# Mag drive stray voltage



## c31979839 (Nov 26, 2014)

So today I go to my tank to pull out some water to water the plants around my house. 

Great naturally fertilized water by the way! 

But just as I'm putting the siphon tube in, my fingers touch the water and... Bzzzzz.... I get a little shock. 
It was still a little early in the morning, so I was thinking, maybe I'm just imagining this, but I carefully touched the water again and... Bzzzzz!!

Damnit, I have stray voltage in the water... something is leaking. 
There are only two electrical devices in my water; my Mag Drive 5 pump, and my heater. So to confirm that it was one of the two devices, I turned off the power to them, and the zap in the water disappeared. Plugged the heater back in, and the zap was not there.

So it seems like my Mag Drive pump has started leaking voltage. This was a second hand pump and has been good to me for at least 3 years. It doesn't owe me anything at this point.

Has anyone had this problem with Mag Drive pumps? I have mag drives on all my tanks at the moment (from the 12, down to the 5), and they are all beasts. I was really shocked when I noticed the stray voltage today (pun intended). 

Does anyone have any suggestions, or should I just cut my losses and buy a new pump?


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## brycon (Aug 5, 2014)

Maybe try another plug to make sure it's not the pump.


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## c31979839 (Nov 26, 2014)

I switched it to a different receptacle on a different circuit and it's still causing problems. 
The fish don't seem to mind right now, but I have a new pump on order and I'll hopefully be able to switch it out early this week. 

What are the chances that the pump would work fine in an external setup? I have a noisy Mag 5 externally on another tank and I'm thinking of replacing the noisy one with the zappy one. 

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## carl (Feb 11, 2010)

c31979839 said:


> So today I go to my tank to pull out some water to water the plants around my house.
> 
> Great naturally fertilized water by the way!
> 
> ...


Take the top cover off the pump and seal the area where the cord goes into the epoxy with hot glue, that usually works to stop the stray voltage


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## c31979839 (Nov 26, 2014)

That's a pretty good idea! I actually have some epoxy that I could use to reseal the area around the cord. 

I'm going to give that a shot and post the results. Fingers crossed! 

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