effective way to kill aiptasia (now with moar lasers!)

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by BigAl07

...but with proper safety precautions no more dangerous than many of the other things we deal with in and around our tanks.

I don't know if I'd agree with that statement. No one has ever experienced a life altering injury from accidentally dropping a heater on their toe, and normal equipment failures typically result in nothing worse than a tank crash. I know it's hypothetically possible, but something needs to go pretty dramatically wrong for a person to get electrocuted or otherwise seriously injured by normal equipment or chemicals. All it takes for a lasing session to end in tragedy is sweaty hands and a momentary lapse in concentration. When was the last time any of us heard of someone being seriously injured by their tank equipment? Ask the same question about lasers and the answer is 'last Tuesday'.

These lasers can permanently alter your, or someone else's life if mishandled for even one half of a second. My dad had an ocular aneurism in his right eye three years ago. It's not the same thing as laser injury, but the functional result was the same. The effect it has had on his quality of life has been nothing short of devastating.

Ultimately people will probably do it, and to be honest I was tempted until I read that thread on the laser forum. More than anything I know these threads are searchable on google so I just want to make sure that any conversation regarding these things for aquarium purposes have enough posts about the dangers so others who aren't necessarily members of the boards get a complete picture of the risks when they look for info.

[BigAl07]

Agree or not that's entirely up to you and at the end of the day I'll respect your opinion about it.

think about it.. we're applying large amounts of water along side large amounts of electricity. That has a very strong degree of danger to it. Yes there are safety precautions in place to keep us from getting severely shocked but in the same sense I feel like you're majorly over-playing the dangers of the laser. It's not a toy and it's not something to be left laying around the house for someone else to play with. Also note that the poor guy who suffered the injury was NOT wearing safety goggles and he was not practicing safe laser handling techniques.

Fact of the matter is almost anything can be dangerous if not treated with respect and the proper safety procedures aren't in place this just happens to be a new one on the reefing scene. If you find it's too dangerous for your own personal use I respect that. For many of us a 1w laser is no more dangerous than some of the electrical wiring tangles I've witnessed under tanks with salt water dripping/spilling and corroding the connections. It's all about being safe regardless what particular reefing activity you're up to.

[lastlight]

I did all the wiring in my basement. Personally, I can guarantee that this is safer for me lol.

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by BigAl07

Agree or not that's entirely up to you and at the end of the day I'll respect your opinion about it.

think about it.. we're applying large amounts of water along side large amounts of electricity. That has a very strong degree of danger to it. Yes there are safety precautions in place to keep us from getting severely shocked but in the same sense I feel like you're majorly over-playing the dangers of the laser. It's not a toy and it's not something to be left laying around the house for someone else to play with. Also note that the poor guy who suffered the injury was NOT wearing safety goggles and he was not practicing safe laser handling techniques.

Fact of the matter is almost anything can be dangerous if not treated with respect and the proper safety procedures aren't in place this just happens to be a new one on the reefing scene. If you find it's too dangerous for your own personal use I respect that. For many of us a 1w laser is no more dangerous than some of the electrical wiring tangles I've witnessed under tanks with salt water dripping/spilling and corroding the connections. It's all about being safe regardless what particular reefing activity you're up to.

I completely agree. I guess the real problem is that so many people don't respect proper safety precautions, or don't realize how important they are. Like I mentioned, more than anything I just hope there's enough posts to the effect of 'this could really, really hurt you' peppered amongst the 'on man lasers are cool' (an opinion I happen to share) threads to give someone who might be impulsive about it pause. I get probably 80% of my info on reef tank news, developments, practices, etc. from forums, I'm sure I'm not alone in that.

I won't be buying one cuz I don't want to take that risk (and hopefully, on my next tank I won't need to). I'd probably pay someone who had proper training one to come over and work on my tank when I wasn't home though, and ask them to video the whole thing so I could watch those little nasties fry with some popcorn and a nice bottle of wine.

Now I'm gonna go find Buzz Killington and give him his soap box back.