Thoughtophone

I got my acrylic tank on Monday. theplasticpeople.co.uk deserve a link, because it looks great, and they were very helpful. It wasn't cheap, but it was still cheaper than the low iron glass. It looks even better. You would think that 10mm of acrylic would look a bit chunky, but it just doesn't. Perhaps its the clarity. The corners look perfect, basically because they are. It now seems really silly I was so determined to have rounded corners. I may eventually find it scratches easily, but for now I'm going to enjoy it. I've done some aqua-scaping and put the plants in. They are mostly unscathed. I got 5 bunches of Egeria densa with a bulk discount, and they do look a little worse for wear. It was hardest to ensure good light for them. I bought most of my plants from www.gardenandleisure.com . Its certainly the cheapest place to buy the Tropica range of plants, and they did a good job of the packaging. I've now found www.plantedtanks.co.uk who have an amazing ra...

Do you like my 'Improvised Aquatic Environment'? Or is the name too sinister? Of course, because my aquarium burst two days ago, my plants, which I'd been waiting for for more than a week arrived today. This is one of those projects that took on a life if its own. I filled a plastic storage container with water last night, knowing I'd need to get the water up to temperature, but when I got home, the rim of the container was beginning to buckle a little. I found some bits of wood, and added some support. The heater is stuck on to the aquarium lid - I didn't want any risk of melting the side of the container. The plants are attached to a bit of chicken wire to keep them down. The filter is set up to provide a bit of circulation, the light attached with various bits of wood and clamps, and tomorrow, I'll try out my CO2 system. I wouldn't want my plants to suffer now, would I? I've also ordered my acrylic aquarium. I still plan to repair the glass ...

I was sitting watch TV, when I heard the sound water trickling onto the floor. Thankfully, the leak was slow, and I was able to get all the water out of the tank with a siphon, before much of it ended up on the floor. A seriously lucky escape. If only it was so easy to deal with leaky reactors. I guess I need no longer wonder what might have been with the acrylic aquarium. I've had enough of dodgy glass and silicone. At least I know how to dispose of this one, and it might be fun.

Someone keeps signing up my gmail address to things. The address they use has an extra '.' in it, but as far as gmail is concerned the '.' isn't significant. I could use the reset password feature to stop the accounts bugging me, but this is possibly illegal. In any case, I don't understand why the address wasn't verified in the the first place. The offenders so far have been Indiarocks, Spotify, and Gogoinflight. Poor show guys. You really should know better. Update: Spotify and Gogoinflight have something in common: a free trial. Essentially they are inciting this type of behaviour, and not attempting to defend against it. Here's a blogger using his *cough* real *cough* email address to sign up: The GOGO InFlight WiFi Free Google Holiday Internet Scam , and then setting his browser agent to trick the system into thinking he was using a mobile device. All good clean fun.

http://mitnse.com/2011/03/13/ why-i-am-not-worried-about- japans-nuclear-reactors/ There's been a lot of anti-nuclear sentiment being vented over the last few days, but it seems to me that if a reactor this old survives an earthquake this big without serious consequence, the safety of nuclear power is no longer in doubt. Natural disasters don't come much more challenging than this. These reactors are much better designed than Chernobyl. They have control rods that don't speed up the reaction as they are being inserted. They have a whole extra layer of defence, which hasn't been called into service yet: the secondary containment vessel. Some scare mongers have been suggesting that if meltdown occurred, the core would melt its way down through the base of the plant into the ground. This is plainly not true: there was a meltdown at Chernobyl, and the core didn't melt a hole in the concrete floor then. Unlike at Chernobyl, if there is a meltdown, it alm...

I wonder how many mistakes you can make, buying an aquarium. I mean, just the aquarium itself - not any of the other paraphernalia. I've had an aquarium custom madfe by my local glazier. I chose low iron, tempered glass. The low iron glass was a good, but expensive choice. It really does make a difference to the way the corners look. I'm not too concerned about the not having rounded corners now. Tempered may not have been so clever. First up, it makes all the pieces a little irregular, so it doesn't fit together perfectly. Second, there's something slightly odd about it optically. I've read its polarising. Its noticeable. Finally, there's the question of how vulnerable the corners are to impact.  The glazier didn't explain any of this, which is a little dissapointing. I think I won't worry about the risk of breaking the glass. It'll be spectacular, but I'll deal with it in the unlikely event. I have now finally got a quote for a 10mm acryl...