Grounding Probes with Multiple Breakers

[Lividfanatica]

Hey all,

I have 5 breakers feeding my fish room. My BASIC understanding of how all this works is... if there is stray voltage from a pump (for example). The voltage will exit through the grounding probe. This will cause the GFI breaker to detect a difference between input/output voltage and pop.

In this scenario, the ONLY breaker to pop should be the one with a faulty piece of equipment, correct?
Do I require multiple grounding probes, or is my assumption above accurate, and I only need one?
Any recommendations for a grounding probe? What have you guys used that has been successful in a reef?

Thanks!

 

[KStatefan]

Hey all,

I have 5 breakers feeding my fish room. My BASIC understanding of how all this works is... if there is stray voltage from a pump (for example). The voltage will exit through the grounding probe. This will cause the GFI breaker to detect a difference between input/output voltage and pop.

In this scenario, the ONLY breaker to pop should be the one with a faulty piece of equipment, correct?
Do I require multiple grounding probes, or is my assumption above accurate, and I only need one?
Any recommendations for a grounding probe? What have you guys used that has been successful in a reef?

Thanks!

It would only trip the breaker that has the imbalance of power in-out.

Would work with one ground probe.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

You should have a ground probe in the Aquarium or Overflow box, and in your Sump. I’m not a proponent of using the building ground, due to the amount of electrical noise on it** I prefer a separate ground rod through the slab. ** This is from my years of working on Computer Room Support Equipment.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

You should have a ground probe in the Aquarium or Overflow box, and one in your Sump. I’m not a proponent of using the building ground, due to the amount of electrical noise on it** I prefer a separate ground rod through the slab. ** This is from my years of working on Computer Room Support Equipment.

 

[WVNed]

You are correct, one probe is enough.

If that's all you need to know ignore this.

Your reason why is wrong. There are 2 components to electricity. Voltage and amperage. If we think of electricity flowing like water in a hose then voltage is the pressure in the hose and amperage is the flow through the hose.
A hose with the nozzle turned off builds to high pressure but has no flow until you open the valve. People most often talk about voltage because it's easy to measure. GFI devices work on amperage though.

A GFI measures the amperage going through the hot wire and coming back on the ground wire. If there is a slight difference between them it opens the circuit. It looks for flow.
If the tank is not grounded the voltage can be in the tank at the same amount as in the hot wire but there is still no flow.
so the GFI will not trip.
A ground probe completes the circuit so if the tank water has a path to the hot wire the flow goes out the ground probe. This means the amperage going through the GFI device will now be uneven on the 2 sides of the circuit. Some of the amperage is coming back on the ground wire and some is going through the ground probe. The GFI will trip.
Any GFI circuit in the tank could be tripped by one ground probe.

 

[Lividfanatica]

You are correct, one probe is enough.

If that's all you need to know ignore this.

Your reason why is wrong. There are 2 components to electricity. Voltage and amperage. If we think of electricity flowing like water in a hose then voltage is the pressure in the hose and amperage is the flow through the hose.
A hose with the nozzle turned off builds to high pressure but has no flow until you open the valve. People most often talk about voltage because it's easy to measure. GFI devices work on amperage though.

A GFI measures the amperage going through the hot wire and coming back on the ground wire. If there is a slight difference between them it opens the circuit. It looks for flow.
If the tank is not grounded the voltage can be in the tank at the same amount as in the hot wire but there is still no flow.
so the GFI will not trip.
A ground probe completes the circuit so if the tank water has a path to the hot wire the flow goes out the ground probe. This means the amperage going through the GFI device will now be uneven on the 2 sides of the circuit. Some of the amperage is coming back on the ground wire and some is going through the ground probe. The GFI will trip.
Any GFI circuit in the tank could be tripped by one ground probe.

Thank you! This is very helpful! I'm always trying to learn more and I appreciate the correction/explanation!

 

[Lividfanatica]

You should have a ground probe in the Aquarium or Overflow box, and in your Sump. I’m not a proponent of using the building ground, due to the amount of electrical noise on it** I prefer a separate ground rod through the slab. ** This is from my years of working on Computer Room Support Equipment.

I thought about doing this... The fish room is in the basement so it wouldn't be hard to punch a hole in the slab and drive a rod through. Do you have a particular probe you reccomend?

 

[KStatefan]

The gfci compares hot and neutral for the imbalance not hot and ground.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

I prefer the Ultralife Titanium Grounding Probe, but they are getting harder to find.