12.06.2005

How not to clean a turtle tank...

Maybe it's because my dad is an engineer. Maybe it's because I'm lazy. Maybe it's because I work in R&D. Whatever the reason, I hate doing things one way, if I can think of a more efficient method.

This weekend when I was fixing our bathroom, I was taking out the toilet and there was quite a bit of water left in the tank after shutting off the water. To remove the water, I used our Shop-Vac and sucked all the water up. Cue the light bulb over my head.

Last night I cleaned my turtle's aquarium. Each time I do this I take an ice cream bucket and transfer water into a larger bucket which is then dumped into the toilet. Being the genius that I am, I decided to use the Shop Vac to streamline the process.

Don't worry, I didn't suck up my turtle or anything, but I did create a mess. Once the water was sucked up into the Shop Vac (which was incredibly fast mind you) I had to empty it. So I wheeled it into the bathroom, lifted it up on to the toilet and undid the closure on the bottom to empty the water.

And the water came out. Really, really fast. Gross turtle water all over the place. Great. The worst part is that after I cleaned it up I honestly thought to myself "I just need to refine the process," and then I tried it again. Same results. Gross.

It would certainly work if it were summer and I could wheel the Shop Vac outside and just dump the water off the porch, but with our current sub-zero temperatures that really isn't a great idea.

At least the tank is clean now though...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Would emptying the shop vac into the tub instead of the toliet work?

Unknown said...

Would emptying the shop vac into the tub instead of the toliet work?