If it is electricity and not salt you would feel it if you put your other hand in the water. My softened water "zaps" only my cuts. Not even if I put the same hand in the flow but avoid my cuts getting wet do I feel it. And I know my houses electric is not charged because we have water that is not run through the softener in the kitchen, for drinking, cooking, etc. That never bothers my cuts because there is no salt added to it.
Lets get one thing straight right now... You are making statements based on unknowns.
What I know is this... The threshold of pain for electrical current passing through the human body is 3/8 ampere. This is not the minimum current that can kill you if it passes directly through the heart. That can be as little as 1/8 ampere in rare cases, and more commonly 1/4 ampere. VOLTAGE does not kill nor cause one to feel the electricity... it is the current which kills. It is the current we feel.
Sticking his uncut hand in the water will not allow him to feel the pain if the current through his skin is not high enough for it to be "registered" by his nervous system. As I stated before... the resistance through the cuts is considerably less than through his undamaged hand. Electricity always takes the path of least resistance and the current through that path is greater than the current through the other paths.
E=IR I=E/R R=E/I W=EI
And again... the grounded probe will not fix the problem... its a patch!!! Not a fix.
If the problem is corrosion related and that grounded probe ever becomes ungrounded, the next zap he gets could be ten times worse!
Find the cause and have it repaired or replaced.
Please don't argue this... especially if its not your hand getting shocked!
I have been hit with 340 MHz on the right fingertip at only 30 watts of power due to contact with a broken antenna line (cracked insulation). It charred a 1/4" dia hole in my fingertip and radiated out at about 15 different current paths all the way up to my elbow.
I have taught electronics at the Army Intel Center Schools 504th MI Bde Ft Devens Mass, Written Study Guides, Lesson Plans, and Skills Qualification Test Modules. I repaired Surveillance Systems for over 14 years. And sadly... I've seen what low voltage HIGH CURRENT can do when it vaporizes a connector cover and flash burns the hands and forearms of the person who was putting the cover on what was supposed to be a dead circuit. (Some idiot turned it back on moments before)
I think I know what I'm talking about!
The problem will not fix itself. Unchecked, it can only get worse. The grounding probe IS NOT a fix.
From an OSHA standpoint, it is unsafe.
The lights, filters, heaters, etc are all UL listed which means they themselves are designed to be properly grounded. No supplimrental dgrounding needed.