Power head shorted out and electricuted tank

Discussion in 'Coral Health' started by TROYBOY84, Dec 17, 2010.

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  1. TROYBOY84

    TROYBOY84 Feather Duster

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    Location:
    LACEY, NJ
    Came home after work and found my tank in the dark. Turned out that the wire going to the powerhead had a pin hole allowing water to travel through the inside of the wire down to the powerstrip. My fish are fine but my birdsnest has bleached but the pollyps are still out, zoas are half open, and leather has closed up. Are they in shock or are they doomed? On an upside it seems that electricuting my tank killed my cyano.
     
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  3. mocarski

    mocarski Bristle Worm

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    do you use gfci outlets and ground probes? mounting power strips or sitting them so that the outlets are not facing up and having drip loops in all of your wiring is a good idea too.

    If the colonies were healthy before and the water params are good the odds are that they will recover. If there are any healthy sections of the corals remaining it may be a good idea to frag them pieces off of them. If you lose the overall colony the frag may survive.

    Good luck with it.
     
  4. TROYBOY84

    TROYBOY84 Feather Duster

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    i have a grounding probe and drip loops. seems like it almost created syphon thru the power cord
     
  5. mocarski

    mocarski Bristle Worm

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    grounding probe will give you a path between where the power is entering the system and where it can exit. Otherwise it sort of bounces around inside. GFCI outlets will trip the circuit turning off the power and eliminating the issue. Of course losing power has it's own issues. You need a ground probe for gfci to be effective. Sometimes gfci won't trip without a ground probe.

    they are expensive but I use Vortechs in part because there's no electricity in the tank.
     
  6. TROYBOY84

    TROYBOY84 Feather Duster

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    Yea im pritty bummed out everything was doin so good