The middle pot is not too small but repotting is not long down the road. About getting soil off of roots. I use a gentle hose to wash the soil off. I also have used a tinny brush thing I have. After washing the soil off, I let them dry for a couple of days. If any roots are bruised , they would have callused over. This step really minimizes the rot that can come from damaged roots. I always get rid of soil that plants come in. It is good plant hygiene. I do not want other peoples bugs, and you don't want mine. sometimes I use this time to spray with a systemic pesticide. and fungicide before drying. Just now, I had a huge Aloe cameroni that had gotten blighted by my son leaving the door to my winter warm space open during a cold front and this plant half of it was dying from rot. I decanted it and the roots were a large mass of mostly rotted shizz. Helf the plant had dissociated itself from the dying half and was putting on a growth spurt. I did severe washing and cutting of the roots looking for ALL the dead and dying, but out of a large hydra headed plant O still have a nice large plant and five rosettes to re root. They are dosed with fungicide and bayer 3 in one. and drying eating to be potted. The rosettes are being misted and I am waiting to see root nubs before I plant them. One can be pretty rough with aloes as long as you let the damage callus by letting things dry up. They will grow more roots.

When you installed the trap and drain, it was cemented together, right? What are you using to seal the drain? Meaning, is it effectively sealed? The 1/8" water loss could be from a few things. When you pour water on Kerdi, the fleece can hold air bubbles on the fleece surface. As those air bubbles escape, and as the thinset absorbs some of the water, the water level will drop. A small effect. Around the drain. If you think you have a bad seal between the kerdi and the flange, run a bead of Kerdi Fix right at the seam where the Kerdi meets the flange. Clean the surface, run a bead, and smear it so it lays flat. That'll seal it. Now the corner piece that you said had a bubble behind it, and air/water leaked out? That's the only place I'd say really needs a closer look. I'm not sure how "flappy" that corner piece is, but you can either seal it in place with more Kerdi Fix, or you can slice the bubble, inject a little thinset behind it, set it flat, let the thinset cure, then cover the repaired area with another piece of Kerdi with 2" overlap extending past the sliced area and on to the "good" kerdi. Give those repairs time to cure, then try another water test. You can partially fill the pan to make sure you're not leaking at the drain of the drain flange. If successful, then you can do a full-depth water test. Let the water test run longer, too. You may get that 1/8" drop, then no more drop. That usually signifies the drop was due to entrained air coming out or water being absorbed by the exposed thinset. Mongo

You can get Benedryl that is dye-free, but it is hard to find. You will be amazed at how many things have Red 40, like bar-b-que sauce, yogurt, many medicines. One brand of cake mix has it on the label for both yellow and chocolate cake. Then of course, all the red and pink things like jello, candy, some jelly, canned cherries, cherry pie filling, many toppings, ice cream, mixes with artificial berries. It's everywhere. A small percentage of people can taste red dye and it gives food a bitter taste to them. I am one of those people, so I have never been big on eating "red" things that other people think taste great. That is probably why I am not dead. I remember getting sick as a child on a desert that had red jello in it, and once ended up in the emergency room after taking a common (pink) med. In those days, I think I had to get a lot of it before I had a real problem. I always had problems after I would fly because I always took a pink motion sickness pill. I didn't know that everyone else didn't have gas, bloating, and diarrhea after flying. LOL Since I tend to get dizzy easily I had taken a lot of pink motion sickness meds before I discovered Meclizine. Also check any kind of vitamins you may take. Beware of anything red, pink or orange. I do really well most of the time, but occasionally when eating out I will get something without knowing it. If I get very much, I will have severe cramping within minutes. I practically live in the bathroom for the next two hours because my system will just try to "flush" it out. In addition, I have pains in my heart. During a very serious attack I will just be freezing and can't get warm. I sit in a hot tub of water, and keep running it hot until I finally warm up. I shake like I am having a siezure. Do you do any of these things? When it started to get so bad about 10 or 12 years ago, I thought I had some serious stomach or bowel disorder. Then I would get better and be fine for a few days, so I would think well, maybe not. If it does turn out that it is red dye, we are not alone. More and more people each year and learning that it bothers them. I am not a drinker, but I read an article about a lady being taken to the emergency after having a drink with grenadine. I hope this is not what is wrong, but at least if it is, you can control it. You will have to give up a few things, and maybe prepare more things from scratch, but you will soon learn what to avoid. Good luck. Carol

Yes, though I wouldn't be surprised if almost everyone who gets a pH meter eventually sticks it in distilled water to see if the pH of their distilled water really is 7. Perhaps motivated by curiosity or suspicions of the labeling of the product. My meter came with small amounts of calibration solutions. The instructions that came with it suggested storing the sensor in tap water, assuming the tap water has enough ions. Though, later I bought larger amounts of calibration solution plus official probe storage solution. Mine came in liquid form. I didn't think to look for packets of dried chemicals which probably cost less and store better. I realize the storage solution is basically salt water but seemed like it needed to be a very specific concentration of salt water. Mainly, I got the pH meter for use with attempting to do plant tissue culture or starting seeds in-vitro. Having the growth media at the right pH is important. At first I tried using pH test strips but had some doubts about using those. The meter has been useful for occasionally testing soil pH, too. However, I suspect that some of the grittier things I've tested that gave me a reading of about 8.1 might actually not be that alkaline and don't have ions to be sensed by the meter.