whetu

It was the rear left quarter window (the little triangle one at the back - I didn't know what it was called until the glass man told me this morning!) I decided to get the professionals to repair it, because by the time I had done it myself it would have cost me more in time than it was worth. And more than likely it would end up leaking or something and causing more headaches!

Thanks Caryl. Yep, just a nasty shock and a bit of unneccesary expense at a time when I'm struggling financially anyway.

Yeah, I know people who've had burglers go through their house while they were asleep - a very frightening thought!

Oh darn! I went out to my car this morning to find the window broken and stuff strewn around inside. Some rotten so-and-so has broken into it! I called the police and felt a bit embarassed to tell them that the criminals stole $10 cash, my map book and a beach towel. :oops: Not exactly the great train robbery, but till very annoying! The nice policeman took my statement, then asked if I would like Victim Support. Well, it was nice to be asked! Now I'm waiting for the glass repair people to arrive. (Hope it doesn't rain before then.) My insurance policy doesn't cover glass, so this is about $160 that I could have spent on something else. Grrrrrr :evil: Anyway, thanks for letting me vent. It's just one of those stupid, mindless things where they got $10 out of it, it costs me $160 and just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I have my tank at 28 degrees (pandering to the loaches). I'm surprised how often I notice the heater on, even in this weather!

I'm also a siphon out/bucket in kind of gal I either syphon the water into a bucket and use it to water the garden (which unfortunately is on the other side of the house so I leave a trail of drips on the floor...) or I syphon it straight out the window nearest the tank. Gave the neighbour's cat a nasty fright the other day - I didn't know she was sleeping under the tree outside the window! Then I fill a bucket with tap water, add some water conditioner to remove chlorine, and top up the tank one bucket at a time. The process is simple enough and once you get into a routine it's really not a bother at all IMO.

Welcome home! :lol: I believe the biggest fish-keeping technology change in the last 30 years is the Internet! It makes it so much easier to keep in touch with others in the hobby, and hear about their experiences with different fish, equipment and techniques. It also makes it so much easier to seek help if something is not going quite right - and therefore you're less likely to become discouraged and give up. (Especially when 20 other people say, "that exact same thing happened to me!") Anyway, welcome aboard. I'm sure with your past experience you will soon be back up to speed and sharing some of your tried and true fish-keeping wisdom.

I want chooks! :bounce: Unfortunately we're renting and my partner points out that moving the hens and all their stuff would be a nightmare, as would trying to get around the 'no pets' clauses in a lot of lease agreements. :roll: In Auckland City you can have a maximum of 4 hens per property but no roosters. One day we will own our own home, then watch out neighbourhood! The chooks will be moving in!

And harvest the larvae often so they don't get a chance to grow into fully-fledged mozzies, come inside and eat you up! I have been growing mozzies in a bucket. Last night I poured the water through a net and was very impressed with the billions of little wrigglers I collected. The fish were also impressed and went wild when I put them in the tank! Coincidentally my partner also got bitten by mozzies when sitting watching TV last night. (First time that has happened in this house.) It was only a coincidence, I swear! :-?

Very nice tanks! Great to see a personal style there, too. I notice you use the sand/substrate and carpet plants to create a lovely undulating base, then only one or two 'hard' landscaping features (rock or wood) to add a focal point. I repeatedly make the mistake of trying to completely obscure the background with tall and/or bushy plants, which then become quite overbearing and crowd the tank. I also like that you have stuck to only a few varieties of plants and a few varieties of fish in each tank, rather than giving in to 'a little bit of everything'. Rummy nose tetras are one of my favourite fish, since they tend to school more tightly than most other fish. I'm sure your tanks look even more beautiful when seen animated than they do in these still photos. Excellent job.

Auckland and Wellington airports sometimes put people through security checks for domestic flights (although a lot of smaller airports don't). I had a cactus plant confiscated once when I was flying from Christchurch to Auckland

Yep, I've had that suggested to me for snails' shells. Cheap to buy (you can often get it in the pet section of the supermarket). I used to put it in my snail tank. I never noticed any of it dissolving, but apparently it's one of those old-fashioned remedies that really works.

... and don't fly over any kayakers

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly...

When I made the Classic Duckweed Error :roll: I ended up taking the lids off the tank, trimming all the other plants so none of them were near the surface, and literally scooping out the weed until every last bit of it was gone! I just used a net, and threw all the duckweed out the nearest open window onto the garden! :lol: In some ways it's a very pretty plant and I wouldn't mind if I could just maintain a few square cm of it, but i have never seen anything grow so fast in my tank!

Is this tank in the same room as the other tanks that don't have the problem? Could there be something in the air that leaves the oily film - for example do you burn candles in this room? Or use some kind of plug-in fragrance or insect repellent? Is it near a kitchen where it might get cooking fumes? If there are no obvious external causes I suspect it might just be something to do with this being a new tank and not quite all balanced yet. In that case, keep up the water changes, increase surface agitation, and generally continue with all the good fish-keeping practises that we should all do anyway. Good luck.

Every time I see the horrific images and hear the terrible stories of the survivors, I can't help wondering what the arsonists could possibly have been thinking when (if) they lit the fires. Ok I know it's only speculation at the moment until the investigations are complete, but did these people have even the remotest clue about the death and devastation they were going to cause? Are they sitting at home watching the news, torn with guilt over what they have done? Or thrilled and excited at the notoriety they are getting? Or perhaps they perished in the fires themselves (perhaps the only just outcome). I know nobody knows any answers yet, but (if there were arsonists involved) it is just such a mind-bogglingly stupid and/or wicked thing to do that it is beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. RIP to the innocent people who have died in these fires, and my sympathies to their families and friends and those who have lost so much. P.S. One of my colleagues has lost several members of his family and has returned to Australia to be with his remaining family. Perhaps why I am finding this situation so difficult and emotional.

OMG! *Is incredibly impressed* What a beautiful pond! And yes, your engineering background does show. :lol: So when are you going to have an open home and invite us all over to have a look at your pond? :bounce: I'll even bring a bottle of bubbles to "launch" it, if that helps persuade you!

Aaaawww. Way to spoil a good story.

Ok, I scrubbed out the bin (again) put fresh plants in there out of my tank (again) and filled up with water out of my tank (I was due for a water change anyway). Then I set about catching my cherry barbs to put them in the bin. Crikey those things can swim fast when there's a net after them! I ended up catching only one female and put her in the outside bin. I thought I would leave the others to settle down a bit and try catching them today after work. Since then there has been no more sunshine, and today it's raining. The poor wee girl will be cold and lonely! I feel so mean!

The other really awful thing about this is that they think some of the fires were deliberately lit - and possibly some deliberately re-lit after they had brough them under control. If this is true, it's a really awful thing to do

Aaawww you girls, give Caper a break! Caper, I'm surprised your fish were so startled to the light going off - surely it happens every night, you just turned it off at a different time? Anyway, sorry for your loss and I hope the rest of the tank's inhabitants have settled back down after their fright.

OOps yes, I meant ambulia - the tall fluffy one. :oops:

It's different when you're actually in your togs and intending to go swimming - and as you say, you know each other and you know what to expect. But doing it to strangers is just stupid.

So you have a pond pump and/or filter running? I naively assumed that you had simply filled up the pool with water, added plants and fish and left them to it! I think my problem is a lack of circulation and surface agitation. I don't have any suitable outdoor equipment - and it would be cheaper just to buy more fish than to buy the equipment!