# Light fell Into the water...



## Neonfish (Jan 27, 2017)

Hey everyone. I was moving a stone which is stuck inside a cave in the tank. But I accidentally bumped onto my clip-on light and half of the light was inside the water, I immediately removed it out. I wiped my hands, turned off the switch and tried to move the light back to original position thinking everything will be alright. I was wrong, I could feel my fingers getting a small electric shock and it was very painful. Right now, I am leaving it to dry. Will it recover? There seems to be no damage accept for the electricity getting out of the light. Thanks!


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## DaveK (Jul 10, 2010)

This is the big reason I don't like clip on fixtures. they can fall into the tank way too easily.

As for saving it. You might be able to disassemble it, dry it all out inside, out it back together, and it might be fine. 

However, I would tent not to trust it. Not only has it been in the water, it's demonstrated that it's not water tight.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

I'm an old hand at dealing with wet electronic gizmos. I used to work in a mobil shop that dealt with pagers who fell into water!!! 
Lamps are pretty simple things that are not prone to being damaged if we do take some care as we restore them.
You are correct so far. You got it out of the water without killing anything! Big plus, there? 
Second step is drying it and that needs to be totally dry. We often get the stuff on the outside and wait a couple hours but that leaves the little cracks and crannies around things like the switch where air doesn't circulate well. That may still be wet. 
So give it more like a week and it dries or we can speed it along by taking it apart to dry it. 
Either way, when it is totally dry it may have a bit of hard water deposit left but that doesn't normally conduct and things are fine. Diving doesn't hurt things, but they do need to dry. 

I recommend a ban on diving until you install something like this! 
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Shock-Bust...-Single-to-Single-Yellow-GFCI-Adapter/1135923


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## Luke13 (Jan 23, 2017)

*Install a GFCI receptacle!!!*

Electrical codes universally require GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interruption) receptacles within so many feet of a sink or bathtub, and we should all treat our aquariums the same for our own safety. You won't hurt your fish, but you could get a very dangerous shock or be electrocuted by the combo of electricity and water. You can get a GFCI at your local big-box store for around $20.00, and installing it is pretty straight forward. If you're not confident about re-wiring the receptacle you plug your aquarium stuff into, you may be able to find a plug-in adapter, but they're not as common. Hire an electrician if need be! (I was an electrician in an earlier life) 

A GFCI keeps track of the electricity coming out into your appliances, lights, pumps, etc...., and makes sure the same electricity is going back in through the neutral. It's more complicated than anyone needs to know for this purpose, but the idea is that if it senses electricity going where it should NOT go, like into your body!! -- it will nearly instantaneously turn off the power. They save lives every day. 

Please be aware that a "surge protector" strip or adapter is NOT the same thing. Make sure it says "GFCI". Surge protectors don't care about you, just your appliances, saving them from occasional power surges that would fry their innards. 

As for the light, I've not much to add to the earlier response about just giving it plenty of time to dry out. I might recommend parking it on top of a heat register or radiator for a while to help drive out the moisture. If you could disassemble it, might help.

Stay Safe! :smile2:


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

Electricity and water are just like lot of things we use every day. It takes just a small bit of knowledge and then a bit of common sense in using that knowledge. 
We see everyday that folks don't use their head at times. When I pull in to gas the car and see some lame-brain using his cellphone while pumping, I just keep going. It may not happen all the time but I don't want to be around when it does!!


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## IntotheWRX (May 13, 2016)

put it with some rice. the rice is so dry it will absorb any moisture around it. it will help suck out moisture from your light.


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## DaveK (Jul 10, 2010)

Luke13 said:


> Electrical codes universally require GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interruption) receptacles within so many feet of a sink or bathtub, and we should all treat our aquariums the same for our own safety. You won't hurt your fish, but you could get a very dangerous shock or be electrocuted by the combo of electricity and water. You can get a GFCI at your local big-box store for around $20.00, and installing it is pretty straight forward. If you're not confident about re-wiring the receptacle you plug your aquarium stuff into, you may be able to find a plug-in adapter, but they're not as common. Hire an electrician if need be! (I was an electrician in an earlier life)
> 
> A GFCI keeps track of the electricity coming out into your appliances, lights, pumps, etc...., and makes sure the same electricity is going back in through the neutral. It's more complicated than anyone needs to know for this purpose, but the idea is that if it senses electricity going where it should NOT go, like into your body!! -- it will nearly instantaneously turn off the power. They save lives every day.
> 
> ...


In general I agree with this. We always want to run a safe system.

However, GFCI wants to trip at the slightest issue. That's needed to protect you, but it will also falsely trip, especially during power disruptions. This is bad for your tank. Twice I have lost my entire SW reef system due to GFCI tripping with I was away. Needless to say this is not fun and very expensive. 

Because of this, nowadays I run most things on GFCI, but critical pumps for filtration are not on GFCI. I don't want them to fail due to a GFCI false tripping. 

I would recommend not using GFCI on critical devices where the failure of it will crash the system. If your there every day, then maybe have the device on GFCI, but put it on non-GFCI power when your away.


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## Luke13 (Jan 23, 2017)

Ugh! I hadn't thought of that, but you make a very good point with which I fully agree. There is no teacher like experience! Reminds me of when I went on a winter vacation many years ago, only to return and find the pilot light on the furnace had failed, the pipes were frozen, and the aquarium heater that had no problem normally, could not keep up with sub-freezing room temps. The water was 45F and nobody survived. Now I keep a much bigger heater than necessary!


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

My whole fluorescent fixture fell in the tank when I was a kid, strangely it didn't shock me, and it somehow kept on burning. I always thought the water would be a dead short...
Then I started playing around with LED's and watch batteries, you all know how to slip a battery between an LED's legs, well it turns out when I put them in my tanks they would keep on shining.... I was a bit weird like that.


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