Shocking Poll -- Has It Happened To You

[bronconut2003]

and I thought I was the only one to do that. Thanks for the company you all.

[lpm141]

Faulty auto top off shocked the sh@# out of me severel times until I replaced it.

[OnTheReef]

I had a powerhead start leaking current, got a pretty good "nip" when I put my had in the tank, actually took me awhile to figure out which piece of equipment was causing this. I used a voltmeter to find out, btw

[tomasga]

Here is one for you, I had a PRIZM skimmer on my 65 reef tank, I had gone on vacation and not cleaned the skimmer cup. When I got home from vacation and openned my front door I noticed a lot of smoke only to see flames about 3 feet high behind my tank. fortunately I got home when I did, otherwise I would be homeless and reefless.

I like most others as it seemed had my PS lying horizontal on the floor behind the tank when the water hit the PS and no GFCI to stop it it shorted out and caught fire.

So after a water hose, re painting the wall, big water change and the loss of a few coral, I was back in business.

[chrismunn]

last satuerday i was doing an entire tank break down to go BB. while i was doing the break down i was contiuously un-plugging, and pluggin in different pumps and powerheads for no good reasona at all! well everytime i reached behind the tank, i kept feeling a little buzz. i thought it was salt water getting into a cut on my hand. i finally got wise and figured that i might be shocking my self, so i tested it out by grabbing onto my metal power strip. needless to say, it WAS the power strip! i swear im a complete genius sometimes!

thats was the last time i got shocked. the first time was when i was using a mag2 to blow detritus from the rocks. my dumb *** is in the tank fumbling around with this stupid thing and shooting water all over the damn place. i got water on the walls, in my face, in my power strips, all over my body, and again, being the genius that i am, i decide that i should unplug the pump before i do something stupid like shock myself........i bet you can guess what happend while i was trying to unplug it? yes, i got blasted! but, i did show that pump whos boss after i launched it across the romm and into the wall at like 70 mph!

[DanielMar]

Does this apply to "old school" shocks. I remember when I cracked the heater inside the tank. The only reason it stopped was because it was near temp setting. In the old days we didn't have GFCI's. Oh, almost forgot to mention, breathing hard/rapid heart rate for 20 minutes and laying on the floor after was scary. Other than trying with all my might to get out of the tank and could not. Then cutting my knee on the counter drawer handle when power quit..
Lesson learned. I GFCI all wet situations. Even have extensions with them built in for unprotected circuits. (cut the recept. cord end off and install a waterproof box w/gfci)
Daniel bzzzzt bzzzzst

[TrevDog]

My experience (and only because I still get a chuckle at how dumb I really am):

After cleaning my skimmer I forgot to reattach the feed line. Thinking all was good, I flipped the switch on the powerstrip, instantly realizing that a Mak4 can really pump some water...all over the tangle of powerstrips below. Not thinking (a common practice it seems), I grab the cord of the powerstrip thinking I can just shut it off. If you can picture me doing the dance of the idiot getting zapped every time he trys to flip the switch...well that's me. In desperation, I yanked on the cord, killing the power and breaking my Ca reactor and the impeller housing of the Mak4 in the process.

Good times...good times...at least the stu...stu...stutter has improved.

Trevor

[XeniaMania]

Well, mine isn't so much reef related, but the equipment is. I had a fly river turtle, for those who don't know what it is, it's like a fresh water sea turtle since it has flippers. Well, the turtle chewed through some of the insulation for the heater cable, but I guess only the positive side. One time while I was cleaning around it, there was a grounding probe that was hooked up to the wall socket, but not in any water. The probe just happened to accidentally fall into the tank, and the turtle goes nuts swimming laps around the tank. It confused me because it's usually pretty slow and calm. So I reached in to grab it and that's when I got shocked and realized why it was swimming so fast. I took out the grounding probe, and examined the wires to see where it was leaking. And when I realized it was because the turtle chewed through the rubber, I dipped the probe into the water a few more times to punish the turtle...=X

[Alaskan Reefer]

I guess I have one more yet. LOL. I once was attempting to mix kalk with an old Powersweep. I poured my fresh water, put in the pump, and plugged it in. Didn't work right away. Put my hand in the bucket, felt a little voltage nudge, but thought nothing of it. Went ahead and banged the thing against the side of the bucket under water, then REALLY felt the nudge. It found the wall as well. LOL.

Man this just isn't funny. At least the new tank has started with GFCIs everywhere in the vicinity, even if it did cost me $700 to get them there.

[Alaskan Reefer]

Okay, almost 24 hours later, and it seems that 3/5 is about where we are with been shocked vs. never been shocked. Maybe the second category should be "waiting for the first time I get shocked."

Let's get some more good ideas in here -- drip loops, hanging power strips (if possible above water level), and GFCIs have been covered. GFCIs seems to be something that would have helped MANY of us. Let's go everyone, $15 at Home Depot and a simple wiring job -- save yourself AND your Tunze Streams when the power strip starts smoking. How about some more good safety ideas...