What's wrong with my skimmer pump?

I noticed the skimmer pump on my coralif125 SS has been louder Than usual lately..so I took the pump apart. I took of the cover an took out the venturi...no problems there. So I screwed the cover back on after putting the venturi back inside of the pump. Not only is the pump is still loud, but then it zapped me when I touched it under water!

1.Why is it loud?
2 What should I do about stray voltage?

 

Not sure about loudness, skimmer pumps seem to be pretty loud in general. Maybe sand or something got sucked into the impeller?

My method was to take some wire (not copper!) and plug one end into the ground in an electrical outlet and the other end into the tank. Pretty simple really. I also got a titanium tire spoke from the bike shop and now I use that, because it wont rust quickly. Same thing, except you wrap the wire around the end of the tire spoke.

 

I did just redo my entire aquascape - finished a few hours ago. Sugar-fine sand was all over the place in the water...couldn't see the back of the tank (standard 29g). But it's since cleared up; I've already taken theimpeller out and put it back in already. Didn't help...

I looked around and founf that FS Aquatics sells a grounding probe. One end goes into the water and I think the other plugs into an outlet? or not? They didn't really say...

 

Aquarium Safety: Ultra-Ground Titanium Probe

It got 5 stars for the customer reviews.

 

The probe would work for sure. My setup cost a little less, but that product seems more reliable.

 

Did you see how long the actual probe is? I didn't see that anywhere...I want it to fit in my 10g sump, if I can.

 

I'm sure you could just use some wire cutters to make it fit.