Page 24 - Discover WINTER 2022

Discover Spotlight
Discover Spotlight

Bass T
Bass T
ansit
ansit
r
Bass Transit
r
Imagine if fish could swim out the top of The tube is filled by sucking the air out
your aquarium, up to the ceiling, across the of it, while simultaneously maintaining the
room, and then down into another tank. water levels in the tanks. Eventually, all the air
Before you go marveling is removed, and the tube is
at modern technology, you filled with water.
should know that the first
such system was patented in A small pump transfers
the U.S. in 1877. The ones water through a separate
pictured here are made of pipe from one tank to the
acrylic plastic, which is com- other. As the tank water lev-
monly used as a material in els change (one rises and the
custom-built aquariums. other falls), flow is induced
through the tube by the force
The tube is completely of gravity. Thus, the tank
sealed, except for the open- filters clean the water in the
ings at each end, which are tube. Algae is removed using
submerged below the tank cleaning magnets for acrylic
water levels. Think of it as a tanks.
large drinking straw in a glass
of water. No doubt, you’ve observed that you Gremmie’s note:
can seal the top of the straw with your finger, This is quite insensitive toward any cats who
and then lift the straw out of the glass, keep- may also live in the house.
A
lis
r
ma
Amaryllis
y
l
ing the water in the straw at its original level
until you let the air back in.
22 Discover Smith Mountain Lake WINTER 2021