No longer an emergency :(

Last week I woke up to what looked like a graveyard in my 60g!
Paired clowns rolling across the sand... fire, cleaner, and peppermint shrimp all stuck to filter... Royal Gramma on its back... all coral completely shrunk...

All chemicals perfect. Started pulling out electrical equipment, and discovered the cord to the heater was still IN the heater's casing, but the solder joint had broke inside... my "unbreakable" heater -- as advertised w/ lifetime warranty -- had electrocuted EVERYTHING! Must have been a hell of a shock to kill instantly. Only survivors are a Ruby Scat, Lawnmower Blenny, Blue Linkia, and Green Star Polyps

So I'm using this catastrophe to dream-build the sump and stand/hood I've always wanted which will have a grounded wire coming out of the water in the sump attaching to a built-in-the-stand system ground. Seems overkill and I haven't researched other remedies for this possible failure, but common sense tells me that electricity will choose the shortest path to ground, so I'm sure this will work and keep electricity outta my display tank.

Thoughts?

 

they make pre-fab ground probes, their titanium probes that you attach to the ground wire on your outlet
their about $15 in most cases recommended for any tank

 

I've been there bro and understand how you feel. I woke up one morning to a sump and display tank full of a mysterious foam and all of my fish dead and corals looking horrible. I had a cuke clime into one of my powerheads and nuked my tank. Good luck with anything you do from here on out and get yourself a grounding probe and a gfci

 

yeah I forgot about the GFCI that is a 100% must have for any tank, I've already had one pretty much save my life when my first 58g busted and soaked the wall, the gfci shut everything down and kept it from overloading the socket and catching stuff on fire

 

thanks guys... definitely will look into the GFCI and probe.

 

Sorry for your loss, that really sucks. I would seriously write to the maker of the heater since it is warrantied for life. It's like circuit breakers/surge protectors that have the $200,000 guarantee against equipment loss. At the very least, I would call and B!+ch them out.
Definitely get a GFCI outlet on your wall, or at least one of those GFCI wall circuits that plug into the wall.

 

Man that sucks for the both of you.... Sounds like my house, the BS never ends...

 

Sorry about your loss. I can't quite imagine what a "built in the stand" system ground is. . .

Could you draw me a mental image of what you're describing here?

 

Along the same lines... woke up to a caulerpa orgy.... green death...

 

If your not a handyman with electricty at least get one of these: Shock Buster 5-Outlet GFCI