Can electricity inside water kill corals?

[jamirlima]

My heater broke into 2 pieces inside my refugium and ended up killing couple of fish and my breaker also went off.

My corals (mostly zoos and other softies) dont seem like they are very happy since this happened.

Someone suggested I should change the carbon from my sump which I did. Possibly the corals must have released some chemicals.

Hopefully the corals are ok. Its just less than 24 hours so cant really say much.

[tmz]

Yes it can kill any living thing. I hope your corals make it though.

[gsxr750]

wow how did your heater brake in two? cross your fingers

[Playa-1]

Electricity and water is a dangerous combination. Not only for Corals and fish but for you as well. I would highly recommend that in the future you avoid glass heaters. There are better options on the market that are much safer.

[reefergeorge]

You should also have the heater on a gfci outlet for your safety. Forget about the fish, and corals.

[supersurfer12]

I'm sorry but water+electricity=Duh death......again sorry but it just seems kinda obvious

[digitalis]

i used the stealth heaters. they are stainless steel with a plastic covering.

[pledosophy]

no one else has read about electrical current stimulating coral growth?

I'm serious.

[justinl]

electricity is bad. there's also some pretty vicious stuff in those things too like heavy metals

[hoosierpat]

Technically nothing in the tank would have felt that electricity since nothing is grounded. The reason that the combination is so bad for humans is that when you stick your hand in the tank, your feet being on the floor grounds out the electricity so it travels through you to the floor, hence shocking you. Since the fish are suspended in the fluid medium and are not grounded, they should not be affected by the free voltage. Just like birds can sit on powerlines because the path of least resistance is through the power lines because they are thicker than the bird's legs, however if you were to grab onto them, that would not be the case. If the breaker popped, then the power for the pump was probably off and that is what more than likely caused your problem.

Throw some carbon in and do a water change. Hopefully you will see some results from that. The carbon would be for any chemicals that may have been released and the water change for everything else.

[ScooterBlenny]

Originally posted by pledosophy
no one else has read about electrical current stimulating coral growth?

I'm serious.

Yep, I heard about it - apparently some stray current actually seemed to be stimulating growth. It will be interesting to see how the research progresses. I have a tendency to electrocute myself near the aquarium, so I won't be testing the theory anytime soon:-)

[Patrick12]

Electricity + water does not always = death. Only if current flows thru the living organism, will it cause issues. If just voltage is applied to the water, but the tank is well insulated, then it is unlikely any harm at all will occur. It sounds like your case had some current flow as some of your livestock was affected. I have had components go out and when I stuck my hands in the tank, I got really surprised and shocked....literally.....but the livestock was doing fine. Reason is, the stand was totally wood so there was no current flow.....until I stuck my hand in the tank. So, it was a fair question.

As mentioned, there is a project in the Solomon Islands where they are growing SPS corals on electrodes that are placed in the water. The growth rate is nearly double that without the current. Not sure if other corals benefit or not. I would not think so.

[tmz]

Originally posted by pledosophy
no one else has read about electrical current stimulating coral growth?

I'm serious.

Yes, I read that article but I don't a small bit of current passing through the substrate area is the same thing.

[jamirlima]

Originally posted by pledosophy
no one else has read about electrical current stimulating coral growth?

I'm serious.

I have read about using electricity for coral growth but i think that is in small amount.... so when I talked to an experienced aquarist he told me that my corals are stressed due to electric shock from heater breaking and they will be normal in few days to a couple of week. He did mention that maybe some species might not fare well.

[ccoral]

all electrical components in water create some current. just test in a bucket.
Use GFCI outlet only to not protect fish and you

[pledosophy]

Originally posted by jamirlima
I have read about using electricity for coral growth but i think that is in small amount.... so when I talked to an experienced aquarist he told me that my corals are stressed due to electric shock from heater breaking and they will be normal in few days to a couple of week. He did mention that maybe some species might not fare well.

I agree that the amount of electricity from a heater is a bit much, just thought it was an interesting side note.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

As I mentioned in the other thread, IMO, it is the copper than can be released that is far more of a concern to tank inverts than the electricity itself in a case like a broken heater. Electricity flowing out of a bare copper wire in seawater can send a flood of dissolved copper into the tank.

[Shouse94]

Technically nothing in the tank would have felt that electricity since nothing is grounded. The reason that the combination is so bad for humans is that when you stick your hand in the tank, your feet being on the floor grounds out the electricity so it travels through you to the floor, hence shocking you. Since the fish are suspended in the fluid medium and are not grounded, they should not be affected by the free voltage. Just like birds can sit on powerlines because the path of least resistance is through the power lines because they are thicker than the bird's legs, however if you were to grab onto them, that would not be the case. If the breaker popped, then the power for the pump was probably off and that is what more than likely caused your problem.

Finally someone with some intelligence. I had a DIY UV steralizer that broke and flooded the internals. Sure was shocking the hell out of me when I was messing around in the tank barefooted on a wet floor. But the corals and fish showed NO reaction signs.

[Shouse94]

all electrical components in water create some current. just test in a bucket.

Care to elaborate on that, b/c it's a very minute amount.

[tmz]

Originally posted by Shouse94
Finally someone with some intelligence. I had a DIY UV steralizer that broke and flooded the internals. Sure was shocking the hell out of me when I was messing around in the tank barefooted on a wet floor. But the corals and fish showed NO reaction signs.

The poster is not refering to voltage but current(amperage) from the broken heater with an obviousl path to ground wether through a grounding probe or via the heater wires path to ground. Current will hurt you wether you are the ground or not and in his case he noted dead fish and a blown breaker. Not at all like an ungrounded transmission wire with a bird on it. More like dropping a hair dryer into a bathtub when you are in it.

[jamirlima]

Are aquarium heater element/coil made out of copper? am not sure?
I use metal clamps on my plumbing and so far had no problem inspite of some people saying against it.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Are aquarium heater element/coil made out of copper? am not sure?

There are many heaters on the market, and I have no idea what parts they all have, but even if the coil is not copper, the other wires inside of it probably are. The coils in a visitherm are silver, so they are not pure copper, but I do not know what they are, nor how much copper they may contain.

[greenbean36191]

Yep, I heard about it - apparently some stray current actually seemed to be stimulating growth. It will be interesting to see how the research progresses.

Well don't get your hopes too high. The technology is more than 30 years old and there's been almost no research done on it in the past 20 years. It's essentially a technological dead end. It has very limited use for rebuilding reefs in the wild and is not viable at all in closed systems since it produces toxic Cl gas as a byproduct.

Besides that, it uses DC, not AC so it's not comparable at all to stray current in a tank, regardless of how low the current is.

[sspark]

Originally posted by hoosierpat
Technically nothing in the tank would have felt that electricity since nothing is grounded. The reason that the combination is so bad for humans is that when you stick your hand in the tank, your feet being on the floor grounds out the electricity so it travels through you to the floor, hence shocking you. Since the fish are suspended in the fluid medium and are not grounded, they should not be affected by the free voltage. Just like birds can sit on powerlines because the path of least resistance is through the power lines because they are thicker than the bird's legs, however if you were to grab onto them, that would not be the case. If the breaker popped, then the power for the pump was probably off and that is what more than likely caused your problem.

Throw some carbon in and do a water change. Hopefully you will see some results from that. The carbon would be for any chemicals that may have been released and the water change for everything else.

then are you saying that if this happened to me, and I had a grounding probe installed, it would have shocked everything? I thought the grounding probe was to "flush" the current out of the tank...

[tmz]

Originally posted by sspark
then are you saying that if this happened to me, and I had a grounding probe installed, it would have shocked everything? I thought the grounding probe was to "flush" the current out of the tank...

A grounding probe will turn any stray voltage(which is potential current an does not move) into current (amperage) by providing a path to ground ,the current is harmful; the voltage is not. Virtualy every tank will have some small amount stray voltage from the water movement and the appliances in it unless it has a probe or another grounding source such as you if you are standing in a puddle with your hand in the tank. A GFCI measures current going out and returning and detects minute losses. When it does it trips( essentialy pulling the plug instantaneously preventing severe shock.A probe should not,in my opinion ,be used without a gfci and gfcis should be used with or without probes on appliances that touch the water.