whetu

If you have room for a second three-foot double light hood, then I would suggest adding one. So you can keep the two existing tubes you already have (if you want) and add another two of the ones suggested here. Daylight tubes are less than $10 from a hardware store like Bunnings or Mitre 10 so it's not a huge investment.

OMG Barrie. That's unimaginably awful.

Wow. It's one thing to steal someone's 'stuff' (inanimate objects) but to steal an actual live animal that needs to be cared for has some frightening potential to go wrong! 13 - 14 year old girls should definitely know better than that, and they should definitely get a SEVERE talking to about NEVER doing something like that again. If the police aren't going to do it then they should give you the opportunity to do it yourself. grrrrr :evil:

Excellent action shots there, Rozski. Saturday here in Auckland was a bit showery and amazingly cold! We took the scooter to the farmers market and I didn't want to get back on it to come home because I was sooooo cold! Sunday was much nicer so I spent the day doing housework :roll:

How about some kind of heavy metal? Invertebrates are much more sensitive to things like copper than other fish... although that doesn't explain the danio...

Yay! I'll have your electricity & your water. Next I'll be after your air. I was at an event last night hosted by the Sustainable Business Network here in Auckland and I was making small-talk with a woman who's a water quality consultant. We were talking about the fact that we've had so much rain, but that doesn't necessarily mean good quality drinking water is available to everyone. I said, "I know what you mean. Apparently Christchurch has had to add chlorine to their water recently due to a crack in one of their storage tanks." She seemed very impressed that I was keeping track of drinking water quality issues all over the country :lol: Eventually I fessed up and admitted I read about it on a fishy-forum but it made for some good small talk. :lol:

Hmm that's interesting about tiger worms tasting bitter - my fish seem happy to eat them. I wonder if the taste varies depending on what you feed them on?

I want Christchurch water! TM & aquanaut, it sounds like you might have the expertise between you... If I provided a very long hose, could you sneak me a personal supply of Chch water here in Auckland?

*Falls at davidb's feet*

How odd. I really have no idea what might be causing that. I hope someone else can help.

One of the best displays of human form IMO is shows like Cirque du Soleil. I came away from that absolutely astounded at what the human body is capable of. I mean, I have two arms, two legs, a head & torso just like them and what do I do? I sit around most of the day and occasionally walk or even break into a jog. They scale amazing heights, show incredible strength, flexibility, balance and endurance. Totally awe-inspiring. Please pass another sandwich.

Oooh I thought this was going to be a discussion thread to talk about last night's episode. Now you say you haven't seen it! How can you live with yourself! I think Munter used to be every girl's heart-throb but with his recent behaviour I'm more likely to wollop him than kiss him if I saw him in the street. He's a hypocrite! grrrrr Yeah sorry, I watched it and didn't record it. Let us know when you've seen it so we can talk about it openly. :lol:

Given your limited fish-keeping experience, I would suggest that you get some hands-on tuition from someone like Stella. I know museums have very tight budgets, but I think you should consider engaging someone who can act as an expert consultant for the project, and perhaps recruit some volunteers to help maintain the tanks.

Hmm... I can't really picture what you mean about the gravel discolouration... photos would help if you can get some. What type of gravel is it - approximately what size is each grain of gravel? Pea size, rice size, sand size? Is there another layer of substrate under the gravel, or does the gravel go all the way down to the bottom of the tank? And can you give more detail about the discolouration? Did it vacuum off like the dust or is it stuck to the surface of the gravel? What happens when you take a bit of gravel out and rub it... is the surface slimey? Does the thing causing the discolouration come off in a sheet? More detail definitely needed before we can start speculating about what it might be.

The Auckland museum has had aquarium displays for some years now. I think you should take a field trip to Auckland and arrange to have a behind-the-scenes look at what they're doing and what they have learned from the experience. Personally I think live native fish in a museum is an excellent idea. It adds enormously to people's sense of natural history and responsibility for things like what they put down drains. But then I would say that... that's why I'm in this hobby - I love the little fishies!

It sounds like having the heater off in the tank might have been a blessing in disguise. Perhaps the cooler water (so lower metabolism) may mean the axy hasn't absorbed so much poison? From the look of the body lotion in the photo, it is floating in globules on the surface of the water. Hopefully most of it has stayed on the surface rather than actually dissolving in the water, so again the poor little guy might not have absorbed too much of it. Sounds like the best thing you can do is keep the axy in water that is being constantly flushed/changed to dilute any nasties he has been exposed to. I would suggest that the tank, all its décor and the filter media should be thrown out as they are probably contaminated and it would take more effort to clean them than to replace them. Good luck.

Hi Gary and welcome to the forums. Just to clarify: 25 UK Gallons is about 114 litres by my calculations. The dimensions of the tank are approx. 760mm long x 380mm high x 300mm deep. a) Stand. You are certainly going to need a sturdy piece of furniture to hold the weight of the tank, but it doesn't necessarily have to be a custom tank stand. Sometimes you can reinforce an existing item to make the top more rigid, and it can then hold the weight of the tank. But of course you need to feel very confident that the stand will take the weight as it would be awful if it couldn't, or even if it could but you spend your time worrying about it. Can you buy something second hand off an online auction site? Also think about other fish-related accessories you want to store. If you are going to use a cannister filter (one that sits outside the tank) you will need a cupboard to put it in and a gap at the back of the cabinet for hoses etc to pass through. Also a cupboard is good for storing buckets for water changes and other bulky stuff. A drawer is good for little stuff like fish food, meds, spare filter media, etc. b) Heater As a general guideline you would need about 1 watt of heating per litre of water (depending ion the ambient temperature of the room and how warm you want to keep the water). As you have an existing 50 watt heater you are probably best to add a second 50 watt or 75 watt heater - two small heaters are better than one big one. I don't know what price heaters sell for in the UK but again an online search should help. c) Filter Filtration depends partly on what fish you are keeping (and how many). If you keep your fish stock low you can get away with less filtration. My personal preference is to over-filter. I like a cannister filter that sits under the tank and is reasonably accessible for cleaning. d) Stock What fish do you already have? Compatibility with existing fish is likely to be the most important starting point.

Hello and welcome, Golfer. I have a couple of questions for you: - How long has the tank been set up? - What kind of filter are you using? My first thought is maybe the filter isn't doing its job of filtering out the particulates. It may be that your filter media is clogged, or that the filter isn't up to the task - either not powerful enough, incorrect media, or perhaps the input/output isn't pointing the right way so isn't stirring up the gunk enough.

Just chop the top off and replant it. The base will also continue to grow. It almost doesn't matter where you cut it off as far as getting it to re-grow. The main consideration is going to be whether it looks funny and stumpy after you trim it, and before the new growth starts. If you only have a few stems, it's almost inevitable that it will look funny and stumpy for a while. Once you have a larger bunch of stems you can just trim a few of them at a time, and the other stems can hide the carnage until the trimmed ones get a chance to sprout again. (I jhope that made sense)

On a slightly different topic - 30cm x 20cm x 20cm is a very tiny tank. It really is waaay too small to keep a couple of goldfish in. Perhaps you could encourage your girlfriend to log in to this forum and we can discuss with her what the ideal living conditions are for a couple of goldfish? Most of us (speaking for myself anyway) probably started with a couple of goldfish in a small bowl, but unfortunately it will almost certainly result in disaster for the fish and an unhappy girlfriend! So for the sake of happy fish and happy girlfriend, send her along to us for a chat! :lol: By the way (without going into detail) the main reason that tank is to small is that goldfish produce a lot of waste and it is extremely hard to keep that volume of water in good condition for them. A larger tank might sound like more work, but in fact it is likely to be a lot less work because it is easier to keep conditions stable.

Romeo, when you say the heater is 'on' 24/7, do you mean it's plugged in and switched on at the wall during that time, or do you mean the little light in the heater unit is also on - meaning the heater is actually heating 24/7? I suspect you mean the first one - the heater is plugged in, but the thermostat in the heater keeps going on and off to keep the water at a constant temperature. In that case you can't calculate its power use by multiplying the wattage by 24 hours. I would suggest using one of those power meters that you can plug the heater into and measure its use over a 24 hour period. Then you can multiply it out from there. To keep the tank at such a low temperature, the heater will probably not be 'on' much at all, so the power consumption is likely to be tiny.

My partner and I were at a concert last summer and a girl behind him said "oooh I like your hair" and started running her fingers through it! At first he had a very startled look on his face, but once he realised she wasn't actually going to attack him, he relaxed and enjoyed it! (He ended up having quite a nice head massage)

I had a serious outbreak of BBA a while ago and I had a few problems with it: 1) It's very tough and fibrous and would end up blocking my filter intakes 2) It would cover every surface and out-compete other algae so there wasn't enough for my algae-eating fish to eat (hardly any fish eat BBA) 3) It would cover the leaves of slow-growing plants (like anubias) so they couldn't thrive 4) It looked really ugly!

That would depend on what forest you're talking about, and how many you intend to take. A friendly land-owner might be happy to have you walk in and take a few. On DOC land you're not meant to take anything without a permit. (I'm quite sympathetic to that because if everyone took a couple of logs there would soon be none left!)

Welcome to the forums, Ira#2. Good idea to see what's in your lfs, but please don't rely on them completely for advice on compatibility! Certainly discuss it with them (they might know what they're talking about!) but then bring your ideas back here before making the final decision. I've overheard too many conversations in pet stores where the assistant tells the buyer that they can have certain fish together when I know they're talking complete nonsense!