paste on vents for flasking

[TyroneGenade]

Hello,

Anyone know if anything like this is available in the USA?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vent-Spots-...of-20-teflon-breather-membranes-/231429342540

Thanks

 

[Ray]

Band-Aid spot bandages will work.

 

[Trithor]

Sigma Aldrich have a similar item (sold in packs of 500 pieces) code S5939
I am undecided if it offers much benefit.

 

[TyroneGenade]

Thanks, Ray.

Gary, those Sigma things look interesting... Not sure if they are worth the money.

Thanks

 

[eteson]

Partick from Kingfisher Orchids in Canada has very good quality ones (resist several autoclave cycles) and he ships worldwide.
He has also very nice vented flasks at reasonable prices.

Band aid works as said by Ray but usually only one or two times... they do not do it fine during autoclaving (at least the ones I tryed).
I am venting all my flasks using Patrick filters or cotton plugs... the advantage of the cotton plug is that it is very cheap and last forever in PP lids.

 

[Trithor]

I send my tubs for pre sterilizing by gamma irradiation. The radiation changes the nature of the plastic, with slight yellowing, but more significantly, the plastic becomes more brittle, so I don't use the tubs and lids more than a single time. So durability is not a primary concern. More important is the hydrophobic quality.

 

[TyroneGenade]

Hi, Trithor, just surface sterilize with 3% H2O2. This has worked 100% for me in the past. If you have thin poly plastic, then you don't need vents at all. The poly plastic "breaths" by itself. It is permeable to CO2, O2, ethylene etc...

Thanks, Eteson, I will contact him and see about prices.

Bye

 

[Trithor]

Hi, Trithor, just surface sterilize with 3% H2O2. This has worked 100% for me in the past.

Bye

On a few flasks, but sterilizing in plastic sleeves packed 25 tubs and lids to the pack makes things a lot easier than trying to sterilize a tub or two at a time. This way I can have a carton of a few hundred ready to use at a moments notice. Way simpler and way less handling

 

[eteson]

This is the cotton plug method. I simply make a hole of 3mm in the lid and fill it with cotton...
For the big lids I sometimes put micropore on top of the cotton but you do not need to do it.
Gary it is nice to spend some time enjoying of a good wine making the lids vents!

 

[Ozpaph]

I send my tubs for pre sterilizing by gamma irradiation. The radiation changes the nature of the plastic, with slight yellowing, but more significantly, the plastic becomes more brittle, so I don't use the tubs and lids more than a single time. So durability is not a primary concern. More important is the hydrophobic quality.

Gamma irradiation; you are serious about flasking!

 

[PaphMadMan]

Gamma irradiation; you are serious about flasking!

Gamma irradiation of culture vessels is pretty standard in plant tissue culture labs and microbiology labs. There are many you can buy pre-sterilized that way. Having it done on a custom basis is pretty hard core though.

 

[Trithor]

This is the cotton plug method. I simply make a hole of 3mm in the lid and fill it with cotton...
For the big lids I sometimes put micropore on top of the cotton but you do not need to do it.
Gary it is nice to spend some time enjoying of a good wine making the lids vents!

Hi there Eliseo, happy new year! I have tried a whole range of vent methods. Here is the biofilter vent patch


....and the cotton plug with micropore


and an example of a packed sleeve of tubs and lids. All sterile and ready for pouring in the laminar flow. I pack them in 15s and 20s and generally cook about 5 liters of replate medium at a time, which pours about 60 tubs (enough for a Saturday of replating, with a few for Sunday morning in case I am feeling industrious)


I now have 5 shelves of mother flasks 90cm x 60cm, a lot of them germinating very well, and 14 shelves 1,6m x 60cm of completed replates. I have ordered another 10 shelf sets of 4 shelves each to accommodate the new replates and am looking to rent a bit of space as I have now outgrown my current area. My wife just complains that this is the reason why we are short of money and wants to know what I am going to do with the seedlings when they start coming out of flask (she has a good point! I am starting to get scared myself)

Gamma irradiation; you are serious about flasking!

Hey Oz! Happy new year!
Hell yes! No sense in starting something and not doing your best. I have most of the wrinkles ironed out now and am planning to step things up a notch or two this year. I have ordered 6 cartons of tubs (400 each) and 2 cartons of lids (1200 each). I will put a staff member onto packing them into plastic sleeves as soon as we start back at work. By then I will be ready to start with the replating that is building up. This hobby is rapidly starting to take up a bit more free time than I have available:rollhappy:

 

[Trithor]

Having it done on a custom basis is pretty hard core though.

:rollhappy: ouch!
(what would you expect from a carpenter/game farmer? No training, little knowledge, stuck in Africa, but determined to try and get things started, (also a bit of a clown))

 

[TyroneGenade]

Gary, you need to switch to LED strips and save on power... and reduce the heat produced by the lights. You can even run the LEDs off of solar panels as they don't require as much voltage as fluorescents and operate on DC.

 

[eteson]

Gary, you need to switch to LED strips and save on power... and reduce the heat produced by the lights. You can even run the LEDs off of solar panels as they don't require as much voltage as fluorescents and operate on DC.

I do need to do exactly the same... I am paying a huge power bill each month because of the fluorescent lights and the AC system... Do you know where can I get good led lights and cheap if possible?

 

[Trithor]

I definitely need to do the same. The heat generated in winter is a bonus, but in summer it is becoming problematic. The power saving will be a treat. A whole new learning curve ahead!

 

[Ozpaph]

Gary, you need to switch to.......

New meds!
You are certifiably insane. What on earth are you going to do wth all those flasks? You better sell/give them away soon because the time taken to repot them and care for them will far out-strip the time to flask them.:rollhappy::rollhappy:
((ps - you ARE the man!))

 

[TyroneGenade]

I got LED strips light off Ebay cheaply. Getting the power supplies from the same source...

The LED strips typically have a beam angle of 120o (60o from the vertical) which means that at 1 foot away, the beam covers an area 3.5 ft. I guess your shelves are only 2 ft wide, so you can have the flasks about 18 cm from the LED strip. This means more flasks in less space!

I am not sure how many strips to mount to achieve a desired lux. You would need to experiment.

 

[Trithor]

Tyrone, thanks. I think I will try and set up the new racks with LED's. I have sourced some strips of LED's so when the new racks start arriving, I will set up one with them and split recently replated tubs between the two.

Oz, :rollhappy:, madness tends to follow plans made after a bottle of wine

 

[gonewild]

Oz, :rollhappy:, madness tends to follow plans made after a bottle of wine

Don't run out of wine.