revisit bonding reduce stray voltage?

[vedalissa]

There is an older thread talking about bonding a pond to help prevent stray voltage. We have a small electrical current in our pond. (The fish are out for quarantine.) We thought perhaps the problem was the submergible pump, but took it back this am. and with the new one there is still a small charge. What is the next step in finding the problem and what is bonding?

[powerman]

bonding is connecting all nuetrals together and grounding is tieing that in to earth ground potential.....if your pond, when it is built, were to address this the rebar in the walls would be bonded together and grounded....such as in a swimming pool......any electrical that you are running outside should come from a gfci recepticle or breaker....and inside if there is water involved...thats why bathrooms...kitchens and garages and outdoor outlets all must be gfci protected.....

[wcstory]

How do you know you have stray current - getting a low level zap or tingle? If something is feeding stray voltage it could go from nuisance level to lethal without warning, this is serious.

What do you have that's powered in, near or around your pond? Even if it is not connected to the pond.

Do you have or have access to a multi-meter to measure the stray voltage? Place the ground lead of the meter to earth ground or use a 12-24" metal rod placed into the soil as deep as possible. Determine if the stray voltage is AC or DC, measure the current. Start unplugging one pond item at a time to determine what the source is.

Bill

[vedalissa]

We have a cement "slab" porch and the pond (black liner with landscape block walls) starts at the edge of the porch. We have a submersible pump in the pond (replacement, thought the other was bad) and a bio filter on the outside,(only 1 week old). We know there is some charge because, when standing on the ground with bare feet, if you put hand in the water you get a nice little tingle. We have a volt meter and checked to neutral, not to ground and it did show voltage. We've also called the power company because the voltage at the meter seems to be low. We also have a seperate turtle pond with a small pump inside. It is about 6" from the wall of the fishes pond. We have the equipment pulled into and outside socket, on the porch, but it is not a GFI. The pond registers about 2 volts. AND it goes away when we unplug the pump in the pond. That pump is not in a basket, we just have it sitting on the vinlyl on the bottom of the pond. What now?

[wcstory]

I'd VERY strongly recommend having the porch outlet upgraded to a GFI. One note about GFI outlets if done properly several non-GFI outlets can feed through a GFI and keep the protection of the GFI. Hire qualified professionals for such work.

Normal voltage ranges from 110 - 120 at 60 Hz.

Be very careful with the voltage. The insulation is compromised and can fail even more without warning.

The pump you replaced was the same type from the same source? You may be dealing with a bad batch from the manufacturer.

Bill

[vedalissa]

Have the GFI in our possession. Will have someone put it in next week. And yes we go the same pump from the same place. The first one we got at the beginning, so it was about 1 1/2 ,months old. We did not put insulation or anything under the pond liner, it is sitting on the dirt. Should that have been done differently? Didn't consider anything like that 'cause we are in Florida and it only gets really cold here a couple weeks of the year................

[wcstory]

Getting the GFI professionally installed is a great safety move.

The liner is acting as an insulator. When you put your hand in the water you are giving the stray voltage a path to ground.

Unless I'm missing something you havent done anything wrong with your placement of the liner or pump. The problem seems to be faulty pumps. If you had a GFI it should of tripped when you got your first tingle.

Get a different pump. What brand of pump are we talking about?

Bill

[vedalissa]

I believe it's Garden Treasures, It's from Lowe's. We shop there a lot and they didn't give us any trouble exchanging the first one. If we can stop the shock we will upgrade next year with a "real" pump. It pushes quite a bit of water, but if we can't stop the shock we'll have to change again and this time will go elsewhere. Any suggestions for quality for price?

[mstrseed]

If you want a good internal pond pump look into the PondMaster pumps. A lot of places have them at great prices...................

[tranquility]

I really like my pondmasters.....I've been using them for about 5 years now...
Lawanna