and setting an alarm if something isn't right.
I had something similar happen about a year ago. I went to bed and the next afternoon I checked the tank shortly after I got home and noticed the water wasn't moving. My Peppermint Shrimp had died and my corals did not look good at all. I checked the Sicce 1.5 that I got with the tank 2+ years ago, and found that because of the angle the power cord was at and the constant vibration, it ended up cutting the cord open, which ended up blowing up the pump. I'm not sure when exactly it happened, between the 12hrs from when I last saw it, but I did a big water change and replaced the pump. It's a nano tank (a 14 gal biocube with a hood) so because of the lack of water movement, it caused a rise in temperature, so I lost alot of my corals. In the future I'm going to treat my pumps like heaters, every 18-24 months I'm just going to replace them (or atleast in regards to the nano). I'm glad you had better luck then I did though and interested to hear solutions to keep this from happening again (or atleast bring my attention to it sooner)
Hey March, sorry to hear that happened to you. You mentioned that it tripped the breaker, which makes sense. Do you have any GFCI outlets in the basement or wherever you have these sorts of devices connected? If possible, I recommend getting some installed by an electrician. That way, if there is a voltage spike or drop, it will kill any of the outlets associated with the anomaly. It would make it pretty easy to pinpoint what the problem is. So maybe all powerheads for a particular tank associated with one GFCI network, and another network for another tank. That way, the powerhead won't keep trying to power itself and you can quickly identify the issue and take out the offending appliance. Good luck!
Everything fails if you don't keep it cleaned. People complain about equipment failure all the time, but when you see the equipment, it hasn't been cleaned in years. That's a staff issue and whomever is responsible for making sure that equipment is kept up, would be on the sidewalk. Lastly, absolutely use a grounding probe in EVERY system you have. You can test the grounding probes if you have leaking voltage in a bucket by plugging the probe into a ground socket and use your multimeter. It absolutely works and is a life saver.
With a GFCI , current going into the GFCI must equal current going out of the GFCI . It won't trip on a short circuit .The Circuit Breaker will . With a ground probe , stray voltage will go to ground causing a unbalance that will trip the GFCI . The reason most aquarium stuff is two prong instead of three prong is the same reason a toaster only has two prongs . I'll spar ya the details. But most countertop kitchen appliances have two prongs cause their often near the sink .
That poly pad should take out the harmful elements that are in the tank. Good job you guys were diligent and caught it because it sat in the tank for much longer
It was that exact same brand and pump that caused my last tank crash 😮 Over time those cords become stiff and dry and bending it cause it to crack and expose the wire during a water change. So I pretty much made fresh rust water 😅
Ok issue I am having with voltage on my water is that it will not go away no matter what is plugged in or not. I am an electrician and have new lines ran to the tanks one has a GFI and the other is straight receptacle. If I ground the water with a wire to a pipe and drop the other end in the tank voltage gone. It’s only 20-50v but I have lost some stuff last few months and some stuff not opening full. When parameters in check icp in check people need to check for this. Could be a grounding issue with the service or utility. Plus if you have GFI installed and a ground probe the gfi will trip if there is an issue where as it will not trip always until you touch the water and ground yourself. I’m getting 2 of these today and I will let you know if everything opens back up.
Imo I’ve had shocks that take me off my feet and the tank seems fine as far as coral and fish funny enough. I would think it was the metals and other contaminants getting released into your system, but icp will tell all!
You can't be comparing a marineland maxijet to the OG ones or even the cobalt ones. The real maxijets were made in italy and lasted for like 10+ years. The marineland ones may move water in a similar fashion but they nothing alike quality wise.
My maxi just did this yesterday after buying $600 worth of inverts in my QT tank. Wire was darn near stripped and had copper showing. Stuck my hand in the water and got zinged.
There was no stray voltage. The power strip was doing its job. Every time you reset it you we’re creating a short circuit. That’s why it finally tripped the breaker.
@@FoolOfATuque I’m sure the power strip is fine. It worked every time. The problem was the wave maker. That’s all. IMHO everyone of those wave makers that were installed @ the same time has out lived it’s value. Not worth the risk.
@@johnblaze5252 if a surge protector has been tripped you should replace it. Over and over and you should definitely replace it. We just lost a LFS to fire. Don’t need to be seeing that again
@@FoolOfATuque you can replace it all you want but you are wasting your $. Poor wire management & no knowledge of how electricity works is not a good enough answer. I do this for a living. If you are lighting things on fire. Don’t blame the power strip. Try purchasing a GFCI & pay attention. Even though I am knowledgeable about electrical work.. I’ve killed my fair share of LPS but I’m not blaming anyone.
@@johnblaze5252 well maybe you need to read the instructions from the surge protector manufacturers then Mr “I do this for a living” what company do you with as an electrician for? So I can steer clear of it. So you’d. Go into a customers place and not recommend they replace a power strip they tripped multiple times? Lol!
I just had a very similar experience, but with an Eheim Stream pump in my saltwater mixing bin. I didn’t figure out the cause until after I’d done a water change, and all of the corals started sliming and closing up. I’ve been doing big water changes (60 - 90%) every other day since it happened last week, and most corals are just starting to look like they might survive. Lost some mushrooms, all of the Xenia, some GSP, my favourite frogspawn, and a cleaner shrimp. All fish, snails, and hermits were fine. ICP showed nothing unusual, apart from off the chart iodine, which I think must be a testing error. Hope all of your corals pull through 👍
Just ground out all of your aquariums with a grounding probe made of non-metallic materials, such as a grounding probe made of titanium or a grounding probe with a plastic coating.
Voltage is just potential for current flow. A shorted pump won’t cause current to flow through the coral. I’m sure you’ll find elevated copper in the ICP test, which is what’s cause your coral stress. The ground probe wouldn’t help you here, the ground plug on the faulty pump achieved the same thing a ground probe would, caused the power strip to trip. Get that copper out!
Stray voltage does affect zoas. I have a frag tank with nothing but zoas and a surface skimmer shorting out in the water wiped out colonies. No metal parameters were good.
You had something else going on. Potential is only potential. There was nothing there to affect your zoas. Unless your skimmer was ungrounded and you had a grounding probe stuck into the middle of the colony forcing the current through them, it was something else.
An earth probe will stop the zap sensation you may be feeling when touching the water If you have stray voltage in your aquarium. However it will not actually stop the electricity flow through the water. In summary it's not a bad idea to add an earthing probe to reduce the chances of electric shock. It won't fix your equipment that should not be emitting current into the water in the first place.
I would think that if that probe is a conection to ground and you put it near any aquipment it actually may help, but you have to put it close. That way, if there is a lose contact on the equipment, the voltage will drop fast because the probe is near and hopefully the current that would be generated will have a short way to ground and out of the tank instead of finding ground on the other side of the tank and flowing through all the corals causing havoc.
A grounding probe should only be used in conjunction with a GFI/GFCI. By installing one without it, it's basically connecting the circuit and zapping away 24/7. Otherwise, the potential just sits there. Putting different pumps or groups of pumps on different circuits, would shut off just that circuit instantly, if the GFI detected a problem. 1) titanium probe + GFI. (Ample chance for safety rather than point 2 below) 2) GFI only (safety here is that GFI shuts off when it senses the difference such as you putting hands in the tank and current going to you, but the GFI needs to be working properly) 3) Never use probe + normal outlet It is safety and health vs having something shut off when you aren't around. The fix? Split up all equipment on multiple circuits with redundancy, using GFIs. The debatable part..... by using option 1 and creating a "connection", does it affect the animals in the tank as opposed to only having potential sitting there due to voltage. If paranoid, use GFI and have a probe on hand.... plug probe in before doing work in the tank, then unplug probe after.
That’s shocking, be careful! And vigilant, you don’t want fires to start. Wondering if this hobby is like the reptile hobby where insurance is tough to get for these obvious reasons? Take care!!!
is it possible that in these areas of canada, stray voltage is an issue? i know when i lived in a “3rd world country” it was. but i wouldn’t think tdot canada would have these issues
I can say that in my system I was feeling a stinging when putting my hand in the water, wrote it off as cut on my hand. Watched some videos were they talked about grounding probes. Got one as they are $20 or so. Place my hand in water, stinging sensation. Place grounding probe no more stinging. I’d say they work. How is another story lol
I run grounding rods on all my aquariums , I’ve had heaters give off stray voltage before . If I didn’t have the grounding rods I probably would have lost some live stock!
@@dominus6224 I sure felt it when I touched the heater ! Not sure what woulda happened if I didn’t have a grounding rod How does it damage coral but not affect fish?
Gotta be careful with the power strips that trip like that because sometimes if u have a power failure I’ve heard of them not turning back on after 😬 eg mid winter night time power failure for 2sec normally power comes straight back on after but I’ve heard those ones can not come back on even if the power returns… not happened to me before so i might have misunderstood what happened but yeah if u gotta reset the switch it could be a problem if for some reason u forget or miss turning it back on…. Easier to remember if it’s just 1 tank at home, but if u do a bunch of them in the store it’s easier to accidentally miss turning one back on 🤷♂️🤔🍻
@@JakeDogg-RIP do you want to be safe or have convenience, your lucky the place didn't burn down not recognizing the early signs of an electrical issue
its only stressful if your water change water parameters are very different than the tank water, several people with nano and pico tanks do 70% or more water changes often. whats more stressful, a slight change in salinity or nitrates, or heavy metal. that being said, i would always suggest more smaller changes than one big change for normal maintenance
Why have you not learnt your lesson from the last time bud. Everything in your shop needs to be on RCD's. In the UK they are 30 milliamps breakers as standard. That pump wouldn't of even began to heat up. It would of just tripped everything that was on it when it sensed the differential. Apparently you guys in Canada or America call them GFCI's (ground fault circuit interrupters)
March- “I’m not gonna recreate the sounds”…
March- *recreates sounds
😂😂😂👊👌🍻🥰
Keep that part to remind you to do regular maintenance and inspections on the equipment!
This!
Volt control titanium grounding probes are commonly used in electrical grounding systems to help mitigate the risk of electrical shock and equipment damage.
I am an electrician and I have no idea if ground probes are the way to go. A ground probe wont stop things from going bad.
I believe its Ryan from BRS who says the only real solution to this problem is to replace equipment before it goes bad. In other words just have a predetermined life expectancy for everything and preemptively replace stuff. I do take it with a grain of salt because of course he runs a supply company but even so I think that's the best way to keep this from happening. That and having reef controllers watching the watts of everything and setting an alarm if something isn't right.
4:40 hey that’s mine!! 😂😂😉🥰
I had something similar happen about a year ago. I went to bed and the next afternoon I checked the tank shortly after I got home and noticed the water wasn't moving. My Peppermint Shrimp had died and my corals did not look good at all. I checked the Sicce 1.5 that I got with the tank 2+ years ago, and found that because of the angle the power cord was at and the constant vibration, it ended up cutting the cord open, which ended up blowing up the pump. I'm not sure when exactly it happened, between the 12hrs from when I last saw it, but I did a big water change and replaced the pump. It's a nano tank (a 14 gal biocube with a hood) so because of the lack of water movement, it caused a rise in temperature, so I lost alot of my corals. In the future I'm going to treat my pumps like heaters, every 18-24 months I'm just going to replace them (or atleast in regards to the nano). I'm glad you had better luck then I did though and interested to hear solutions to keep this from happening again (or atleast bring my attention to it sooner)
0:40 Digzy doing some quality control 👌🥰😉
Hey March, sorry to hear that happened to you. You mentioned that it tripped the breaker, which makes sense. Do you have any GFCI outlets in the basement or wherever you have these sorts of devices connected? If possible, I recommend getting some installed by an electrician. That way, if there is a voltage spike or drop, it will kill any of the outlets associated with the anomaly. It would make it pretty easy to pinpoint what the problem is. So maybe all powerheads for a particular tank associated with one GFCI network, and another network for another tank. That way, the powerhead won't keep trying to power itself and you can quickly identify the issue and take out the offending appliance. Good luck!
Everything fails if you don't keep it cleaned. People complain about equipment failure all the time, but when you see the equipment, it hasn't been cleaned in years.
That's a staff issue and whomever is responsible for making sure that equipment is kept up, would be on the sidewalk.
Lastly, absolutely use a grounding probe in EVERY system you have. You can test the grounding probes if you have leaking voltage in a bucket by plugging the probe into a ground socket and use your multimeter. It absolutely works and is a life saver.
With a GFCI , current going into the GFCI must equal current going out of the GFCI . It won't trip on a short circuit .The Circuit Breaker will . With a ground probe , stray voltage will go to ground causing a unbalance that will trip the GFCI . The reason most aquarium stuff is two prong instead of three prong is the same reason a toaster only has two prongs . I'll spar ya the details. But most countertop kitchen appliances have two prongs cause their often near the sink .
That poly pad should take out the harmful elements that are in the tank. Good job you guys were diligent and caught it because it sat in the tank for much longer
It was that exact same brand and pump that caused my last tank crash 😮
Over time those cords become stiff and dry and bending it cause it to crack and expose the wire during a water change. So I pretty much made fresh rust water 😅
Ok issue I am having with voltage on my water is that it will not go away no matter what is plugged in or not. I am an electrician and have new lines ran to the tanks one has a GFI and the other is straight receptacle. If I ground the water with a wire to a pipe and drop the other end in the tank voltage gone. It’s only 20-50v but I have lost some stuff last few months and some stuff not opening full. When parameters in check icp in check people need to check for this. Could be a grounding issue with the service or utility. Plus if you have GFI installed and a ground probe the gfi will trip if there is an issue where as it will not trip always until you touch the water and ground yourself.
I’m getting 2 of these today and I will let you know if everything opens back up.
Imo I’ve had shocks that take me off my feet and the tank seems fine as far as coral and fish funny enough. I would think it was the metals and other contaminants getting released into your system, but icp will tell all!
You can't be comparing a marineland maxijet to the OG ones or even the cobalt ones. The real maxijets were made in italy and lasted for like 10+ years. The marineland ones may move water in a similar fashion but they nothing alike quality wise.
My maxi just did this yesterday after buying $600 worth of inverts in my QT tank. Wire was darn near stripped and had copper showing. Stuck my hand in the water and got zinged.
There was no stray voltage. The power strip was doing its job. Every time you reset it you we’re creating a short circuit. That’s why it finally tripped the breaker.
Yes March, read this comment and replace that power strip. It’s probably effed now.
@@FoolOfATuque I’m sure the power strip is fine. It worked every time. The problem was the wave maker. That’s all. IMHO everyone of those wave makers that were installed @ the same time has out lived it’s value. Not worth the risk.
@@johnblaze5252 if a surge protector has been tripped you should replace it. Over and over and you should definitely replace it. We just lost a LFS to fire. Don’t need to be seeing that again
@@FoolOfATuque you can replace it all you want but you are wasting your $. Poor wire management & no knowledge of how electricity works is not a good enough answer. I do this for a living. If you are lighting things on fire. Don’t blame the power strip. Try purchasing a GFCI & pay attention. Even though I am knowledgeable about electrical work.. I’ve killed my fair share of LPS but I’m not blaming anyone.
@@johnblaze5252 well maybe you need to read the instructions from the surge protector manufacturers then Mr “I do this for a living” what company do you with as an electrician for? So I can steer clear of it. So you’d. Go into a customers place and not recommend they replace a power strip they tripped multiple times? Lol!
I just had a very similar experience, but with an Eheim Stream pump in my saltwater mixing bin. I didn’t figure out the cause until after I’d done a water change, and all of the corals started sliming and closing up. I’ve been doing big water changes (60 - 90%) every other day since it happened last week, and most corals are just starting to look like they might survive. Lost some mushrooms, all of the Xenia, some GSP, my favourite frogspawn, and a cleaner shrimp. All fish, snails, and hermits were fine. ICP showed nothing unusual, apart from off the chart iodine, which I think must be a testing error. Hope all of your corals pull through 👍
Just ground out all of your aquariums with a grounding probe made of non-metallic materials, such as a grounding probe made of titanium or a grounding probe with a plastic coating.
Voltage is just potential for current flow. A shorted pump won’t cause current to flow through the coral. I’m sure you’ll find elevated copper in the ICP test, which is what’s cause your coral stress. The ground probe wouldn’t help you here, the ground plug on the faulty pump achieved the same thing a ground probe would, caused the power strip to trip. Get that copper out!
Stray voltage does affect zoas. I have a frag tank with nothing but zoas and a surface skimmer shorting out in the water wiped out colonies. No metal parameters were good.
You had something else going on. Potential is only potential. There was nothing there to affect your zoas. Unless your skimmer was ungrounded and you had a grounding probe stuck into the middle of the colony forcing the current through them, it was something else.
Nature of the beast.😮
Jeez one of my fears in the hobby just losing everything overnight from a hardware failure glad you were able to caught it
An earth probe will stop the zap sensation you may be feeling when touching the water If you have stray voltage in your aquarium. However it will not actually stop the electricity flow through the water. In summary it's not a bad idea to add an earthing probe to reduce the chances of electric shock. It won't fix your equipment that should not be emitting current into the water in the first place.
He needs to use RCD's on everything!
Stray voltage is not a problem. A short may or may not be a problem. With a real short, you may end up with contamination of the water.
If you would have used that grounding pin everything in the tank would be dead. They survived 110/220v because the water isn't grounded.
I would think that if that probe is a conection to ground and you put it near any aquipment it actually may help, but you have to put it close. That way, if there is a lose contact on the equipment, the voltage will drop fast because the probe is near and hopefully the current that would be generated will have a short way to ground and out of the tank instead of finding ground on the other side of the tank and flowing through all the corals causing havoc.
A grounding probe should only be used in conjunction with a GFI/GFCI. By installing one without it, it's basically connecting the circuit and zapping away 24/7. Otherwise, the potential just sits there. Putting different pumps or groups of pumps on different circuits, would shut off just that circuit instantly, if the GFI detected a problem.
1) titanium probe + GFI. (Ample chance for safety rather than point 2 below)
2) GFI only (safety here is that GFI shuts off when it senses the difference such as you putting hands in the tank and current going to you, but the GFI needs to be working properly)
3) Never use probe + normal outlet
It is safety and health vs having something shut off when you aren't around. The fix? Split up all equipment on multiple circuits with redundancy, using GFIs.
The debatable part..... by using option 1 and creating a "connection", does it affect the animals in the tank as opposed to only having potential sitting there due to voltage. If paranoid, use GFI and have a probe on hand.... plug probe in before doing work in the tank, then unplug probe after.
Remind you to clean your impellers
I think saving the impeller will remind you of pump maintenance :)
This is why you should test it with a volt meter 😂
That’s shocking, be careful! And vigilant, you don’t want fires to start. Wondering if this hobby is like the reptile hobby where insurance is tough to get for these obvious reasons?
Take care!!!
Solution! Put drip loops on your cabled that have condensation😊
Use a titanium heater. It acts as a grounding probe. At least here it does in the UK where we use 3 prongs on our outlets.
Not true here in US. I have titanium heaters 3 prongs and still have voltage.
Hey March, with all you have invested why don't ya just use Ecotech pumps? Hopefully you don't have much loss man!
is it possible that in these areas of canada, stray voltage is an issue? i know when i lived in a “3rd world country” it was. but i wouldn’t think tdot canada would have these issues
I had stray voltage from a cheap Chinese pump knock out my Apex. lost everything.
How dare you like this video before me!
Any tips for Goni's? Mine was doing really well but now just looks kinda sad....
March need separate fuse on each plug
I can say that in my system I was feeling a stinging when putting my hand in the water, wrote it off as cut on my hand. Watched some videos were they talked about grounding probes. Got one as they are $20 or so. Place my hand in water, stinging sensation. Place grounding probe no more stinging. I’d say they work. How is another story lol
I run grounding rods on all my aquariums , I’ve had heaters give off stray voltage before . If I didn’t have the grounding rods I probably would have lost some live stock!
Stray voltage doesn’t kill, since the fish aren’t grounded. It could damage corals if not mistaken.
@@dominus6224 I sure felt it when I touched the heater ! Not sure what woulda happened if I didn’t have a grounding rod
How does it damage coral but not affect fish?
Hate to say it. Marineland is junk, imo. Is your tank grounded, to earth ground. And buy power strips that actually trip, like a breaker.
Gotta be careful with the power strips that trip like that because sometimes if u have a power failure I’ve heard of them not turning back on after 😬 eg mid winter night time power failure for 2sec normally power comes straight back on after but I’ve heard those ones can not come back on even if the power returns… not happened to me before so i might have misunderstood what happened but yeah if u gotta reset the switch it could be a problem if for some reason u forget or miss turning it back on…. Easier to remember if it’s just 1 tank at home, but if u do a bunch of them in the store it’s easier to accidentally miss turning one back on 🤷♂️🤔🍻
@@JakeDogg-RIP do you want to be safe or have convenience, your lucky the place didn't burn down not recognizing the early signs of an electrical issue
@@timl2546 I’d rather not loose all my corals 🤷♂️😉 I know what ur saying, that’s what fire alarms are for tho
Me feel success me first viewer
Do you do HUGE water changes for emergency? Or would that be too stressful?
its only stressful if your water change water parameters are very different than the tank water, several people with nano and pico tanks do 70% or more water changes often. whats more stressful, a slight change in salinity or nitrates, or heavy metal. that being said, i would always suggest more smaller changes than one big change for normal maintenance
It’s reminds you of Murphys law if something bad could happen then something will eventually happen
I just got juiced last week from y maxijet in my mixing barrel. the quality went to shit
Ouch!
cord management Zip tie them up
Why have you not learnt your lesson from the last time bud. Everything in your shop needs to be on RCD's. In the UK they are 30 milliamps breakers as standard. That pump wouldn't of even began to heat up. It would of just tripped everything that was on it when it sensed the differential. Apparently you guys in Canada or America call them GFCI's (ground fault circuit interrupters)
Yup, I explained in another comment to use a GFCI network for each tank. And exactly, it would never get to that point due to any voltage spike/drop.
This dude is hard-headed. Just because you run a fish store doesn't mean you're smart. He'll eventually learn the hard way
Can those corals recover?
another!????? :( poor system
Use DC pumps?
First in
First