+Hydro Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Last week I had my hand in the tank up to my elbow cleaning some hair algae off the rocks. To my surprise my arm quickly jerked up a few inches (kind of like when you get bit by a fish when you aren't expecting it) but there was no reason for this....so I thought. Just a second later I heard a loud rumble of thunder! I quickly realized that I had been lightly shocked by lighting and instantly removed my arm from the tank. I noticed that there was a red mark where my arm was touching the edge of the tank, which has a crust of salt around it, this is where I must have gounded out. The mark was there for a few hours and for the rest of the night I was a little sick to my stomach and the next morning my arm muscles were sore. Obvoiusly I didn't get much of a shock but I guess it could have been much worse. Everyone in the tank was unaffected by this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad and Belinda Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Guess I won't have my hands in the tank the next time a storm comes through.You were lucky. A guy I worked with got hit by lightning while he was "sitting" in the bathroom. Knocked him out for a while. To make matters worse, the Austin American Statesman funny man John Kelso found out and put him on the front page of metro and state. Moral to the story, wait for the storm to pass before you "sit" next to a window. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmelhiser Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 ... Just a second later I heard a loud rumble of thunder! I quickly realized that I had been lightly shocked by lighting and instantly removed my arm from the tank ... Amazing how many thoughts can go through your mind in that one second isn't it!? Then that Fight or Flight instinct kicks in! 1 second delay... hmmm I wonder how close that actually was? The old "count every second after you see the strike and divide by 5 will tell you the distance from the strike" puts it about 1/5 of a mile away at least. (maybe more if there was greater resistance between you and the strike) The short of it is (wow, what a pun), hands out of the tank when the thunder comes a rolling around. -t Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reybeast Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 yeah, lightning can go pretty far. My son and I were outside one evening and there was sporadic lightning off in the distance. As we watched the storm get closer, my son leaned up against a metal rain gutter downspout. Couple of lightning bolts went off in the distance, and he jumped. He didnt have a shirt on and we looked at his back where it had been touching the down spout, and it was angry red, he had been shocked/burned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted April 13, 2010 Author Share Posted April 13, 2010 Amazing how many thoughts can go through your mind in that one second isn't it!? Then that Fight or Flight instinct kicks in! 1 second delay... hmmm I wonder how close that actually was? The old "count every second after you see the strike and divide by 5 will tell you the distance from the strike" puts it about 1/5 of a mile away at least. (maybe more if there was greater resistance between you and the strike) The short of it is (wow, what a pun), hands out of the tank when the thunder comes a rolling around. -t You are right about how many thoughts go through your head so quickly...I thought "I got bit by a fish" then no...."maybe it was a quick muscle cramp" no...."maybe I'm just crazy" no.....(BOOM)....holy s***! The only one second after that I had a dozen thoughts and the funniest was "How stupid would it to have survived so many things in my life to be killed or nearly killed by my fish tank!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Dena Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 OUCH! I frequenly get shocked hitting the light fixture when my arm is in the tank. I think the section of my arm hitting is wet also. It's happened with every light I have on my tanks. Recently I even touched the metal thingy holding my light, to move it, and had a little water on my finger...zap. Of course the first time it happened, it happend over and over again before I realized what the heck it was. I thought "okay, that's not just from the heat of the fixture". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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