Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Shell grit5 will only raise the ph to a certain thing and then it just sits there till needed lime I have always just chucked it in the sump
What line are you using you need the white brickies lime

The Lime is Calcium hydroxide (Brickie's Slaked Lime) I used for the pH and I was putting it in the same spot as the Dolomite Lime (Calcium Magnesium Carbonate) around one of the tomatoe plants and it was it was sticking to that.

Keep it away from the Dolomite and it dissolves OK but the Dolomite just hangs in there for ages .

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Got my first lot of Wood Vinegar today.. seriously keen on seeing how it works... :-)
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just to be certain you all of you are getting what I'm saying about methanol http://kni.caltech.edu/facilities/msds/methanol.pdf What ever you do don't smell it.

Interesting warnings.. home brew alcohol... often, it ferments badly and Methanol. Results, tainting the finshed methanol..

Now.that is the gear that gives you that.pounding headache... so I a told ..

And... remembering those images of drunken folk getting stoned on Methylated Spirits

I do wonder if it is as bad.as those warnings
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I can remember being at a party in my 20's during the "Six O'Clock Closing" days, we'd run out of beer and someone produced a bottle of Methylated Spirits and we mixed with water, turned it milky and then quite a few of us then drank it (White Lady).

I had a mouthful and I can still remember the instant headache, burning throat and the horrible smell of the stuff, I think you need an acquired taste to drink White Lady

I've only ever had the one mouthful and I still hate the smell of Methylated Spirits.

For anyone who doesn't know what Six O'Clock Closing was, it was our ridiculous liquor law in Australia at the time that didn't allow you to buy alcohol after 6:00pm also known as the "Six O'Clock Swill".

Here's an article that explains Six O'Clock Closing and sums it up very well and is exactly how I remember it:

The Six O'Clock Swill

When I arrived in 1981 'shouts' were still very much the name of the game and the culture of the 6 o'clock swill remained

Australian-American Brewing Guru Chuck Hahn, Chief Brewer of the Lion Nathan Group

The evidence of all three crew members reminds me of the former legendary "6 O'clock Swill" days when many rounds of beer were ordered and drunk just before the hotel was forced to close at 6.00 pm. Since then there has been a substantial change in the attitude of the community towards the consumption of alcohol.

Justice McIlwaine of the Industrial Relations Court of Australia in Garside v Hazelton Air Services Pty Ltd (970119)

The long puritanical tradition of early closing also remains in the minds of many who cannot shake off the mentality of the six o'clock swill.

Jonathan King, Waltzing Materialism, 1976

Until the middle of the twentieth century, most Australian pubs were required to close at 6:00pm. This naturally led to development the phenomenon known as the "six o’clock swill". Towards closing time, patrons would rush to guzzle as much beer as they could before the possibility of drinking anything was snatched away from them. The atmosphere and action is beautifully summed up by Keith Dunstan in the novel Wowsers:

"[The pub is] a large room, with a cold lavatory-like atmosphere, but filled with pushing men. There are no seats, no tables, no stools, no clutter that might interfere with the high-speed action. … There are special men and ladies on for the peak panic, eight or even ten immensely skilled barmen and barmaids, all equipped with the latest pluto taps on plastic hoses, an invention designed for dispensing beer at frightening speed, but they cannot cope. It is ten to six, now five to six, the bar is ten deep with pushing bodies, all thrusting handfuls of glasses towards the barmaids: "Here" – "Here" – "For Chrissake here". Well, you know this barmaid pretty well, she serves you first, but then you have to get your five glasses back to your mates against the wall. … But now it is two minutes to six, the mob is getting desperate, like the last few fighting for the lifeboats on a sinking ship.

Yet among the canny there was an alternative to this. Immediately upon entering the bar at 5:30pm one lined up one’s small platoon of five and all approached the bar at once and bought five beers each. There was one difficulty in this: under the no-ornament-no-seat-no-comfort-all-action-policy there were no tables, and while there were often ledges or windowsills, one had to get in early to make use of them. So the only choice was for each member of the school to put his five beers between his feet on the ground, and then demolish one by one before six. Great care had to be taken not to move one’s feet and to resist all bumps, but one learned by experience. At six the publican would ring bells, make announcements over an amplifier, he would go round almost with tears in his eyes urging everyone to finish their drinks: "Come on, fellers, fair go, drink up, fair go". The rules were very real. and he knew the penalties.

At 6:15pm the crowd, after their 30 minutes or so of tension, would be out on the footpath, many reeling. Constitutions that have not known food for five hours or more need to be strong to take five beers in 30 minutes on an empty stomach."

Thankfully, the "six o’clock swill" is no more, although perhaps some of the culture remains. The last state to abolish the ludicrous closing time of 6pm was South Australia in 1967.

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DeNatured.. think that is the word...

They mixed something to make it more unpalatable.. I suspect it is the DeNaturing product that is most harmful..

MoonShine, rough fermented products, tend to create some methanol amongst the ethanol. And proper fractional distillation can remove most..

Dident they drink boot polish and metho in Gail

Shell A racing fuel is (well was last I had any) 96% Methanol and had Acetone and pink colour added to it. I smelt it often enough with no problems, but it didnt strike me as something I'd want to drink!

Most amusing, guess what they give you if you have methanol poisoning?

If you are into pure methanol sniffing not good, drinking it in concentrated form goodbye (usually); however if you read the MSD's on just about anything its going to kill you in a high enough concentration.

And BTW orange juice has a higher concentration of methanol than distilled fermented sugar etc (providing your head cuts are good).

Joblow if this really worries you buy a bottle of vodka and after you have diluted the wood alcohol have a couple of shots of the vodka.

Fish & Food,

I hope you've only heard about that
I drank with an old guy out of the theatre who smoked Grey's Tobacco, he was rolling a cigarette in the pub one day and a guy walked up to him and said "when did you get out mate".

Apparently Grey's Tobacco was what they issued inside the "big House"




Gunagulla,

I think sniffing it would be far worse than drinking the stuff, I was working up on Groote Eylandt and there were a few of the young Aboriginal kids walking around with jam tins full of petrol tied around their necks, it was a very sad sight.

Here's a few old photos from Groote Eylandt (1980), Joblow on the left with a mate and David Gulpilil on the right.




Sleepe,

I can handle the Vodka but I don't think I could tackle it diluted with Wood Vinegar

Ha the only 2 stints I had in gaol is when I worked for a valve manufacturing company
we had to replace some faulty valves in the laundry
Bloke that was helping me seemed a decent bloke
I asked what he was in for he came home from work early and his wife was in bed with his mate [so I killed both of them ]

He probably was a decent bloke, he just had an instant change in life style and accommodation

joblow - how's the system?

cheers,

thjakits

I'm also curious