Smelly Skimmer

[Bloop]

Hmmm, my skimmer smells mighty fecal today. I’m cleaning it all and adding fresh filter medium. Calcium’s low in presumably unrelated news.

This is NOT how I wanted inaugurate BLOOP’s board:
 :P

[anthony911]

oh?<diclass="msgbox">Noilesuploaded!</di>

[cruzincaril]

hi guys!!  my skimmer starts to smell ripe too when i have about an inch of skim residue in there. the smell comes out of the little hole in the cover..at least mine does. hey ant whats new with u?  ???

[Bloop]

Thanks Carole. It's never been that ripe before. I kept counting snails to figure out what died. But I cleaned it and it's fine.
____________

There are two aquarium shops in my general area. The closest is about 20 minutes away and the other is about 35 minutes away in good traffic with tolls. Of COURSE I like the further one best. The original owners used the closer one. That shop had help them set up, sold them all equipment and knew the tank overall.

Since I bought the whole set up on Craigslist, I didn’t have any manuals to go with any of the equipment. I set it up as intuitively as I could. I grew nervous, this is a LOT of water and electricity to mess up. This was a lot of critters to croak.

SO I bit the bullet and had a guy come out from the closer store after the first week to check out the system. Among my many questions were, “Is everything set up properly and SAFELY? Is there any equipment I need to keep things running smoothly?”

The guy said everything is set up well. He advised peppermint shrimp, fresh sand and filter medium.

I visited the further shop this weekend. We chatted about making a screen for the top before I bought a new wrasse. The guy asked what happened to my old wrasse and I told him about the broken UV sterilizer and fried fish. He then asked if my tank was grounded and showed me a grounding plug. I had no idea.  My tank wasn’t grounded. I electrocuted those little guys for nothing.

Bill –who’s never even seen my tank- asked about grounding but I thought he meant does everything have a 3-pronged plug.

I feel like such an idiot and pissed that I paid a guy to tell me nothing. Am I being unreasonable?

[anthony911]

why pay a  guy to come out  to your house .....when you us here to help.....

[Bergy]

sorry, i wasnt clear on that grounding issue.

BUt, there are some really smart folks out there that would argue against them, as they may save you from a small tingle, but it wont save you or your fish from true electrocution...

It provides a direct path to ground, but it isnt necessaryly the right path...and it certainly isnt going to guarantee you that you might not becoem the better path if you are less resistance then that probe...

but, yea, we have all paid for stuff we dont need at some point... that is what lfs do... they sell us what they think is right, and there isnt a forum or group of guys to get some feedback from so folks buy whatever is sold to them

PAtience is important, not just for watching what is going on in your tank, but for purchases as well...

[Bloop]

why pay a  guy to come out  to your house .....when you us here to help.....

But I only did it once… and I didn’t inhale.

That was around Easter, before here. I was too new to formulate an intelligent question. It’s not a habit I can or want to maintain but when I set it up I figured an ounce of prevention…

I had the impression that guy thought I was a persnickety PITA and didn’t want to bother with me. I guess this adds to that thought.

And Bill, you asked me if I had it grounded and I told you yes… I’m the one who was unclear and it was after the event anyway.

Are you saying that even if I had the grounding probe, my fish would still have fried?

Your tag line ain’t lying. I’m looking at my money though glass.

[cruzincaril]

as usual ive committed another boo boo.. my tank aint grounded either...oooooo!!! (ant where do u get those cute icons i love the thinking one)

[Bergy]

the Grounding Probe does not assure you that your fish wont get fried.  in fact it pretty much assures you that if you do have a leak, your fish will be 'tingled' until you figure out that you have a voltage leak, which will be longer as the probe may hide the tingling from you...

that is the 'pro v con' discussion that experts / electrical engineers have, which is way above my level of epertise..

i would strongly urge everyone that doesnt have a GFI or GFCI to go out and get one today...  They can be found built into electrical cords and outlet strips.

the average cost is about $20

This will assure you that you wont DIE when you get electrical shock... or rather you wont get the electrical shock.

It will turn off everything that is plugge dinto it and you may suffer issues related to tank health, but yo uwont die...

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=18026


Or anything, doesnt have to be from drsfostersmith



Most houses have a GFCI circuit already, and i fyou plug into that circuit, you are covered...  (these circuits are usually started in a bathroom and may extend into the kitchen or patio)

And to be clear, I reccomend you get this WAY before yo uthink about a groundng probe...  As in get this today!

[cruzincaril]

well i just have a power strip thats full..do they have gfi power strips? it would be too hard to have that outlet plugged into my liv room wall and have the plugs into it. not a reachable place. i think i saw power strips with that gfi feature. have to look...

[Bloop]

http://www.amazon.com/Leviton-7599-W-SmartLock-Receptacle-White/dp/B000VYO9MU/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1244492418&sr=8-21

So will a bathroom outlet do?

I'm handy, but I f*&^ing hate tinkering with electricity.

Anytime I change so much as a light fixture. I turn off electricitry to the entire hose rateher than risk a whoops.

[cruzincaril]

so u wanted to hook up your tank etc elect to your bathroom outlet with the gfi? or are u talking about if its on the same grid? my tank is in the liv room so im gonna have to see if i can find a power strip that has the gfi on it. i been lucky so far...no shocks..one time tho my hand was in the water and my other arm touched the top of my lite fixture..that was a little zap..ooo..more careful next time

[Bloop]

I want to replace the regular outlet with a GFI.

For aesthetic reasons plus I know I can find it today.

[Bergy]

i been lucky so far...no shocks..one time tho my hand was in the water and my other arm touched the top of my lite fixture..that was a little zap..ooo..more careful next time

ACTUALLY, you are quite lucky.  And that should not happen.  even if you touch the water and the fixture... Sounds like you have a bit of a stray voltage too, or your fixture is shorted out...

(if you touch the metal of any fixture, that is the same as GROUND.  if you touch ground and feel a zap/tingle then you are conducting elctricty to ground.  Where is the elctrictiy coming from???  Could be anything that is plugged in and touching hte water then you provide the path to ground)

[Just_Greg]

if your light fixture zapped you, then the chances are really high that there's a short to whatever you touched (case, reflector, etc).  one thing i've seen are screws holding reflectors the have chafed the supply wire running beneath them.  another possibility is salt creep inside/beneath the fixture resulting in an electrical leakage path between the terminals and the metallic object in question.

adding a GFI (affectionately known as a "get fried instantly"...don't worry that's an electrician's joke) outlet is pretty EZ.  what one must remember is that the same GFI will affect any other daisy-chained outlets "downstream" from the GFI to the breaker box, but not the outlets that are "upstream".  however, if you use one of the plug-in types, only the local power supply is affected.

HTH