Fish: [tropical fish club] Safety First and Osmosis Story

The way i was raise all my life has been to understand what is or is not
safe...and if there is an element of risk or danger , then it is up to
me to take the chance
and pay the price for any consequences that come from it.

From near birth we all are taught that water and electricity DO NOT MIX
! So with me being safe in all that i do or have done, my whole life
has been a way of life in it self.

Yes that sounds like i am a real 100 % fruit cake....but this is not the
case at all....you can be safe and be normal too!
I have had fish tanks since i was 10 years old (i am 67 now) and my
first and foremost rule of keeping tropical fish is to be safe while
working around the tank/s
and electricity for the pumps and heaters and such.

I have only had two times in all my years of keeping fish that was
dangerous, one was in an older home i was renting and we had 3 or 4 days
of heavy rain off and on.
Well the ceiling above the 40 gal tank started leaking during the night
and i found it the next morning plaster as well as the tank top and
light was in the tank ....First thing i did
was to unplug everything and then started cleaning that mess...i did
take photos and sent them to my landlord who paid me for a new top and
light system.

The other time was when our pet cat who always liked to sleep on top of
the tank...but when the cat jumped off the top of the tank onto the
floor his power push off
caused the tank lid to fall into the tank and blew the light bulb to
heck and back....so again i had to unplug the electricity and clean that
mess.

Now about the towel and the process of OSMOSIS. Many years ago when my
kids were growing up my wife and my daughter both had asthma, it was in
the summer
and the temp for the day was 80 to 90 degrees most all day long and into
the night....they were having trouble breathing even with the fans running.
So i nailed a towel to a tomato stake and then took the front panel off
of the furnace where the squirrel cage fan is.
I rigged up a way to hang the towel that was nail to the wood above the
opening and set a square dish pan tub on the floor full of water. I put
the bottom of the towel
in the tub after i had wet the whole towel ... the i turned on the
switch to run only the squirrel cage fan ....we then shut all the
windows in the house and it was not
long until the temp in the house dropped almost 20 degrees lower.

Moral to all this is to be safe and be smart and use science to help you
when ever you need it to do so.

Robert Mace