Grounding a tank in a house thats not grounded

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PrecisionAquatics

PrecisionAquatics

Candiru
MFK Member
Sep 24, 2008
208
0
46
SouthWest, CO
I was messing around in the sump the other day and had one hand in a little water on the floor and stuck my other hand in the sump and BAM! :WHOA: Well not quite that bad but i did get enough of a shock to startle me a bit. So I set out to rework all my electrical to get it off the floor, and to ground my tanks, just one problem...my house was built in '58 and all the outlets only have hot and neutral, no grounding wire. What do I do now? Can I take a wire down through the floor into a grounding rod in the crawl space? Or should I tie it into the copper plumbing to ground it? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
kevinfleming21;4647392; said:
Go to an electrical store and get a ground rod to stake outside in the ground. Then just run a green ground wire to your setup.
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Its that simple huh?
 
or, you can use the rod to ground the copper plumbing pipes that run to the outside of your house, then tie in a ground from your setup to the nearest copper pipe.
 
PrecisionAquatics;4647393; said:
Its that simple huh?
Click to expand...


Yup, I would go with the later of suggestions. You can get like a 6 ott ground wire and a clamp that would go with the rod. pound the rod into the ground except for an inch or two. run the 6 ott bare ground wire from the rod to the outside plumbing area where you pipes are exposed and then using another clamp fix the 6 ott bare wire to the plumbing. Now all your copper plumbing is grounded.
 
Thanks Kevin. Hopefully this will keep me from getting cooked again and solve my random disease/death problem.
 
How do you plug in your refrigerator and other large appliances?
 
The outlets all have 3 prongs, just no ground wire coming into any of the boxes
 
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