Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Tales from the aquarium:
Volume II Part I
So after the disaster of the first tank (What will probably be called Volume I Part II when written) I decided that I would try my hand at this aquarium thing again. This time I decided to try it with live plants as I refuse to use fake ones and I do not care for the empty look of a non-planted tank. The wall behind it is just boreing and seeing the filter and heater and stuff on the back is ugly.
So I cleaned everything and filled it up with water and ordered some plants. I ordered a couple of bunches of hornwort, a bunch of red myrio, a bunch of wisteria, a bunch of rotala indica, and two bunches of corkscrew val. They fill up the aquarium nicely. I also got some substrate supliment that helps the plants as they root, and got another two bags of aquarium gravel, I now have about 2 and a half inches of gravel in the aquarium, the bottom layer is a larger gravel with the clay substrate mixed in and the top is a smaller gravel. (Most of you probably do not care but as much as I have put into this thought and work-wise I'm going to talk about it!)
So I plant the plants and start the filtration going. Haley was my Vagrant Valentine and she got me a black molly for that. The molly lived in the 1gal tank as quarentine in case she had anything.
I also made a CO2 system for my tank. Something I found out online is that fish generaly do not generate enough CO2 for plants to thrive in a tank, so often aquarium owners will inject CO2 into their tanks. Larger setups use compressed tanks of CO2 and regulators and all kind of stuff that costs hundreds of dollers. Or you can use electric methods of generating CO2, also expensive and I have heard some not so good reviews of this system (and the pressurized tanks are dangerous on the first system mentioned) And a third option is to buy a kit that uses yeast fermentation to make CO2 and deliver it to the tank. This third option can also be built fairly easily. So I set to work because I also like to build things as can be seen in my homemade plant hanger and light stand for plants that I made earlier in the year (that being SCHOOL year.) Basicaly I have a bottle, I used a grape juice bottle becuase they are pretty rigged and a good size for this project. I drilled a quarter inch hole in the top and used silicone to attach an airline connector in the hole and create a seal. After that set I filled the bottle with a mixture of warm water, yeast, sugar, and baking soda and mixed it up, this is where the CO2 comes from. I ran an airline from the connector in the top to a 4" airstone which I burried under a shallow layer of gravel at the very back of the tank. This creates a nice steady stream of small bubbles of CO2 which disolve into the water fairly well (though not all do and there is some bubbling on the surface of the water. The reaction has been going for over a week now, some people say theirs lasts for about a month before they have to change the mixture. It STINKS though if I open the bottle to let off presure! I checked yesterday (through Ph and Carbonate Hardness tests) and the concentration is about 12mg/l, I do not know what that translates to in PPG which is what all the pages I have read use... But the fish is not upset with it, so it's not too high.
The fish moved in saturday, a week after I got her. She has hidden in the plants since then.
An odd thing happened... all the plants except the red myrio and rotala got brownish and mushy and I thought they had died. And even the myrio and rotala looked a little worse than they ought to. But today I looked and the vals have started growing new, green leaves, the old ones are all dead looking. The hornwort has new growth on the top portion, I hope it will grow new on the bottom as well. The wisteria is looking wonderful with it's new growth and probably has the most of all the plants (it IS supposed to be fast growing and thus helps keep algee down by using up nutrients) and has new, firm leaves on it at the ends of each stem.
I think part of the problem was I had no fish in there to fertalize them, and I don't have a liquid fertalizer to use yet. Also I dunno, maybe just recovering from shipping and getting established. But now they are starting to look better.
I just need a good set of aquascaping tools (they are usualy long and steel, tweezers and scisors. A lot of people use surgical tools, but thsoe are expensive!)
I have noticed the water is much clearer than my other aquarium is, and I atribute that to having the plants in there.
I want my plants to pearl! That's when they start producing so much oxygen it forms bubbles all over them! That's a very GOOD thing.
Last night I get home from church and my roomie tells me that he needs to tell me something, and I had probably better sit down for it....
What's this bad news I wonder... I soon find out and wish I had never heard... Well.... Here's the tale:
This past week two of our adjunct faculty in the music department were fired, and then on Friday Dr Valentine, our music dean, was put on "administrative leave" effective immediately, basically, he can't be fired yet because of his contract, so they have removed him until may when he CAN be fired.
But wait! That's not all... On top of this already atrocious act, Kennedy (the president of the college) is nixing the instrumental music program and in May Mr Young will be out of a job as well! Not to mention the band will be GONE along with half of the department!
WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT STUPID IDIOTIC ARSE OF A MAN THINKING????? I dunno.....
Today was a bad day for our department. The feeling overall was a sense of dread. The office was barren as most of the decor and some of the furniture was V's, and his office is empty and the door open. That barrenness is exactly how myself, the other students, and the faculty are feeling. Empty, alone...
Now, let me explain something, this music department, unlike most departments at our college (and indeed, many other colleges) is a tight family. We love each other and we support each other. There's no competition, only mutual support and encouragement. We care when our friends hurt, and we cry with them or laugh with them when that's what they are doing. This cuts deep. Firstly, the faculty who are axed are hurting very much and so we are all hurting very much. Secondly, there are students who will be virtually left in the cold with no more instrumental program. Thirdly, there's the fear that the entire department will follow.
This family relationship doesn't exist with the students and faculty alone, no, it extends to all the past alumni as we recently found out at the music homecoming, NOT EVEN A MONTH AGO.
As I have said a few times, when Kennedy decided to mess with the music department he didn't know what he was getting into or he wouldn't have done it. It would have been better for him to spit in the eye of the head of an Itallian mafia family! We stick together and we are, right now, all very, very angry, and getting more angry with him. We are looking for a course of action and will soon act. We will have the support of the alumni, many of the faculty in other departments, most of the students on campus, and probably a lot of the trustees. Kennedy, you are going down.
One thing that angers us so much is just how it was DONE. First, sometime in the past two weeks or so The Antichrist asked V to fire the two adjunct faculty members. V resisted, I am not sure if he finally gave in or if The Antichrist fired them on his own. Then on Friday, unbeknownst to most everyone, V was asked to leave. Even Shar, his secretary did not know! Most people found out THIS MORNING. Valentine moved his stuff out Saturday. Some found out last night, so some of us were prepared for the shock. My question is thus: If the contracts were going to expire in May, and the new contracts were being made up to be signed in a couple of weeks, why fire them like this? Why not just let them go at the end of the current contract?
We are all sure there is more to it than money, which is The Antichrist's stand on the whole deal. "Enrollment is down and we are losing money, we've got to cut something." That's The Antichrist's line. If enrollment is down why cut a program that is going to cut students, and also in cutting that program anger alumni who are in the education field, educating students who will one day be looking for a college? Those alums are angry and at this point are ready to advise their students never to go to WCC for any degree. Smart move Kennedy! Real smart! It's already cutting students, people who are instrumental, incoming instrumental, and even incoming music therapy students who were going to have instrumental concentrations. Studetns (And for your fatarse Antichrist's sake, MONEY) that won't be going to this school anymore.
I vote that the band, which is accepting all past members right now for it's last season, play Haydn's "Farewell Symphony" in honor of this occasion. For those not familiar with the story here it is: Haydn and his musicians were employed by the prince Esterházy. The had two homes, a summer home and a winter home, the summer home kept the musicians away from their families and homes when the prince was there, but since it was only for the summer months this was accepted. However one year the prince decided to stay longer, thanks to very nice weather. Haydn asked the prince if they could return home please because they missed their homes and loved ones. The prince said no. Haydn, always fond of musical jokes, composed a special symphony, to be called the "Farewell Symphony." The symphony was played as normal for the prince, but at the end the instrumentalists began to get up and leave, one by one, until the last musician had left. The prince got the point and everyone returned home for winter. I think this would drive an even stronger point home in our situation. When the instrumental department leaves, what's going to be left? I dunno if he'll take my suggestion or not. But it sure would be neat.
Sunday, February 23, 2003
Wow! I have a backseat! Yes, yes, I cleaned out my car today. It had accumulated a trimester's worth of living back there.....
I had a guitar, music stand, metronome, suit, tux, casual shirt and pants, slobby shirt and pants, a pair of socks, a jacket, boots, 4 folders, 2 books, a hymnal, some music, a dozen water bottles, a few CDs, fast food bags, papers, flyers, junkmail, umbrellas (5), recital programs, and resteraunt menus all in my back seat.
Also in the trunk was a box of picture frames I got for christmas and I havn't had time to find pictures for. I brought them in anyway, so if I need room in my trunk it's there.
Most things got returned to their homes, the trash is, surprisingly, in the trash :)
I also found my "standard british" dialect tape from when I was in christmas carol. And my old nokia antena. If you need an external magnetic nokia antena e-mail me, if I still have it I'll send it to you for cost of shipping.
Klasinc&Loncar Duo (Just trying to help it get picked up by Google spiders, I maintain it for them)