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!
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