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Heating Cables and Copper



Subject: Karens' heating cables and Dave's rec.

> Karen,
> 
> I agree with Dave.  How about trying one of those newfangled wat
> that I described earlier?  I have six of them running, and Murph
> bothered me yet.  

First, as I said before, I may be over cautious, but I would worry 
about heating the outside of the glass like that.  Second, I know 
the tank ran fine for years without substrate heating... after 
all, the reason the tank was taken down was because the roots were 
so "pot bound" that I could no longer get my fingers into the 
substrate to pull up plants. (Large chunks of roots and substrate 
came up together when we started to pull the plants out... many 
had to be chopped apart with scissors or knives to be divided) how 
much better do I want the growth to be ;-)

I'll consider something else the next time the tank _needs_ to be 
taken apart, but at this point, I'd definitely lean in the 
direstion of the UGF/heater system.
 
 ------------------------------

> From: Mike Variano <mvariano at vnet_ibm.com>
> Date: Thu, 7 Mar 1996 19:43:40 -0500
> Subject: copper removal filter
> 
> Karen,  and anyone else with copper trouble.  Poly-Bio
> Marine sells a molecular absorbtion filter that removes
> heavy metal from water. That includes copper. It also remove
> phosphates, nitrates, organics, pestisides. I don't work
> there... Many Mail order Cats. sell it, Called the PMA_1
> Fin-l-filter. About $120. The tech at Poly told me the best
> flow rate is about 4 gpm. Might be worth a try..

Again, the problem is storing and transporting pretreated water.  
I just don't have the time or the back to deal with it these days. 
Maybe someday, but not now.  Right now, I can use my Python both 
to remove and replace water, I just add extra Novaqua.  I can get 
done with all my tanks in less than 3 hours per week.  That's 
about all the time and energy I have right now.  

In the mean time, I've got a long way to go before running out of 
species to work with that _do_ tolerate my water conditions quite 
nicely, including a number of species considered "delicate" and 
"difficult".  So I'm not suffering too badly ;-)  If I didn't have 
very good growth already, I might feel differently.

> By the way Karen, if your bolbitis is getting out of hand,
> wanna sell some?

Not yet... as I said, I gave 60% of it away not even 2 months ago. 
 When I need to do another serious hacking, I'll post so everyone 
will know!

Karen Randall
Aquatic Gardeners Assoc.
Boston, MA