cees

Ooops, just noticed on the program. May 2002 is ten-pin bowling in petone. Not all meetings are fish related

Bummer Ira Orongai mondo muktuk cente could be it, they must have changed the name. It's right next to an empty lot, big wooden fence. I've got babysit (3yrold daugther) duty on thursday. Try to wiggle my way out of it next month. Meet you there perhaps.

HI Ira, Welcome to the NEw Zealand Fishroom. Today I received the newsletter of the UHAS. Meetings 2nd Thursday of the month 7:30h Maidstone Centre Goodshed Rd (behind train station, other side of track) Next meeting April 11 Talk: Tank construction Competition: Any blue fish They're a friendly bunch. Tell them cees send you

What I've been hearing (and reading in these forums as well) that it is actually not that difficult to import. All you need is an approved quarantine facility and 6 weeks. Now if there is someone out there in NZ who could help me out than I'm sure we can get enough people/resource together to make this work. I've got some contacts in Europe as well. A few years ago the 'Livebearer association' people in Holland offered me all kinds of fish to take home but I couldn't.....

Talking about breeding guppies. I would really like to get my hands on some real good quality guppies. Ideally imported from a breeder in the USA. I'm thinking about starting "poecilia NZ". A club to promote the breeding and keeping of 'livebearers'. What I/we would need is access to quarantine facilities. And enough people willing to combine resources to get a decent number of top-quality lines into the country. A top quality 'trio' in the US retails for US$50 at least. I'm willing to pay double or even triple to get them in New Zealand. Anyone out there with more ideas on this??

The NZfishroom weblink directory has a section on Show Guppies. here I can recommend Stephen Kwartler's site http://www.showguppies.com/

A good book I can recommend is 'The proper care of guppies' by Stan Shubel. The local Upper Hutt library has a copy. You may be able to get it on 'interloan' if your not in the Wellington area. More info about this book can be found here

Caryl, Murphy's Law. During the changeover I lost 1 post (clicked the wrong icon). Your joke. Could you post it again please. Cees

My fishroom has been in operation for the last 4 years. The hart of it is a 2 layer bench with space for 20 600x300x300 mm tanks. (I've had only 10 installed, never got around to getting the rest) and another 10 smaller tanks. All tanks have a hole drilled in the bottom with standpipes fitted (25mm pvc, nylon washers, standard pressure pipe fittings from plumbing world). Water is pumped from a sump by an eheim (2250 I think) up to the top level (about 1.2 meter head) in 15 mm pvc. Each tank receives water through 6 mm tubing fitted to the 15 mm pipe with a grommet (hydroponics shop). Water returns to the sump through a 100x50 mm rectangular pipe (stormwater downpipe). It passes through a biofilter made out of two 10 liter buckets. One filled with shotgun wads (spelling??) the other no bottom and upside down as a stand. Each tank receives about 2-4 complete turnovers each hour (depending on whether the pump and pipes are clean). When I'm really active with the fishroom I do 10% water change daily (sort off, turn on the tap for a few minutes, sump has an overflow into the drain). I've focussed mainly on guppies. Trying line-breednig for a while. At the moment it's a real mess. The pump, the filter and the complete system has been runing non stop for 4 years. I've had only once the heater failing. No disease to speak of. The filter even has been taking care of 'dead fish' that I had not noticed. I gues, if an when I install the next lot of tanks I would need a bigger pump that's all Or perhaps a second pump with a second sump. The room is very well insulated. Plywood on the walls sealed with gloss paint. A little fan on a timerextracts air for several hours each day to keep the humidity down. No mildew problem. That's it folks btw, initial layout a bit more expensive but runnig cost now les then NZ$1/day and I can even leave it for a week or so without problems. [ This Message was edited by: Cees on 2002-04-05 03:47 ]

Ticker, ok I understand now. Server somewhere in the US. I haven't bothered scripting it to the local time. Just wait a few weeks and all will be housed on NZ soil... Cees

HI Pegasis http://www.1research2webdesign.co.nz/plantedit/ All data is there in a crude form. The plantwebpage will hav all that info at your fingertips. (and no , I did not get message about a ticker??)

I don't have many details but heard someone once say to get an old 'refrigerated' container if you have the land to put it on. You know, like the ones they have on container ships. They're supposedly well insulated. Instead of refrigeration you would need only a small amount of heating

Thanks Bill for digging that link up again. And yes, thank you Caryl for compiling/creating those images. It won't be long now before all of that is accessable through a nice point and click webpage [ This Message was edited by: Cees on 2002-03-30 22:04 ]

I contacted Kelly (perhaps he will join in here again) about the site and fnzas.org.nz. (At the moment that domain name points to this site as well) This was part of his reply: "Nothing seems to be happening in the FNZAS at the moment but we have a meeting in Hamilton on 13 April and I will ask the exec then and let you know". I'd like to encourage whoever attends that meeting to have a serious look at the website issue. There is I think a real opportunity to add value to the FNZAS and the aquartium hobby in New Zealand in general. But, as Kelly also said to me" "if the members are not going to use it then it is useless." There are in my opinion two types of 'use'. Active and passive. This site gets reasonable 'passive use' at 80 visitors/day. Active use is what's needed. Active use will grow and become self sustaining once it reaches a 'critical level'. To reach this 'critical level' the site needs quality content. I can only supply the tools and limited content. My plans? I'll always have this forum operating in some form. It's a personal hobby. Perhaps it'll grow, perhaps not. Oh well, it's early in the morning. We'll talk again later

Hello Pegasus, Welcome to the New Zealand fishroom. Thanks for posting that article on brineshrimp. Pegasus, don't be disappointed with the lack of responses and the small number of new posts. Looking back over the last year a typical week would have 1 or 2 posts and the occasional 'hot topic'. The site itself logs about 80 visits/day with an average page view of 8/visit. I too would like to see more activity but I'm not complaining. I guess New Zealand is still 'small town' and this is about as much 'involvement ' we'll see unless we get a real promotion boost. Next month the site will move to a new domainname. The way the site is going now I'm not throwing in the towel yet.

Speeaking of NZ Aquarium world, I found this in the site archives (remember this Caryl) http://www.1research2webdesign.co.nz/fishroom/awa.php I should make that searchable... after I finish the plant databse btw, the plant database is online http://www.1research2webdesign.co.nz/plantedit/ it's just not integrated with site and not ready for user comments. Some images are also available http://www.1research2webdesign.co.nz/fi ... antimages/ All I need now is a pretty user interface. [ This Message was edited by: Cees on 2002-03-08 01:58 ]

Hello GoldieNZ, good to see a new and active member to this forum. I'm not sure I understand your question though.. do something on the internet. What did you have in mind?

Hi Peet, I can't tell you what you should do but I'll tell you what I do with a 250L setup. Keep kH (bicarbonate) at or above 4 (a teaspoon of bakingsoda at every water change will do it (in Upper Hutt anyway) I bubble CO2 at a rate of about 15bubbles/minute in a reaonably planted tank, not to lush at the moment (maintenance problem and old lights) Anyway, my opinion, don't worry too much about pH swings and stabilise it a little with a mild buffer

It's getting to late, I need sleep. I'll upload the rest of the images some other time :roll:

I'm working on it. Today I received a cd from caryl with the complete 'FNZAS Plant Survey Booklet' in electronic form, GREAT!!!! The images are uploading as I write this. You can browse them here for now http://www.1research2webdesign.co.nz/fnzas/plantimages/ The table has been uploaded into the NZ Fishroom database. In the next few days I will make a crude admin form and I'll need volunteers to go though the 142 something records and edit a few things. Caryl did a great job, it just needs a finishing touch with some of the symbols etc that did not translate well in the conversion to a mysql database. Next week I'm of to Japan. When I get back I will have to finish a few commercial websites and than I'll make a section where it is possible to browse the 'NZ Plant Survey Booklet' online. At the moment I'm thinking about adding a 'user comment section' for the plant database with image upload possibility. Derek, sure I'd like a picture of the Cryptocoryne affinis. I'll call you. The link is the the pen drawing from the booklet [ This Message was edited by: Cees on 2001-09-26 05:55 ]

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/plant ... adder.html (for example)just search on http://www.google.com/