Grounding probe!
 

I'm going to be making a grounding probe and I wanna make sure I'm doing this right! All I have to do is find a stainless steel object, wrap wire around it and attach the wire to the grounding prong of the plug in and plug it in? Is that right? Any advice would be good before I electrocute myself and have fried fish!

Tanks
Simon

Simon,
I dont know if stainless steel will cut it as an item you can put in a salt environment.
I don't have any first had experience but I do believe it will rust.

I have heard of going to radio shack and getting conductive foam of some sort.

As far as your wireing goes to make a slick unit take a dremel tool and cut the Power parts off the cord and just leave the grounding prong.

Or you could wire it into a diy light set up and just attach it to the ground somewhere there but, you may not have such an option.

Hi,

The other alternative is to visit a high end bike shop and ask for titanium spokes or bolts -- high end bike guys like titanium. Titanium frames, spokes, seat posts, cranks...everything to loose as much weight as possible. Titanium is much better for corrosion resistance in saltwater.

- Victor.

stainless steel will rust in salt water.. if you are going to do this ude Titanium like Victor pointed out.. but for the 24 bucks it would cost to buy one I hardly think this is a good candadate for DIY.. you might save 4 bucks.... :roll:

Steve

I went to a bike shop up here once and asked for a titanium spoke, and the guy said " Are you nuts? Maybe in Europe....titanium spokes don't have the strength for bikes up here.." then he rolled his eyes a bit, and I mumbled something about an aquarium and crawled out...

Gee, that sounded like one of your stories Tony :lol: 8) :wink:

That does sound rather eerily like something that could happen to me. I like the part about mumbling something about an aquarium and then leaving. I'm sure there are a LOT of stores with staff that think "Aquarium people are very odd" ... !!! :)

Is that because Calgary has so many more areas of rough terrain than Europe? Hmmm....

Ok if stainless steel rusts, than what do they use on the $35 grounding probes from the LFS? And what type of screws do they use in submersible pumps like the Mag series pumps? Aren't they all stainlesssteel?

Simon

yup they are stainless and as I saw today both mine are rusted if you lookat mag drives they are intended for fresh water use.. and there are several threads stating to put silicone ove the bolts to keep them from rusting away.. I just keep a eye on mine but both mag drives I cleaned today had rusted bolts. stainless is fine for fresh water.. but salt water will rust it.. Titanium is what salt water versions should be made if..

I have the titanium heaters in my tank.. some one used the stainless ones by mistake and they were all rusted in a month.. this is the same reason that titanium is used for chillers in reefs but fresh water chiller units are fine being stainless.

I have also seen two types of grounding probes.. one made of stainless and another made of titanium that stated "salt water" on it

Steve

I just read on reefcentral that grounding probes can cause more harm than good! Now I'm confused. The reason I'm making one is because of my friends tank. He said that he was getting zapped by his tank. I put my finger in the water and felt nothing but when he put his in, he'd get shocked! It looked quite painful too. I tried several times but I never felt a shock. He said that I was insensitive. We started unplugging stuff one by one and found his pump to be the culprit. I thought that a ground probe would be his solution but on canreef they are saying it will make it worse. Right now he can't replace the pump untill he can find a replacement. So what do we do? The pump is a beckett 535 pond pump. Is there anyway to fix the voltage leak?

Simon