It's not a big deal to put in a breaker or sort out the third wire but I would suggest if there's any doubt in what you are doing, probably best to call a electrician.

As for laws, as a home owner you are able to do electrical work yourself with a permit. Also my understanding if all you are doing is replacing existing, a permit is not required.

Still again, if you are unsure, get a electrician.

As for tripping when not around, rather I come home and find the tank off than the wife coming home and finding me dead.

I keep my Heater, powerhead and actinics on a NON GFI Plug, just for that reason. They are also on a Computer UPS.

When messin with salt water and power, and your unsure, safest bet for your livestock and YOU is to call a sparky.

I voted no. We have GFI receptacles on all our tanks. All powerbars are mounted high up inside the tank stand so water cannot splash on them unless we were trying really freaking hard. We also have drip loops for everything plugged into the powerbars. I think we've got all the bases covered over here :biggrin:

The purpose of a ground probe is to trip the GFCI breaker without something like, say, your arm, tripping it. :biggrin:

Never ...EVER... use a copper rod or wire in your reef tank!!! Not only will the salt and the alkalinity of the water corrode the copper, it will deposit the copper...INTO YOUR TANK!!! Also, if the ...copper... grounding rod is removing ...any... stray current from your tank, it will, by means of electrolysis, diffuse copper into your water!

Use A stainless steel or better yet a Titanium rod in the tank.

If you choose not to ground your tank, you choose to PLAY WITH YOUR LIFE!!! Salt water is an EXCELLENT conductor of electricity!!! What if a glass tube heater breaks??? 110v 15-amp potential MINIMUM right into the tank!!! Now you are standing in your bare feet on a carpet or whatever that I will personally GUARANTEE has a great deal of salt residue on it...

A recent water spill, or just a damp, humid day may be all it takes to pass that current, from the leaky seal in one of your submersible pumps (which is under pressure!), right through your arm, into your heart, and passing through your torso and groin, finally exiting through your toes. As the current sears your flesh, you wonder why you trusted that $15 dollar device (GFI) that your uncle's, friend's, pastor wired in ,for a free meal on Sunday afternoon, (after a night out with Jack!!!). You barely had time to wonder why you ignored the laws of physics and the fact that electricity will travel through the path of least resistance, which ...could... have been that ground stake that you hammered into the ground outside with a run of copper wire attached to a stainless electrode (such as a shish-kebab skewer)., before you dropped lifeless to the carpet for your family member to find.

Gfi is nice, and those 'plug in the third ground only' devices from the lfs are handy, but are they worth your life ? Would put an electric heater on the edge of the bathtub and use a piece of string to keep it from falling in? Electrical devices fail, including GFI/GFCI Breakers. By all means use them, ...with... a proper outdoor or other ground.

YOU MUST GROUND YOUR TANK!!! PLEASE!!!

P.S. EmilyB you are 100% correct on that fact!

the last time we had this discusion it was determined that a grounding probe will hinder the operation of a GFI, (and yes I would trust a GFI with my life befor a grounding probe) so I do not use Grounding probes as they are for setups with out GFI's.

Steve

Although it's hard to tell, I think the reference to the copper rod was meant to be a joke.

However I can show you threads from RC, by electrical people, that say the exact opposite.

No wonder aquarists are confused. I use one also, but have no freaking idea who is correct anymore about many things. :confused:

I just have GFI and no probe. I also am confused???????

A GFI works by comparing the current on each leg, hot and neutral. When there's a ground fault, current in does not equal current out (some is flowing to ground) the device trips.

For a GFI to work when there's a problem, there needs to be a alternate path for current to flow to ground. This can be from a device with it's own ground, a stand alone ground probe, or the human body.