Interesting reasons not to use ground probe

I have heard alot of people say they use a grounding probe. I was reading up on this when I found this article. Interesting reading.
Aquarium Grounding Probes

 

Very interesting.. So many theories out there and they all sound right!

 

i agree. my tank never tripped a gcfi until i put in a ground probe. now things trip here and there without any good explanation.

 

To quote the article "So what are you doing when you add a grounding probe to your aquarium? You are providing a current path that might not already exist. Any fish between the source and the grounding probe will experience a current flowing through their bodies... not good!"
Yes! This guy must be a genius. He does understand how a ground probe works!
It provides a low resistance current path that might not already exist!
I would much rather the current travel through the ground probe to ground, rather than travel through my arm to ground.
I bet my salary if the author did a little test himself sticking his hand into two SW tanks with shorted out pumps - but one tank had a properly grounded ground probe installed and the other, well, the author's arm and body was the path to ground - he'd feel more "comfortable" with his hand in the tank that had the ground probe. ;D

 

Probe or not to probe

Well like i said in another post of mine. I was working on my skimmer and it overflowed on to the floor right next to or maybe on the outlets i put a towel on the floor and it covered the outlets and i kept working on the skimmer. Low and behold i put my hand in the water and i had like a tiny tiny cut around my finger nail and so i was being shocked, not a lot but i was feeling it.

Well i made sure everything was dry and problem fixed. No more shock.

Both are right you do want a probe in the water because if a short happens you would want the breaker to trip. On the other hand if you put a grounding probe in your tank it will be tripping, maybe even a lot.

I now think the best way to deal with this would be to make sure you have a grounded outlet.

Thanks,
Mike

 

This article has been cited before, and like Bogie says, the misinformation in it is almost laughable.
I personally would never run a tank without a grounding probe.

 

Knocking on wood

Yes I'm knocking on wood because i don't even have a grounded outlet!!

Making a note,,,getting GFI and i'm going to rewire the house.

Thanks Packleader!

 

not me, never used one, never used gcfi. all my pumps are external and the lights have their own ground. drip loops in all wires with outlets out of range of water. tank has its own designated breaker.

ground probes are good though for tanks with internal pumps, heaters since they tend to leak electricity into the water column.

 

THANK YOU!!!! My thoughts exactly. A ground probe saved my hide last year. I had an old PH that was shorted out.

 

Take it easy John--He was not refering to a short situation. He even said that in the article-I am not defending him-just put this up for discussion.
This is from the article.........

Direct shorts would have other ramifications. Copper or iron could be introduced into the aquarium water as plating occurred. Other compounds would plate out as well since salt water contains many ions in suspension. Electrolysis would occur, heating the water while it liberated oxygen and hydrogen. There is of course a shock hazard.