Question about anode rod

 I have a Reliance natural gas water heater:

Model: 8 40 NART7 FJ
Serial: G91164164

It works fine. However, last weekend I was replacing some leaky fittings in
my galvanized cast iron plumbing system, and decided to change out the
pipe nipples in the top of the water heater, where the cold water comes in
and the hot water goes out, for those ball-check-valve devices that are
supposed to save a bit of energy.

When I removed the one on the hot side, I was surprised to pull out not
just a pipe nipple, but a foot-long rod covered with "barnacles". Ick.
My replacement ball-check device had no such rod, so I went online and
after a bit of Google searching learned about anode rods. Apparently
this thing was an anode rod. There's something new to learn every day.
Anyway, now I have no such rod, since the hot-side ball-check device
didn't have one. However, I noticed that near the flue, there is a plug
that looks like it might be for an anode rod, so perhaps the one I pulled
out was redundant.

I'd like to pull that plug out and check to see if there is a rod, but I have
a problem: the little sheetmetal "house" that protects the flue area is going
to block removal of the anode rod (if it exists under that plug) and I
can't figure out how to get it off. Does anyone know how I can do that? Is
there a Reliance website?

While I'm on the subject of plumbing, I have a question about the teflon
"toothpaste" that you use on the pipe fittings: do you put it on the male
or female connector? I've always put it on the male connector, but it
occurred to me that if you put it on the female connector, then on assembly
you'll push the bead to the inside of the fitting rather than the outside,
and the water pressure will keep it pushed into the threads. Sort of
like when you patch a tire, you put the patch inside the tire, not the
outside. Thoughts?

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