[Nhcoll-l] Drums, etc

[Andrew Stewart]

Hi Tonya,

Our larger specimens are stored in fifty 250 litre stainless steel tanks (1.4 m long), and the workhorse of one hundred & twenty eight 500 litres (2.0 m long). These are secured in the room and moved into a workroom, to get specimens in & out, using a pallet jack. For the biggest specimens we have eight fixed tanks of 850 to 3300 litres. These tanks have a glycerine vent valve to release pressure when the weather changes. The room is monitored for alcohol spikes, the air is changed over. Temperature in there is held at 18C +/- 1C & 55%rh +/- 5%. The lids have a silicon gasket and are held down with eight (250 l) or 14 (500 l) catches. The volume and shape of the tanks has been driven by the fact that a majority of them hold fishes, and we have found this to be the optimal shape. These tanks are manufactured by a local metal fabrication company, Etech.

[Tank farm]

Cheers
Andrew Stewart

>><<<)o>
Assistant Curator NE (Fishes)
Museum of New Zealand
04 381 7314
027 7339363




From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Haff, Tonya (NCMI, Crace)
Sent: Wednesday, 27 April 2022 4:29 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Drums, etc

Hello all,

I am trying to figure out a nice solution for housing larger specimens. Right now we have them stored in either old canning jars (really rammed in, not great), or in buckets (don't seal properly and aren't archival) or drums with rubber (?) gaskets (they seem to leak when you tip them, no matter how much they are tightened). I really want a good, leak-proof or at least minimising solution, and I feel I haven't found it yet. It's really frustrating - the drums are even made for brewing, so you would think they would form a nice seal, but they don't seem to. If any of you have a solution you like for housing medium to larger specimens (and I actually mean anything over a 2L jar), or a solution for making gasketed drums work, I would love to hear it.

Thank you!

Cheers,

Tonya

-------------------------------------------------
Dr. Tonya M. Haff
Collection Manager
Australian National Wildlife Collection
CSIRO

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