brettc34 Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Putting my hand in the water is fine, but as soon as my arm touches my reef brite strip (that is attached to the front of my T5’s,) I get the jolt of a life time. It’s progressively gotten worse; at first it never did it at all, then after a few months I could feel a little shock, but thought it was do to heat off of the LED’s because it was more of a burning feeling. Just recently switched fixtures (still T5’s) and it seems to have gotten worse, faster then before too. Any ideas, or has anyone run into this problem before? Next step after this is calling them manufacturer and seeing if they have any insight I guess. Thanks in advance for the help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Grounding issue?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettc34 Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 That was my first thought. My wife's family are all electricians, maybe worth getting my brother in-law over here to test everything out, you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 You have something shorted into the tank. Most likely a heater. Your not properly grounded until you touch the metal grounded fixture. Get a volt meter and test the tank to ground while unplugging equipment. Be extremely careful. A fully grounded piece of equipment can easily kill a person. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettc34 Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 After looking at the plug for the LED's it's just a two pronged plug. No third ground prong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettc34 Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 You have something shorted into the tank. Most likely a heater. Your not properly grounded until you touch the metal grounded fixture. Get a volt meter and test the tank to ground while unplugging equipment. Be extremely careful. A fully grounded piece of equipment can easily kill a person. Yea deffenitely calling the brother in-law then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Voltmeter for sure then. Test the fixture to ground. If you have a metal fixture, then you must use a grounded plug, with the ground connected to the metal fixture. Is this DIY? A commercial fixture that is metal without a grounded plug is breaking just about every electrical appliance code in existence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettc34 Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 Voltmeter for sure then. Test the fixture to ground. If you have a metal fixture, then you must use a grounded plug, with the ground connected to the metal fixture. Is this DIY? A commercial fixture that is metal without a grounded plug is breaking just about every electrical appliance code in existence. The reef brite is a metal fixture with no ground prong from what I just now looked at. The DIY was attaching the LED strip to my T5 fixture Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Sorry, posted the first from my phone. Don't touch anything at this point. Get your brother in-law and/or a voltage meter. 120V electricity is seriously underestimated in how dangerous it is if it passed through a human's heart. If the tank has something shorted into it, and you have a fixture with a ground plug, you create a path to ground when you touch both the fixture and the water, which doesn't sound like the case. If the fixture has no grounding plug, and you are getting shocked, it is the fixture, unless something really crazy is going on, like multiple shorted equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettc34 Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 Yea decide after the shocks last night I wasn't touching it. Called my brother in-law over just now. Thanks for the heads up, we're going to get to the bottom of this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 +1 to what Jestep has said! My guess is the Reef Brite has a dc volt power supply so the housing would most likely be tied to the negative side of the power supply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettc34 Posted July 5, 2012 Author Share Posted July 5, 2012 All right did it the old school way. Just unplugged things one at a time, and kept sticking my hand back in until I didn't get shocked. Turns out it was my uv sterilizer. Pulled it out of the tank, and now I can finally put my hand back in shock free! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaJohn Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 Glad you are still around to tell about it electricity is nothing to play around with for 8 bucks you can get a meter at a big box store and not risk your life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 Let's keep it friendly people. Glad the source was identified, but let's all be careful with electricity. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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