<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8355559#post8355559 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dugg
Like i said, i didn't ground the tank to help the fish, i did it to save me. My voltage problem isn't a faulty equipment issue, it's a 1957 clothe insulated wire and poorly grounded outlet issue that has 4 plug strips poked in it lol. I drilled a hole, and drove a copper grounding rod 8 ft. under the slab, and grounded to that instead of the bad outlet. I haven't noticed any effect at all on anything except how much it hurts to put my hand in the water. I have watched the fish closely while removing the probe and re grouding, and can't tell that it effects them at all. I would think that if i were charging the water as has been suggested, that i would catch a slight twitch or something, right as the probe hit the water.
I'm no edumacated electrician or anything, but i have built and wired a few houses in my day, enough that my name used to be on the preffered contractors list at the National Register of Historic buildings, and i think i understand electricity a little bit. Electricity follows the path of least resistance to the closest ground it can find. So the way i see it, since all of the equipment, and none of the fish are in the sump, 100% of any current that i may have created with the grounding probe, is exiting the water without ever traveling through all of the pipes up to the display. It doesn't just fill every inch of the water with current, rather the current would run straight from the source to the ground. If a fish were to swim throught this path, the current would still take the path of least resistance, which would not be through, but around the fish.
Also it's hard to get around the fact that the ocean is grounded, and due to the movement, and salinity of the water alone, there is always current present. If anything, the grounded enviroment is more natural to the fish then an ungrounded one. We will see over time, but i won't be getting shocked in the mean time.
