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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V3 #82
Karen Randall wrote:
> >I use lighting eggcrate cut to fit the top of the tank. It's cheap. It
> >works.
>
> What's the purpose of the egg crate? It doesn't prevent evaporation, and
> id doesn't protect the fixtures from moisture. To keep fish in? I would
> thing the hood itself would do that.
The main reason is to help prevent accidents where the hood or the lights
end up in the tank (Hoa Nguyen also mentioned this problem in another
post).
My hood leaves a strip uncovered along the length of the tank -- about 2
inches if I remember right. That's intentional so that I can feed the
fish or fertilize the plants without moving the hood and so plants can put
their flowers up and out of the tank.
The eggcrate could also be used to suspend plants over the tank with their
roots in the water. The eggcrate keeps fish from jumping out and also
keeps things from falling in (I have kids, and flying objects - balls and
clothing and such - are pretty common around the house) or reaching in (we
also have cats).
The last time I mentioned this on the list someone pointed out that
jumping fish can injure themselves on the eggcrate. That hasn't happened
to any of my fish, but I accept it as being true.
_____________________________________________________________________
> Don't use a valve on yeast CO2; a plastic container can't take the
> pressure. There are many horror stories in the APD archives about
> exploding yeast bottles! Even with champagne and beer, self-carbonated
> alcoholic beverages, you have to wait until the brew is almost finished
> fermenting before capping or corking! Otherwise the results are...
> spectacular and predictable! ;-)
>
> Steve
>
I agree with Steve that you should never shut off flow from a yeast
reactor - unless of course you actually *want* to have sticky goop spewed
all over the place.
I do have valves on my CO2 lines, up close to the outlet. They're set to
restrict the flow of CO2, not to shut it off. I use the black plastic
valves sold for drip irrigation systems. They're small, stiff and tucked
behind the tank so that with luck they won't be tampered with. If I
thought it was necessary I'd glue the valve in position.
Without the valve, when a bubble was released from the end of the output
line there was a small transient drop in pressure in the tubing and
reactor that resulted in a glob of bubbles being released all at once. I
use the valves to smooth out the transient so I get a regular release, one
bubble at a time rather than 2 or more bubbles in each release.
I set the valves last summer when I first put them on and haven't adjusted
them since.
Roger Miller
With crystal clear skies and warm winter sunshine.