Facility Features

Question 1

What type of silicon sealer should be utilized? Should copper pipping/lead solder be used? How should floors be angled?

Answer 1

Food-grade. No. Avoid steeply angled floors because this creates unstable footing for heavy racks.

Question 1

What should doors have to prevent water leakage from the room?

Answer 1

Bermed thresholds of floor trench drains.

Question 2

How many hours of light per day is recommended?

Answer 2

12-16 hours.

Question 3

How should facilities with rack-type shelving units position their fluorescent lighting fixtures?

Answer 3

Parallel to the shelving and directly over aisles to maximize light penetration.

Question 4

What are general guidelines for ZF light intensity?

Answer 4

5-30 ft candles or 54-354 lux at water surface

Question 5

Why is humidity a concern?

Answer 5

Mold and corrosion of metallic components

Question 6

All rooms should be provided with what source of air?

Answer 6

Clean, compressed air of low or medium pressure plumbed appropriately to provide for air delivery to all tank areas.

Question 7

How should electrical services be provided? What type of outlets should be used?

Answer 7

Ideally overhead from the ceiling by pendant of knuckle fixtures or permanent fixtures 4ft high along the walls in waterproof conduits. Ground fault interrupted outlets.

Question 8

Wood should be avoided, but what type of wood can be used if no other alternatives exist?

Answer 8

Nonleaching boric acid-treated wood.

Question 9

What is the best source of fresh water? What is a disadvantage?

Answer 9

Deep wells, as they contain few infectious agents and toxic compounds. Can contain heavy metals.

Question 10

What must municipal tap water be treated to remove?

Answer 10

Chlorine, copper, and chloramines.

Question 11

What material are ZF tanks typically made of?

Answer 11

Polycarbonate, as acrylic warps with age and repeated use.

Question 12

When can individual tanks be useful in a lab setting? (4)

Answer 12

For a small colony, in infection studies, studies requiring multiple environmental parameters, and as quarantine/hospital tanks

Question 13

Approximately what percent of the total volume of water in a recirculating system should be removed and replaced with conditioned water? How often? Why?

Answer 13

1-10%. On a regular basis. Adequate oxygen saturation, flush excess nitrates, replace trace mineral compounds.

Question 14

What solutions have been shown to reduce bacterial contamination?

Answer 14

Freshly prepared 2% sodium hypochlorite or 1% Virkon Aquatic (potassium peroxymonosulfate)

Question 15

What function requires specialized space?

Answer 15

Quarantine/isolation. Ideally a separate room.

Question 16

What type of snails are used in aquariums to control algae and consume uneaten food?

Answer 16

Freshwater snails (Planorbella)

Question 17

What are disadvantages of the use of snails?

Answer 17

Rapid reproduction, resulting in migration into water piping and obstructing or blocking flow of water. Intermediate host or vector for larval stages of parasites (digenetic trematodes) and bacterial pathogens (Mycobacterium). No report of invertebrates transmitting Mycobacterium to aquatic vertebrates, but still.