Some aquarium lights can not be run by those timers. Shop lights can. Plant growing is much easier with 12-16 hours of light a day. If I only turn on a tank's light when I remember to, the plants are in trouble. ;)

While at Ace I also picked up 2 Swag Hooks for $1.99. More attractive than J-hooks, they are useful for hanging airlines or cords. Those are out of the way and more importantly, water can not leak and run (up and then) down the cords to the aquarium pump or electrical outlet!

Swag hooks, sunk through a dropped ceiling can also hold the PVC pipe which is becoming the air-link between a linear piston blower and the valves and individual airlines to each aquarium. If one wishes to hang a plant (or in the olden days a Silent Giant pump) in a macramé plant holder, the swag hook should be sunk into the wood of a ceiling beam.

Outside, this idiot is still rinsing gravel in a bucket (see Gravel Wash in Immediate Help). I am cheating and running a hose out from the laundry room. First a little baking soda is placed in a wet paper towel and the threaded outlet to the faucet is scrubbed down, removing as much of any soap residue as possible. Afterward the hose is screwed on by hand, and an extra cycle or so is turned using a vice-grip. Then an inexpensive pair of those household "surgical gloves" is put on. If one's hands aren't wet, one can put up with some pretty cool weather.

Those gloves are also used to gently pull an aquarium and equipment out of the "dechlorinating barrel" (a 32-gallon, covered RubberMaid garbage can with a sodium-thiosulphate solution in it). Those items are rinsed off with the hose and left to dry in the sun and wind.

To my delight, I also effectively used those gloves (after rinsing) to remove another tank and a couple of gallon-pickle jars from the "bleach barrel" (in this case an industrial grade, 40-gallon, covered RubberMaid garbage can with roughly 10 gallons of water for every gallon of plain bleach.) The bleached items were left a few minutes on the carport floor in the inverted can top to drain and they were then gently slide into the dechlorinating can.

Those gloves were then used to slide a dirty tank and some equipment into the bleach barrel. I made sure that the gloves were rubbed in the bleach to destroy any hitchhikers.

The bleached equipment is usually limited to glass items (lots of jars and bottles heavily rinsed before they left the kitchen) and hard plastic items. The plastic things included my favorite "algae eater" - a soap-less, all plastic, pot scrubber.

Over the nearby laundry sink (the hose having been removed with a vice-grip) the gloves were rinsed in a little vinegar to remove any bleach. A little baking soda was rubbed over the "vinegared" gloves to remove most of that residual. While those gloves are sometimes torn up the first time they are used, these were dried out and will be used for their fourth time soon. There was almost no scent of any of that stuff on my hands.

If a person has a cut on their hand, they probably shouldn't put it into an aquarium, period. However if the cut is rinsed out and irrigated with hydrogen peroxide, it should seal up. Light work in the surgical gloves is then possible.

Also, if the aquarium has had a contagious disease, one might chose to clean house with those gloves on. Watch out for splashing and be prepared to drop them into a garbage bucket when you are finished. At least that may lessen the chance of spreading dangerous microscopic critters from one tank to another.

Most of the items above aren't all that expensive. They certainly are cheaper than their equivalents purchased at an aquarium store or scientific supply place, if they can even be purchased there. ;)