Barca888 Posted June 6, 2004 Share Posted June 6, 2004 Just cleaned the overflow box filter and removed the rio power head rated at 1400lph. Finished cleaning it and tested it in a bucket to find a pleasent charge in the water. This is 3-4 yrs old and i now have it running it in the 640l tank and the fish arent behaving any differently. It's as if they dont notice it. However when i put my finger in the water it gets me ;\. Is this dangerous to the fish? I am most likely going to get a more powerful power head to replace this rio however i need to use it for a day or two to filter the water. I have also noticed a much slighter charge in some cases when im feeding my fish in the past. Thanks Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cichlids_au Posted June 6, 2004 Share Posted June 6, 2004 Danger Will Robinson Danger The fish will be OK because they are totally surrounded by the charge and are not earthed. Anyone that goes near the tank however will run the risk of electrocution. The problem is when the electricity gets earthed so if you need to run it make sure you keep everyone away from the tank and replace it ASAP. Turn the power off when you feed your fish This is really dangerous so be careful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeW Posted June 6, 2004 Share Posted June 6, 2004 Barca - Replace it / return it - and discontinue using it. As Isaac Asimov once said: If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster. Get a new pump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OziOscar Posted June 6, 2004 Share Posted June 6, 2004 Sounds like the insulation has failed, or one of the seals has filed (power line or shaft seal). If you have a spare, now is the time to use it and take that dangerous unit out of use and bin it, else cannibalise it for spares. Cheers - OziOscar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inspector rex Posted June 6, 2004 Share Posted June 6, 2004 Actully i read, stray voltages from faulty electric equipment increases the chance of lateral line erosion, and i also read some people use a titanium grouding probe to stop this from happening, although i dont see how this would effect fish if there was nothing to ground the faulty electrical equipment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OziOscar Posted June 6, 2004 Share Posted June 6, 2004 I've read some yarn in a USA-originated marine oriented magazine about earthing the whole system for some arcane reason and they mentioned the probes. Arcane aside from the usual "insert GPF device" reasons that is! That said, it's all too often those not-so-esteemed publications are making articles on an advertiser driven basis. <<grrrrrr>> Either way, I would be interested to know how stray voltage increases HLLE risk... there has to be some interesting science in that article. I was always under the assumption that HLLE was related to high nitr*tes, bad nutrition, etc. Is there a URL available? Cheers - OziOscar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barca888 Posted June 6, 2004 Author Share Posted June 6, 2004 Well thanks for the information. I did occur to me about the earthing thing so i made sure i didnt test the water. However since i saw the cost of rio power heads i tested the water again to find it gone ;\. I will be clearing the tank soon anyways and hopefully it wont kill me in the next month. As to the damage to the lateral line i would have to agree. I had two salmon tails in the tank. These guys were always menaced by my oscars. However they got worse once i got this tank. I did notice their lateral line was much more obvious and this means the rio problem may have been here for a while. I dont recall my first shock from this tank but i thought this was as a result of water close to my fluro. So be wary peoples... Dont be ignorant when your tank zaps you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inspector rex Posted June 7, 2004 Share Posted June 7, 2004 I read about grouding your tanks (i think...) from an australian mail order companie (probably not the best source of information). Im pretty sure latteral line erosion is mainly caused by bad nitrates, and diet etc, but stray voltages can increase the probabilty of the fish getting HLLE. I have also heard of people ( in a very old aquarium book at my school) using a small electric current to kill some pest (i forget what). Apparently this worked but i wouldn't trust a book that dated, and i dont think the fish would really like that. Dont some predatory fish use there latteral line to detect the weak electric feilds of other animals? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inspector rex Posted June 7, 2004 Share Posted June 7, 2004 By the way, has anyone had trouble with condesation forming inside the top of the hagen thermal compact heaters? i dont trust them as my last one did and i also lost one of my kuhliis when the thermostat stuck on and heated the water to somewhere around 40 C (my thermomter does show temperaters over 34, but it was like a warm bath , Maybe i should get electonic thermostats like the hagen tonic. i bought another one from krempins, after being convinced they were trust worthy, but now this themometer has formed the condesation. I my last thermocompact had problems and now this one has aswell. Does anyone else notice there thermal compact heaters are faulty? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter_Gun_Riff Posted June 7, 2004 Share Posted June 7, 2004 way to much fancy talk just get a new pump lol yew i dont get ur quote one bit apart from the word doctor lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barnesy Posted June 9, 2004 Share Posted June 9, 2004 gday id just like to ring in here and say that this same problem happened to me and one of my heaters. everytime i fed my fish i would get a small zap and then 2 weeks later i put my hand in the tank to grab a net that i dropped and i got zapped big time. The tank cracked and i was thrown against the corner of the concrete wall. I ended up with a burn line across my hand and a nasty scar on my back. not to mention that my Sulfur Cresteds were killed in the cracking of the tank. the moral of my story is. get a new power head. its not worth it. so now i have put in an 'Earth' thingy into my fuse box and only use quality equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OziOscar Posted June 9, 2004 Share Posted June 9, 2004 re: Quality Equipment It too, can foul up. I came home to a cooked fish today. It took a nine months to get it from 25 mm to 130 mm (American Cichlid) and it was just about cooked enough to eat - by a supposedly high quality European made heater. It is in warranty and it is the right size and shape... <<evil grin>> Funny thing is that all the cheapies from [somewhere in Asia] are working solidly and are older than my investment in 'the good stuff'. re: Rex and Hagens There was an article in a UK rag about the fault you mention. Hagen's UK distributor did half-confess a defect in manufacture but not in function. I will try to find the article for you if you like as it is quite interpretable. Please PM me if you want to receive the info. Cheers - OziOscar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Morelia Posted June 11, 2004 Share Posted June 11, 2004 Hi Everyone, What a coincidence. I was reading this post the other day, and then last night, my Rio 400 internal power filter stopped working (as it, and the 2 other of that model i bought about a year and a half ago seem to do periodically) I took it out, and took it apart, gave it a good clean, whacked it in a bucket, and flicked on the powerpoint, and i got a good tingle all the way up my arm. (from the hand holding the filter, not the power point) Is it the brand or what ? I have an El-cheapo Resun SP-2500 1400lph internal that i bought about 2 years ago for $30, and it's never stopped once, and has been running just about non-stop that whole time. Most people have told me Resuns are crap, and then tried to sell me something twice the price. I got the Resun when i first started keeping fish, and i couldn't afford to buy anything more expensive, but it's turned out great ! Cheers, Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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