After moving a few things around in my sump last night and cutting my hand on a sharp piece of LR I came to detect a low voltage leak. I first thought what the F%$#, my GFI didn't kick in? ...but after searching the archives I came to realize this is expected. I broke out my voltage meter and found I had 2 volts running through the system which was enough to give me a noticable shock though the open cut. I powered everything down and I was still getting a 1 volt reading...I was getting this in my seawater mixing tank as well so maybe this is normal or I have a leak there as well?
Anyways, what I did not find in the archives was a reference to a tolerable level of current in the tank? Seems there were differings of opinion on how and if this impacted any of the critters and corals. There was also controversy on the impact of introducing a grounding probe on one hand it attracts stray voltage, on the other this creates a continual current inthe tank which is worse than stray voltage (if I understood
this correctly).
I know the proper thing to do is to find the source of the leak and address it but I am still left wondering;
1) how much stray voltage is too much (I suppose anything beyond what occurs wilth all submerged hardware off - I am not even goig to attempt to factor in lights since I can't do anything about these
)
2) grounding probes, good or bad?...if a GFI is in place for the "big stuff" and all they do is route stray electricity out of the tank and potentially mask the situation, is this a good thing?
Curious to hear what you have to say!
- scott -
