@lIghty My voltmeter can measure AC/DC/frequency/capacitance/resistance. No Amps, that is strange.
Strange but not impossible, most meters have a amp setting. nothing saying mA, uA?
@lIghty My voltmeter can measure AC/DC/frequency/capacitance/resistance. No Amps, that is strange.
Swimming pool pumps has a buildt in diode, current can only go one direction and not reverse, wouldn't this be a solution.
What about a simple little cuircut, A diode, Resistor and Buzzer, this will give you a warning if there is current leaking to earth?
One of the ideas I'm thinking of is a ciruit that will ground the tank through a shunt with the ability of monitoring the current flow, should the current exceed a threshold it will sound an alarm and hold it until its manually reset, this way even if you have an intermitant problem it would still be picked up
Shouldent the rule of thumb be, DO NOT PUT YOUR HANDS IN YOUR TANK IF IT IS PLUGED IN???
This topic will go on forever and I am sure that there will be no agreement on this.
I personally will not put a earth prong into my tank, but have a Lightning protection plug on it.
This plug shows me, with a little LED if all the plugs, pluged into it is protected or if there is a problem.
This buzzer can just serve as a warning, not really work as a earth.
Your idea with the shunt sounds interessting, what about a little ciruit diagram?
Strange but not impossible, most meters have a amp setting. nothing saying mA, uA?
A diode will help on DC current not AC current. You will still get half the current flowing through it.
When I switch it on, I can see for a second mA in the displays corner. But I can not select Amp and the manual doesn't say Amp either. So I have to get a new one.
I was under the impression that all of them do Amps.

Just the red lead of an ammeter connected to a ss rod in proximity of electricals, while the black lead is connected direct to earth.
A diode is like a electronic check valve, so it can be used in various ways to rectify AC to DC, full wave, half wave etc. But I think what NJ is saying that if you use a diode on the earth which is AC you will still get half the waveform coming through. NJ?
@MudsharkI'm learning a lot from this thread... thanks very much to all contributers. The problem is that EVERY SINGLE MEMBER should be reading this thread. Unfortunately it's got too long most people to wade through. Is there any way that a summarised version could be made sticky?

Is there any way that a summarised version could be made sticky?
...I see the "Thanks" button(Left) and the "Thumb's Up" button(right)...
![]()
I'm sure you looked at you'r own Post...Strange, now it's there. I hit the button!
..what is this...? Do we have them...? Are they called something else in SA...? Does it even work with our current...? Sorry clueless...but I read and liked the idea of the thing switching off...like a preventative measure..ignore if I'm bringing a knife to a gun fight..
A GFCI is much more subtle. When you look at a normal 120-volt outlet in the United States, there are two vertical slots and then a round hole centered below them. The left slot is slightly larger than the right. The left slot is called "neutral," the right slot is called "hot" and the hole below them is called "ground." If an appliance is working properly, all electricity that the appliance uses will flow from hot to neutral. A GFCI monitors the amount of current flowing from hot to neutral. If there is any imbalance, it trips the circuit. It is able to sense a mismatch as small as 4 or 5 milliamps, and it can react as quickly as one-thirtieth of a second.
HowStuffWorks "How does a GFCI outlet work?"