Warren

The Mollies are on private land and any locals have no claim whatsoever on the fish. You are supposed to ask permission from the owners but one lives in Australia and the other in Rotorua so it's a bit hard getting hold of them. Last time I tried to get permission they never got back to me...

Yes, do come to the meeting!! I'll even do a special presentation for you about how to photograph and video your tank. I do 50-70% waterchanges on a regular basis so you should have no trouble filling the tank right up as long as it doesn't leak and as long as the water temperature does not drop more than 2-3'C - ie, preheat the water.

Remember, 20th July is the cut-off date. After this time your club details will not be added to the Yearbook. Why is it such a battle every year to get a simple membership list?...

I've built a covered and insulated box outside against the wall of the house for 660L of water barrels. The barrels are heated with 5 x 300W heater and water is slowly circulated by a small pump. There's another pump to bring the water inside. I cut a hole through the wall and permanently fixed a drain pipe (with a net at the end) going down the waste and incoming water pipe for the heated water. The pump and heaters are switched on and off from inside the house. Now I don't have to open any windows or doors to do a water change. I used a fairly big pump so it only takes 6 minutes to move the 600L of water inside...

Welcome !!

Anyone wanting to know the show classes, send me an email and I'll email you the FNZAS show class and pointing booklet. It lists all the classes and shows how fish are pointed. It's in your interest to know these things so you can maximise your chances of winning. May I also remind you the show is only open to FNZAS members, not website only members. To be a FNZAS member, you must be a financial member of a FNZAS affiliated club. It's not too late to join if you want to enter fish in the show, just follow the link below to show you where the nearest club is to you: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/clubs/ Good Luck!!

The show page has been updated and PDF entry form added. Please use this link to go to the webpage on the main part of the site: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/national_fish_s ... show_open/ Forget the link above says 2008 as the show is this year (2007), don't know why it put that, - maybe I typo'd when I first set the page up...

I now use a glass diffuser that requires quite a bit of pressure to make it work so water doesn't backfeed. I used to use the same method you are using with a pwerhead. I have a solenoid valve on the regulator output prior to the bubble counter and nothing used to backfeed other than 30-40mm up the tube from being off over night. I guess different circumstances don't guarantee you won't get backfeeding...

Do as Ianb suggests and reduce the voltage on the fan. I do this so the fan runs silently. You'll only need a small amount of air movement to stop the condensation so slowing the fan down will be fine. Use 120mm as they typically spin slower than the smaller fans so are less noisey to start with. You could get a plugpack with an output voltage selector to make adjusting the fan speed easier or use a computer fan speed controller. I made a speed controller before they were available really cheap for PC's...

I don't bother with one. Your regulators guts are made from stainless steel and will not rust. There's no way your bottle can fill with water as it means the pressure in the CO2 tank is less than in your aquarium - not really possible. I've been using CO2 for over 10 years and never had any issue with water going back down the CO2 feed line.

My planted tank is 2400 x 840 x 650 (L x W x H) and I'm finding it a bit small. The biggest shortfall is in the height. I find most plants start growing out the top of the tank unless pruned back. Many of my swords grow with the tips sticking out of the water. Big swords easily grow to 500-600 long or even bigger so a deep tank is necessary. You'll be quite successful with a 450 high tank but it will limit what plants you can use. You'll be restricted to the smaller dwarf swords that grow 200-400mm long. Keep in mind you need to substract the gravel thickness off the tank height as the usefull area for the plants. As your gravel needs to be at least 50mm thick for most plants, you're only left with 400mm for the plants assuming you fill it right to the top. At the rate my plants grow, in 400mm of space I would have to trim most of the stem plants every 3-4 days. It's not uncommon to get 75-100mm growth a day out of some stem plants (like Cabomba) and 50mm+ from others. Sword plants can grow one full new leaf every 2 days. I prune my tank weekly as it's starting to look a bit overgrown in that time. If it's left for 2 weeks then there's no light left to get to the bottom as it's blocked out by the fast growing plants. There's nothing wrong with using a shorter tank, just be prepared to limit the range of plants you can use and maintain it more often.

I have been in touch with the importer (who contacted me actually). The fish slipped through without proper identification. They were labelled as Glass Kuhli's (whether labelled with common or scientific name unknown). As these are very uncommon an assumption may have been nade that the fish was correct. At any rate a mistake was made. Now that the quetion has been raised and the importer advised, the importer has contacted all shops sent these fish and told not to sell them. The species is currently undergoing a proper ID. Once it is ID'd, a decision will be made whether the fish can be sold or not. If not, they will be destroyed. If they are destroyed, I would recommend all hobbyists who purchased these fish take them back to the shop for a refund. The shop can destroy them. Currently, it's the importers responsibility to verify the species on the invoice is actually what was sent. If the person unpacking the fish does not have enough experience IDing fish then mistakes can easily be made. I'm not saying this has happened in this case, just that somehow these fish were marked as matching the invoice by mistake. The MAF inspector (currently vet's) only checks the invoice to make sure all listed species are on the allowed list. MAF is currently in no way responsible for actually visually checking the fish. Some may do this but it is not a requirement. So, a simple honest mistake can very easily lead to a situation like we have here. Once the species is properly identified and official update will be posted here.

Welcome!!

All I can say is "You wish you were all here!!" It's been a fantastic weekend so far with more to come yet.

Hmm, the "New Topic' and 'Reply' buttons are fairly close together. Make sure you click on "Reply'. Maybe pay to wait just a second or two to be sure your mousie is over 'Reply' and not over 'New Topic' before clicking... As Pegasus says, it's the only way it could happen.

I hope everyone coming to Conference 2007 has a safe trip to Hastings. Everything is ready and waiting for you to arrive. I hope it's as good an event as I expect it to be. The HBAS has pulled out all the stops to make sure it's going to be a memorable ocassion. See most of you tomorrow!!

If you can afford it, a dual conversion UPS works great to stop power dips and spikes killing your gear. It has to be dual conversion to get full protection though as off-line types still pass the power straight through and only cut in after the mains has failed. Off-line types do have some degree of spike protection in them but it's about the same as the power-board style protectors. As they don't need to be reset there's no worry about them turning off.

Yes, all electrical devices actually don't work on electricity, they work on smoke. I know this because when the smoke leaks out they stop working... More effecient devices leak less smoke and less efficient device leak more. You should see how much smoke I can get out of some of the electic motors and other electronic devices at work. Needless to say, these ones are quickly removed from our list of suitable devices for the job. R&D is great fun!!

Dark or non-see through hose looks better than clear hose. The clear hoses always fill up with brown/black algae and look bad. Just make sure the hose is 'Food Grade' to make sure it does not release any toxic chemicals. Some black hoses can cause problems, especially if you can smell them (sniff a but of air from inside the hose).

I've had this happen before but didn't associate it with a power cut. It's possible there was a power cut that caused it but I was out... If there is a surge it can be to quite a high voltage. It's possible the windings in the motor get damaged (usually called first turn failure) as most of the voltage spike appears across the first few turns of wire in the windings. This can cause the insulation material to break down so you have a shorted turn. This creates oppositing magnetic fields in the motor making it rattle and run with much less power or flow. It should also get hotter than in used to and in some cases it might smell. The filter I had do this only lasted a few days longer before it stopped all together with the windings going open curcuit. This may be the problem but it's only a guess...

Bummer, what an unbelievable run of bad luck!! It's always a worry when you go away, worrying about things being ok at home. So far, have only had this happen once when I went away for 3 weeks with flatmate's looking after the tank. Since then I've always made sure long trips away have a knowledgeable person babysitting the tank and a backup person available (usually a person I trust from the LFS).

A member started a new thread so was banned for one month. Same will happen to anyone else. You will have to agree to disagree on this topic and let it go. The whole topic was getting too personal so it's now finished.

This topic has been removed as too many posts were getting too personal. There will be no further discussion on the matter as it's just too much of a 'hot-potato'.

This is in response to: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/8-vt20 ... ?start=105

I'd go with only 2 Oscars in a tank that size. Mine were in a 1840x600x680 (approx 680L) tank and it was only just big enough for them really. They grow pretty fast and within a year you'll need to start re-homing them if you get 6. I'd go with any of the fish mentioned. You could also add some Chocolate Cichlids, Nicaraguan's, Geophagus or other similar large cichlids as well (but no too many). I even had my Borneo Tigers in with the Oscars for a while and they were fine (the biggest problem was feeding time - the Oscars would always beat the Tigers to the food). They main emhasis is having other fish that are quite big as well. If it will fit in it's mouth, it's food. Even if it's close to fitting in it's mouth they will usually have a go. Oscars are one of the smartest fish. Give them something to do. Drop whole worms in the tank, - one at one end and another at the other end etc. Add a ping-pong ball for them to chase around. Anything to give them something to do. And try not to let then breed (I think 2 males are best - females fight (I could be wrong on this one, can't remember)) as you'll end up with 1000-2000 baby Oscars...