Misc. questions

Hi, a couple of days ago I racked my first batch (a peach must) from primary to secondary. I did not add sulphite when doing so, but I rinsed my carboy, plastic tubing, etc. out with sulphite and then rinsed with water afterward. The carboy is now sitting in a room with the air conditioner set to 18 C. I still have some lingering questions...

1) Should I invest in a carboy container? The drapes are drawn in my "wine room" and although the light is minimal, is it better to allow fermentation to take place in a dark environment?

2) I lost gravity a couple of times when syphoning. Therefore, there are probably more than a few "ppm" of my saliva in the wine. ;-) Since I didn't sulphite, will this likely lead to contamination? For what it's worth, the airlock is bubbling like crazy, and the 6 gallons of wine look like they have their own weather system (it's amazing how much motion is going on inside)! I take it the yeast, alcohol, and CO2 cap will prevent bacteria from growing?

3) When I do a racking and rinse my equipment with my sulphite solution, do I need to rinse with water after, or just leave as-is? I don't want to introduce too much sulphite, affecting taste and shutting down fermentation too prematurely. However, not enough sulphite may lead to contamination problems. :-/

Thanks in advance for your advice.

P.S. The few mouthfuls of wine I got when syphoning were a bit sour and quite sparkling, but not that unpleasant. The smell off the primary was very peachy, with a definite alcohol smell. There was also a tone of .. not to be disgusting but, do you remember the last time you had way too much to drink and threw up? That acidic, alcoholic smell was also present. I assume this is normal? :cross:

Sound perfect! Light is not great on any brewing but I just keep the drapes pulled and don't have any issues. Now if I was doing a deep red I would probally put a jacket on the the carboy or a tee shirt is great to just slide over the top!

I would not worry about the saliva. With that much activity everything that might or could have been in there is going to a quick death.. I have done it a few times too.

I always rinse my equipment afterwards. Of course I rinse it with super hot water. I turn up the water heat to max about an hour or 2 before racking and bottling so I have scalding hot water.

Great questions, always worry about steril equipment and you will be fine. If you keep it clean you won't introduce anything you don't want. Getting sloppy will result in issues. As you do you testing and tasting you will see the stages of fermentation including that nasty, sour oops is this going to be okay stage! It gets through those and becomes a wonderful necture. Sounds like you are on track!