Electrocuted entire tank!!! - Death Toll Update

[Nate]

I recall reading something about how fish can handle a certain amount of electricity.

That does not suggest that there are not exceptions such as cartiligenous fish (sharks and rays), and fish that have an electrical organ such as FW knifefish I believe in the family Morymid? sp?

Anyways, like I stated earlier, maintain good water quality, and you should be through the worst.

Nate

PS I did mean carbon or purigen, or any other chem filtration

[bassman]

Originally Posted by Nate

I recall reading something about how fish can handle a certain amount of electricity.

That does not suggest that there are not exceptions such as cartiligenous fish (sharks and rays), and fish that have an electrical organ such as FW knifefish I believe in the family Morymid? sp?

Anyways, like I stated earlier, maintain good water quality, and you should be through the worst.

Nate

PS I did mean carbon or purigen, or any other chem filtration

Thanks Nate, next water change t-minus 10 minutes. How often should I be changing the carbon? I put a brand new bag in my sump yesterday.

[KrazyKuch]

The Electricity would take the best possible root to ground....since you don't have a ground probe or anything the only way for the electricity to flow is the same way it came in, through the neutral conductor on the fan which would result in a dead short which should have tripped the breaker.....So in short your Fishy family would have recieved a minor electrical shock, and for the most should be fine.....depends on how long it took for the breaker to pop if it ever did???

[Dave C]

I wouldn't have thought the fish/coral would have received any shock at all since they aren't grounded. I imagine the breaker popped, the lights were out, same with all return pumps, current and heat and you're seeing the results of that outage. I bet they recover fine.

[bassman]

Originally Posted by Dave C

I wouldn't have thought the fish/coral would have received any shock at all since they aren't grounded. I imagine the breaker popped, the lights were out, same with all return pumps, current and heat and you're seeing the results of that outage. I bet they recover fine.

You would think so but the breaker didn't pop. Aside from that all my pumps, powerheads and heaters are on a separate breaker. Only my lights and cooling fans are on that breaker. The lights were on and the other fan was still running. Even the powerbar the two fans are plugged into didn't trip.

[bassman]

One other thing to note, is that the wire going to the fan slips onto two thin prongs. The connection is not very snug or tight. I can't remember for sure but I am 99% sure that the wire had come unplugged from the fan itself but both were fully submersed in the water. It's the same end you find on a cord that plugs a ghetto box in, two little pins.

Not sure if that means anything to you electrician types out there or not.

[bassman]

Death toll update:

5 snails
1 Blue sponge
1 Derasa Clam
1 Pulsing Xenia Colony

Other then that my other corals seem to be recovering, slowly.

I think I got lucky.

I was talking with an electrician at work yesterday and he isn't really sure how much of a shock the tank would have received. Being that the cord came detached from the fan as it fell into the tank and was dangling in the water the current probably wasn't very strong. The electricity would'nt have had a place to ground out. The fan was not drawing any electricity so it was probably a fairly mild voltage.


I am wondering if the copper leaking from the fan motor didn't do the most harm to the tank. Never mind anything else that would have leaked out of it, i.e. grease etc.


It looks like most of my critters and corals will be okay.
I am very bummed that I lost what I did but it could have been much, much worse.

[bassman]

Originally Posted by KrazyKuch

The Electricity would take the best possible root to ground....since you don't have a ground probe or anything the only way for the electricity to flow is the same way it came in, through the neutral conductor on the fan which would result in a dead short which should have tripped the breaker.....So in short your Fishy family would have recieved a minor electrical shock, and for the most should be fine.....depends on how long it took for the breaker to pop if it ever did???

That's sort of what I thought but I know nothing about electricity. I was reading on grounding probes and from what could understand it would have made it worse.

The breaker never did pop.