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George Patterson · February 13th 06, 02:58 PM posted to rec.aquaria.marine.reefs

wrote:

All tank equipment is on a GFCI outlet. However, I live in an old
house. Most of the circuits are knob and tube style wiring. The
tank's circuit, as well as a few others, are updated wiring, but the
electrical panel is not grounded to anything. Is my GFCI useless?

No. GFCI outlets are frequently used with obsolete wiring to provide the safety
equivalent of a grounded circuit. It will work just fine. If one of your pieces
of equipment were leaking current into the water, the GFCI would trip.

One more thing. Your electrical panel is almost certainly actually grounded to
something (I've never seen one that isn't). Prior to about 1970, it was common
practice to ground the box to the cold water supply line. These days, they sink
one or two heavy copper rods 8' into the ground and run a wire to them. It's
possible that the original ground wire was removed, especially if plumbing lines
have been re-routed.

What about a grounding probe? And is this the most likely cause of
the problem. Thanks for your input.

I use a probe on my tank, but I think it's unecessary if you have a GFCI (I put
mine in before I got a GFCI). From what I've read, the most likely cause of the
symptoms you describe is some sort of bacterial infection, but it doesn't have
all of the symptoms of the most common infections (for one thing, these are
usually white and cause tissue loss). Infections are hard to treat, since it's
hard to tell what antibiotic will work on your particular disease. You also
can't just dump a bunch of antibiotics in a reef tank.

Perhaps it's just old age?

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.