Urgent Care :: ELECTRIC IN THE WATER!!

[turtie]

hey guys. i just came to clean the tank as i do every week. when i tried to put my hand in the water i felt electic, and it was really hard!!
i started to unplugged the devices one by one to see wich one causing it, but nothing changed! only when i turn off the main plug the electric in the water is gone. so, i dont know what causing it!

what should i do? will the turtle can be hurt by this????

[turtie]

ok... its the heater!!! what should i do now? i can get a new one today, and its freezing out side!!! they will be fine without heater for 24h ?

[vear]

Oh no! be careful, your turtle can definitely get hurt (so could you btw). I'm glad you figured out what it was!

About the heater, you should try covering the tank to keep the heat in. If you have your own house you can turn up the heat. If not and the water is too cold you can do small water changes with warmer water. Just make sure you check the temps. with a thermometer. If you're getting a new heater tomorrow your turtle should be ok.

[turtie]

at night the temperature could be 17C with no heater!! it that ok for one day?

[jay2487]

if it gets below 55f in the tank the turtle should brumate. was part of the heater out of the water? was it a submersible or a hang on back heater? Be real careful with those they can explode and electrify the tank and kill YOU dead

[turtie]

hey jay, so they can go troght the night tonight without the heater?
the heater was fully in the water (waterproof of course). i really dont know what cause it, maybe cheap build (5$ heater....)

[jay2487]

Heya turtie, tell me if I got this right, 17c = 62f? If so one night at that shouldn't hurt just don't warm it back up to quick so as not to stun the turtle with a fast temp change. My tank is 110gal and is on my back porch. Granted I live in Florida but if you've seen the news then you've seen the last couple weeks had temps below freezing and highs during the day of 40f Even with 3 submersible heaters I couldn't keep it but maybe 65 during the day and low 40s high 50s at night. All 5 of my turtles would go inactive at night and once the sun hit the tank in the morning they would all come back to life and eat and play until it got too cold again then they found a resting spot underwater and went back dormant. Someone on here may tell you it is bad for your turtle, I dont know, I do know that I didn't see any problem at all with the turtles during or after the cold spell. I did lose my 2 pictus catfish though:(

[turtie]

it wasnt the hear after all!!!! it was the clamp lamp (maybe plus the heater)
i've just find out the the turning off/on button was in the water!!!!!! OMG OMG how could it happen!!! i took it off to dry, lets see what will happen.

[jay2487]

Jesus turtie is your turtle still alive?

[turtie]

yes, 3 of them actually. it got dry and now everything is perfect. does turtles can be hurt by electricity in the water?

[jay2487]

I think the only way your getting shocked is the water is charged and your feet are grounding you, if you felt it it would have killed the turtles if they were grounding so I guess the tank trim and stand and silicone and glass seperating the water and being grounded, they probably didn't feel a thing. Otherwise they would have to be dead. If you could feel it then it would stop there hearts if they were grounded, have to.

[bradmeisel]

wow lucky.

[turtie]

lucky me

[Fergy_123]

17C should be ok IMO. It gets -30C here regularly, and I run no heater on my tank and maintain 76-78F degrees all day/night.

EDIT: Sorry just read the rest of the thread. Glad you found the problem and you're turtles are ok.

[LittleResQNorth]

You can also consider taking your turtle out for a night, turtles need to be in the water to eat and drink but they are just fine outside of the water too. I take my turtles out all the time, they're very amusing to watch walk around and explore. Just block off any small spaces they can get into, and I mean every single small space because they will find all of them!!