Benefits, Problems, and Characteristics of Home Aquarium Owners

Although tank fish are currently the most popular “pets” in the USA, literature reporting studies on the benefits, problems, and characteristics of home aquarium ownership is extremely limited. Because it seemed important to learn more about people who enjoy owning and caring for home aquaria, 50 men and 50 women were interviewed in several area stores which provide and sell living fish and adjunct products necessary for maintaining good home aquarium environments. Major problems reported by home aquarium owners were the expensive equipment, especially the tanks and controls for water temperature, circulation, and chemical balances, the tank maintenance, and tank cleanliness. Major benefits mentioned by such owners were the calming, relaxation, and stress-reduction effects of just watching fish which lessened anxieties and created a sense of serenity. These findings help to explain the current popularity of the live inhabitants of home aquaria.

Chemical Modeling of Fire Gases

When a fuel containing C, H, and O burns, CO2 and H2O are the major combustion products and, depending on the conditions, CO, unburnt gasified fuel, and other products of incomplete combustion are produced. In this paper, chemical modeling to calculate rates of generation and mass fractions of various products in reference to the fuel/O2 equivalence ratio is presented. In addition to chemical balances, empirical CO/CO 2 ratios are used. CO is con sidered to be the most significant factor for toxicity hazard assessment in build ing fires. This modeling provides generation rates and mass fractions of CO among other species of gases. This model can be used as a sub-model in fire models for estimating CO.