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Ya, A GFCI (ground fault circuit interuptor) will trip a breaker when it senses voltage on the ground wire indicating a short somewhere. This can save your life if the short is in the tank and you are going to put your hands in it. IMO There isn't much out there that will really protect you from a direct lightning strike. You can get one of those beefy computer surge protectors but even they often fail when hit with the full brunt of a strike. However, they are better than nothing. I do highly recommend the GFCI, either an outlet or plug-in adapter. It is actually required by code that outlets within a certain footage of water sources be GFI protected. HTH
Go with the GFCI anyway, either type will prevent you and your livestock from being killed or seriously injured. These things are a must when electricity is near water!
A power outage wouldn't affect a GFI circuit. The only problem I have here when the power goes out is the skimmer not coming back to life properly (prizm). If you have overflows and sump returns a power outage could also cause a siphon problem if not setup correctly.