gfi should be sufficient to detect any stray current through the water, if i had current leaking from a device in my tank it would be time to replace that device, leaking current can be dangerous and usually means the devices integrity has been comprimised.
GFI are set to trip at a deficit of 4mA so if any current is leaking even not on your ground rod then it will trip, GFI does not need the current to go through a ground wire to trip the device.
GFI looks at hot and neutral and compares them, if they are not equal the device trips, they acutally have nothing to do with the ground connection, other than that is the usual path to ground in a fault, but in a tank it could be other paths to ground, including your arm.
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