Eheim Heater Disaster.

I recently reached out for any sort of information on why a beautiful Gold Pigeon Blood Discus of mine went from being completely healthy, eating, bright and healthy at night, to dead within less than 24 hours.
With the only logical explanation anybody came up with to this happening was that the Discus was frightened by something and darted into the tank, killing himself.
With the next day, and days following, another discus died, while the remaining ones became extremely stressed. Along with the discus, 6 rummy nose tetras, 4 cardinal tetras, and 2 Silver Hatchet fish all died within 4 days.
I began doing daily water changes, cleaned the filter, limited feeding, checked the water parameters a minimum of 5 times a day all which came back perfect each time. I could not find out what was wrong and I was losing live stock at a rapid rate.
Today I came home from work to find another rummynose had died, so I immediately began doing another water change.
Well also today I sliced my thumb a bit at work, and as soon as I put my hand in my tank my thumb received a shock of electricity. I unplugged everything to do with the tank. I then began to plug everything back in 1 at a time while placing my thumb in the tank after each time.
Come to find out that 2 out of my 3 Eheim Heaters which I bought 4 months ago were some how producing enough stray voltage into my tank that it was actually killing my fish.
I called Customer Support at Eheim and explained my problem about hundreds of dollars of fish lost, and money lost spent on their equipment.
The best the initial person who answered the phone could tell me was that they could send me warranty information and if I filled it out and hopefully I would get 2 new heaters sent to me. To which I requested to speak with the supervisor, and he offered even less support. To tell me that MAYBE I could get 2 new heaters out of the deal? And then mock my concern comparing it to a "faulty blender". If my blender gives up half way through a banana, I don't lose out on hundreds of dollars and countless hours of chasing my tail trying to figure out what is wrong.
Absolutely terrible customer support, didn't care on bit about my problem, mocked me - almost seemed like I was bothering him with my call.
I am beyond frustrated and at a loss of where to go from here. If anybody has any help or ideas, any input would be greatly appreciated.

End rant.

Not sure if the stray voltage is the problem. You got the heaters 4 months ago and fish only started dying recently? Also, with no path to ground, there's no current flow. You get zapped because you're grounded.

Equipment fails over time. I put a volt meter in the water connected to ground and got a reading of 42.4 volts to ground. I stuck the ground directly into the tank and got a reading of 0.0 volts.

Be careful about using grounding rods in a tank, people believe that it sends stray voltage thru the rod and out of the tank. In reality though it gives the voltage a path to travel which is technically called current. Current traveling thru your tank is much more dangerous than stray voltage bleeding off into the water. You'll be much better served to change your outlets over to GFI's for all aquarium equipment. GFI's work off differentials and will trip if the voltage going into the circuit is not the same as the voltage coming back to a certain degree.

This link basically reiterates what I stated above. https://www.thespruce.com/grounding-an-aquarium-1381218

I have since checked each piece of equipment individually. They each add a small amount of voltage to the tank, with the 2 heaters being the majority of it. I do find it odd, however, that all the other pieces when turned on are adding voltage. Without a grounding probe, what would be an appropriate fix to this?

Last year I finally replaced the pump in my DT because it was passing 52 volts into the water. Fish acted absolutely normal, it was me that was AFRAID to touch the water lol. No death ot anything out of the normal.

Sorry about the death of your fish, so is there any consensus about the stray current being the cause? Anyway I am happy to have chosen a Schego heater that is totally sealed and with no moving parts as the temperature control has to be provided separate (by means of an inkbird/stc). Will gradually do the same with all my other tanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fishbubbles

Be careful about using grounding rods in a tank, people believe that it sends stray voltage thru the rod and out of the tank. In reality though it gives the voltage a path to travel which is technically called current. Current traveling thru your tank is much more dangerous than stray voltage bleeding off into the water. You'll be much better served to change your outlets over to GFI's for all aquarium equipment. GFI's work off differentials and will trip if the voltage going into the circuit is not the same as the voltage coming back to a certain degree.

This link basically reiterates what I stated above. https://www.thespruce.com/grounding-an-aquarium-1381218

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As the saying goes it's not voltage that kills...amperage does