ground probes whats your thoughts?

well tonight i had a flood, and as i was reaching to grab things out of the sump i was getting electrocuted, i had to turn power off to get into the sump. it has me thinking about electricity and water.
i found this write up and wonder whats others thoughts on this Aquarium Grounding Probes

here is why i think maybe this article could be correct,maybe ground probes aren't a good thing... i have wood floors laid on cement floors, i toweled up all the water i could, and the surface of the wood is dry, but some water is still under the wood . I'm in bare feet and when i touch the tanks water while standing on the wood i get a zap, when i stand on a folded towel ( folding making it 6 layers thick of towel) i don't get any zap. ok now get this....when i unplug my ground probe i get no zap at all bare feet on floor.

with ground probe plugged in i turned off all pumps one by one to be sure they were not leaking voltage. thinking one could be and when i turned the one that was leaking off i would not get zapped standing on bare floor. each one turned off , i put my finger in the tank while standing on the bare floor, i still got a zap with each separate pump shut down. but unplugging the ground probe i get no zap at all.

im puzzled.

 

My thoughts, exactly. In my 38 years in the hobby, I have never and will never utilize a ground probe in any aquarium for those very reasons.

As for your ground probe being the source of electrical current, all I can say is that something isn't wired correctly. But you already know now that you and your tank are better off without it, anyway.

 

What caused the flood pink?

 

I'm with Mr Bill. Never had one and never will. This is a debatable topic with strong feelings on both sides so I will not go into why I do not recommend them.

As a side note, I have a theory that saltwater tanks conduct electro magentic energy from all electrical devices nearby. I have had tanks that measure 25 to 30 volts. Unplugging every electrical device one by one only reduced the voltage little by little. Only after all devices were unplugged, did the voltage reach 0. The biggest drop in voltage occurred after unplugging the lights which were not in contact with the water. Turning the lights off had a small impact but unplugging them made a big difference.

 

the probe was plugged into a gfi outlet, i wonder whats up with that ??? WAS plugged in i didn't have a ground probe on my fist tank i had a few years back, this tank i figured i was going to do every thing right, well this tank with doing every thing thats pushed at you in this hobby has been more problems than my first tank. I'm learning often less is really more.
thank you for you're input

i had rigged up a filter sock and the sock was full and over flowed since it was at the surface of the sumps top edge, instead of going the easy route, the lower side back into the sump the water actually came out higher in the socks top where it went onto the cabinet floor than onto my floor. about 5 gallons is the amount of water i had to replace.
got a text from my apex at about 12:45 am.. my apex warned/texted me of low salt, i jumped out of bed since it said my salinity was at 20.9 which is 1.0209 if not for the apex the water would have had more time on the floor and critters/inverts might have died.
today i WILL be ordering the water on floor sensor for my apex, i have been dragging my feet on that add on, was up most the night researching how to do it. and i think i found the correct parts. i found a simple water sensor to hook to the break out box. it looks perfect from all i have read.

what you are describing is just what i read happens with these saltwater tanks. that they always will show volts. the article i posted had some links on it i believe it was described in one of the links, its nice to hear from someone who has seen this first hand and can say its whats really happening. i question things on the net and what to believe. thanks for you're input


i think i made a mistake adding that probe my poor fish. i added it for safety the fishes and mine. but it seems it was not a good thing. The probe has been unplugged since last night wondering what should i do, i will remove the wiring completely now after hearing Mr Bill's and TritonsGarden's thoughts.

Thank you

 

not sure why my sea star has lightened in color. I'm guessing it has to do with this

Mr Bill, i do plan on having that grounded outlet the probe was plugged into tested. its a GFI outlet.

 

I would not put a ground probe in for a few different reasons.

I do have one of these jut in case I have a flood and any water and power cross paths. I would get this over a ground plug IMO

Amazon.com: Tower Shock Buster Portable GFCI: Pet Supplies


Edit- sorry didnt see the post above, and thats one of the reasons I would not have a ground probe its lets any free power in the water flow threw and out thus shocking our live stock. I have much faith in my gfci out let and If it pops somethings wrong in my tank..

Glad to know your star got its color back

 

so its a portable GFCI i didn't know that was available. my outlets around my tank were switched to GFCI.

that portable unit is great for those who don't want to rewire an outlet! i do think the gfci is a must when playing with water.

i was calling it GFI above ooopppsss

 

Ya know, I recently had a nice thread on to ground probe or not.
I'm not an electirician by trade, and don't really pretend to be.

I now have one, made it myself.

Pink- your GFCI either ain't working, or, it's wired wrong- which still means it ain't working.
the GFCI- when it detects some small change in the ground- should shut down! Yours obviously didn't, did it?

I'm glad you seem to be physiclaly OK, you're alive obviously.
And I hope the wate damage to your floors is minimal at best.

At least my grounding probe thread got me to buy a $10 voltmeter!
I've even tested it since putting the grounding probe in.
Last test, probe off, about 6 volts, probe on 0 volts.

I made mine by taking a 3 prong utility plug, like if you're making an extension cord, etc., and only putting a wire on the third probe, the round one, and plugging it in.
My GFCI adapter (works btw), is pugged into the other outlet on the same plate- in shich my entire tank runs off of. NOthing dims, etc. works great.

I don't know what's up with your GP, and on my thread there were many pros' and con''s.

For now, I"m leaving mine.

PS- the color of your sea star- still anedoctal. Try using the GP, and not, and if it does it every time (the coloring), viola- youi're right. And, I'm not saying you're that it doesn't happen.

There are many articles about stray current in the tank, and how it contributes to invert death and lateral line Dz. etc.

Glad you're OK, and you'll get this figured out I'm sure.

 

Todd_Sails

thanks, yes I'm fine i have been zapped before.. so this wasn't my first time.


once i was trying to unscrew a socket from an outlet with a broken bulb in an out door post lamp. had pliers inside the outlet spread open, was turning them, when my niece hit the light outlet switch on. ....surprise! ;D
she wasn't tall enough to reach the outlet her mother said, and she wasn't....well..... she was very smart and grabbed her stool in the bathroom that she used to brush her teeth. amazing how smart kids are. she thought she was helping by turning the light on. haha ;D

my GFCI does kick, it kicked recently when there was a power surge in the area that blew a bunch of items out in my home. i am going to have it tested though to be safe. the flood before when water hit my surge protected strip the tanks plugged into it blew the GFCI out...oh this is not my first flood thats why I'm putting the flood sensor on my controller this week.