Have anyone use magnets in your tank before?

[Blue Whale]

I searches through the thread and found no one have actually tried to use magnet before in or outside the tank.

By far the magnet I see is the one used for cleaning. I was thinking of creating a NS pole to the left and right outside the tank that would help enhance the magnetic field thus increasing the positive ions and negative ions of both the fish and the plants.

As of current, most magnets are known to be rust free hence it takes a while to create rust. But the number of people who actually sink it into the tank is by far not many. I wonder why. Meanwhile, I have standby a compass. =)

Any thoughts, anyone?
Everyone is welcome to contribue to this thread.

[Fuzzy]

Magnets do not possess sufficient energy to ionize particles. Most negative ion generators are electrically powered / charged, some produce Ozone as well, from the Arcing currents.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion

This is a fairly shady area of psudo-science as far as health benefits are concerned.

There are a few practical benefits I've seen touted for these negative ion generators is that they reduce the amount of dust/mold/spore/allergen particles in the air, by causing them to form larger particles and settle to the ground.

Essentially at best they do the job of a very weak air purifier and deodorizer.

This is like that brand of ceramic biological media that claims it can project Far Infrared Rays, which I am almost 100% is total BS, and assuming this media could really project this barely undetectable level of this electromagnetic radiation, there are no possible health benefits for your bacteria or livestock.

[Shaihulud]

Magnet is found in those cleaner of course, also the motors of submergible pumps. why would you want rusty magnet?

[Blue Whale]

I currently have in my possession a magnetic pillow, strips of magents is arrange in NS, NS, NS formation, thus generating small magnetic field. Each time I need to detoxic myself, I would sleep on that pillow. Can say that I am using it as a form of treatment. Okay the pillow does not come cheap, set you off $300 back. Technology comes from Japan.

Old people in Kampung used to say "Tu Qi" or essentially referring to ground qi. As Singapore built upwards, we are generally away from the ground much further hence backache, neckache are more prone to stick with us.

Sleeping one night on that pillow, after waking up, the urea content in the urine turns very yellowish, so once I find my urine clearing the next morning, I know that very night I do not have use the pillow anymore. Helps me to clear off caffine content stuffs like that.

So what I am interested to know from enhancing magnetic field is whether it will help the fish and plants or not by placing them around the tank. Interesting right?

[Fuzzy]

Most of the better quality (stronger) permanent magnets are composed of a high amount of rare earth elements (neodynium or samarium cobalt) and should not rust.
These magnets are expensive, and are usually brittle and potentially strong enough to cause pinching or broken fingers if mishandled.

The cheap magnets which are iron (ferrite) or alnico (aluminium, nickel, cobalt + iron) based will rust readily and thoroughly especially when submerged.

Neither type will be strong enough to create a magnetic field of any measurable strength across an area as large as a fish tank. Unless you're looking at a magnet so large that it costs several thousand dollars.

Electromagnets are the only way you can generate a magnetic field of sufficient strength to effect a larger area, this is not cheap or easy and also begs the question of why you would want to subject your livestock to an abnormal (and unnecessary) magnetic field of this type.

[Blue Whale]

Sea creatures such as sharks uses magnetic field to navigate the sea. What about the aquatic fishes? To say abnormal magnetic field is a bit too strong? We are in the midst of the polarity switch between the north and south pole, at current, pockets of magnetic field disturbance are already happening all over the world, hence using the sun, the 7 stars in the sky to navigate is something the seamen would do.

Like I said, instead of sinking or embedding them into the sand bed, put around the tank. I am looking at palm size magnets instead of electro magnets...don't have the technical know how anyway. Too much wire at the tank also not very good. So a pair of magnet would suffice. Yes, in the midst of searching through the web, I read about the rare earth elements thingy. Alloy based ones might be the one I am looking for. So long there is a field of magnetism, I think that would suffice. So long the positive and negative ions get charged up, even cloks in blood vessel would be cleared. So this is basically the theory behind the pillow of how it works.

Edited:
I better put up the appropriate links as the wiki. links has nothing to do this discussion of this thread. Not to be on the reprimand end, please read the studies on the effect of positive and negative ions in human context:
http://portalmarket.com/negion.html
http://www.peakpureair.com/negative_ions.htm

Re-edited:
Ha ha...it seem that magnets might not be the only path as I read more:
http://www.purchon.com/chemistry/ions.htm
http://www.webmd.com/balance/feature...positive-vibes

[Fuzzy]

Those sites are mostly marketing spiel, anecdotal evidence and new age pseudo-science. This is like the sites that advocate the drinking of Colloidal silver for its various perceived health benefits, which is now discouraged, as should be any ingestion of other heavy metals.

The only somewhat credible site is the last link, to WebMD, even then they state that clinical trials are necessary to illustrate the benefits of negative ion generators, and their own (unscientific) tests were inconclusive and showed no obvious benefits to employing a negative ion generator.

So essentially there is no scientific evidence for the benefits of negative ions affecting aquatic livestock for better or worse.

That said, there is no way conventional magnets can produce negative ions though, so unless you're doing it to see if the application of a weak magnetic field affects your livestock (which could be an interesting experiment) there will be no charged ionic particles produced this way.

In reference to certain species of sharks being sensitive to magnetic fields, they use them more for long distance navigation. But that is itself still only a hypothesis and is not yet proven conclusively.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampullae_of_Lorenzini
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science...eld/index.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4096397.stm

There are also experiments conducted where the magnets repelled Nurse Sharks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_shark_repellent

But these electro-sensitive organs are only found on sharks and rays.

[Blue Whale]

Longevity? ha ha..well interesting though.

As little as mentioned, pump (electro magnet), magnet cleaners can generate weak magnetic field. As I move the compass left to right of the tank, noticibly a change in magnetic field already. Noticed the fishes tend to move to the filter once in a while. Whilst my Gouramis 3x and Bettas 3x tend to wander near the filter. I wonder is it for food or the change in magnetic field.

No studies does not mean it does not affect, perhaps no one look into this field that's all. You have not read the links thoroughly. Magnetic field is to charge up the positive and negative ions so that they becomes active and start to crash and bound off each other. So the negative ions are currently applied to air purifer and air con. But the application could be wider in future.

I found the other way beside magnets. Black sand. So for now, I will experiment with black sand which itself formed from lava turned rock turned eroded particles. I am not going to Hawaii to steal their black sand which essentially is the home of the sea turtles where they lay eggs. Since Indonesia have plenty of volcanos, our source would be there. ^o^Y I will just drop the idea of magnet for time being, since I am already using the magnetic pillow. Do they call this applied science? lol...beats me. I am not that chim (Deep).