Done Cycling

just got my 125gallon cycled and did my first water change and wanted to know a little about grounding probes can you just take a wire and connect it to the floor (concrete)? or does it have to be titantium?

 

A ground probe is what it implies ( grounding=earth ) and concrete is NOT a good conductor of ANY stray voltage,.

If your outlet/s are truly grounded and the ground wire is routed to the outside ( which all homes have them=green wire ) one end should be placed in the sump and the other is a plug in with a typical "extra" pigtail to be screwed in the outlet cover screw.

 

The short answer to your question is no--you can't just take a wire and place one end in water and the other end to the floor. The "ground" is already established through your electrical work on the premises. Your job is to get your ground probe to that ground.

Using a simple piece of wire won't do, as even trace amounts of copper kills corals. Titanium is the metal of choice used by these companies who manufacture ground probes for aquaria. I've never used one or saw one, but my guess is that only the portion that enters the water is titanium. The rest is probably copper, as it's the best conductor of electricity.

The end not in water should go to ground--which in the best and safest scenario would be the third, round female of an unused receptacle. Screwing it to the cover plate's center screw should take it to ground, if the electrical work in your house is bonded properly, but I wouldn't assume it.

If you had a continuity tester, put one end in the third hole of a receptacle and the other to the screw of the cover plate. If that's continuous, you can do what wildreef suggests, and screw it to the cover plate's screw.

I'm sure the ground probe companies have full instructions on how to achieve water to ground using their product. If their product has only an eye hole made to screw to the receptacle's cover screw, I'd be disappointed.

 

Here is the grounding probe I bought, very inexpensive and easy to use. It has a "false plug" that plugs directly into a socket to ground the probe properly and also has the eye hole for connecting to a screw. Very cheap security that is a must have imo!! Premium aquatics is a great place to order from too, I have a lot of experience with them and no complaints yet. Hope I helped!!

 

Mtips, you mentioned your done cycling the tank ? Can you tell us hold long the tank has been up and running and how much live rock ?.