When it comes to aquarium equipment, it’s hard to demand instant gratification and not be disappointed. Certain items have a break-in period that can last days or even weeks in length, while others never live up to expectations and are doomed to fail on many levels. We’re happy to report, however, that neither of these is the case for the Vertex Aquaristik Titanium Ground Pole, which we recently got to spend a lot of time with. We were experiencing a great deal of stray voltage in one our systems, and the ground pole took care of them instantly. Not a few days down the road, not after a week of breaking in, but instantly. And for that reason alone, we are happy to sing its praises. For those of you who have been in the aquarium hobby for any real length of time, you are probably quite familiar with stray voltage. It comes from all types of equipment, both submerged and external, and can wreak havoc on all sorts of marine organisms. While it may be easy to pinpoint which equipment is throwing off the voltage, usually by process of elimination, it’s not always easy to just remove that item from operation. MORE: Vertex Titanium Ground Probe Gets a Big Thumbs Up from Us