David R

Not surprising really, our benefit system is geared more to supporting long-term no-hopers than looking after genuine people in need for short periods of time. That really sucks that they expect you to cancel interviews for permanent jobs for the sake of a couple of days part-time work, it just smacks of the short-sightedness so typical with many social services. I'd consult a lawyer and go back to them with a clear list of your entitlements, as well as writing to the appropriate MP's to make them aware of how poorly our dollars are being spent...

Can you PM/email me a copy, I will be interested to see the level of detail and references etc necessary, see how much modification the two I'd done will need to fit the new form.

Thanks, I had an 06 5spot before that and loved it, unfortunately it was a medium and although it was fun most of the time it was just a bit short for those long rides and I'd end up with a sore back. The large is perfect, and the DW link is really nice too. The Mrs is just getting into the sport and has started riding the old spot and couldn't believe the difference it made going from an old hardtail with V-brakes and suspension that barely worked! That certainly helped justify the cost of the new one... Kiwi drivers are very arrogant and aggressive, and having spent plenty of time driving trucks classic, and vintage cars I can safely say it extends to any other road users, not just cyclists. People really just need to calm down and show a little bit of courtesy behind the wheel...

lol, simple and MAF don't really go together either, otherwise we wouldn't be in this situation.....

That doesn't answer my question about the cost. When Henward and I looked the cost was the same for a Rapid Assessment for 1 species or 20+. There is no such thing as "easy" when dealing with people like MAF, so if its going to be more cost-effective to put multiple species on the same application then it would be foolish not to.

http://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/roadc ... rules.html Two abreast and keeping left is ok, although probably not that sensible in many situations, but riding three [or more] abreast deserves all the tooting, insults and one-fingered hand gestures they get... When I was still riding to work in Auckland I used to do this down Mt Wellington highway. I found if I hugged the curb to give people more space to pass then they would just squeeze past and nearly knock me off, but if I was sitting about a metre out in the left lane so they actually had to change lanes to get past then they would give me more space. Mind you I was doing about 40+kmh along there and not really holding people up.

and of course 100% of people in cars are perfect drivers who follow the road code to the letter and would never do anything stupid that may endanger the life of a cyclist, who has every legal right to be riding on the road.... Hovmoller - ouch!! You're pretty brave riding around Newmarket, TBH I'd rather be on an exercycle than risking my life sucking in fumes. I've often wondered about cycling in the inner city, is it even possible to get a decent ride in with all the traffic lights and cars?

What is the cost, and is it being charged per-species? If not it would seem a waste to make a submission of only one species.

I gave up riding on the road years ago, value my life too much, especially in Auckland. IMO both parties are equally as bad as each other. The "prance armstrongs" on their $10k carbon bikes dressed up in lycra riding in a huge pack along tamaki drive to get their decaf extra hot soy latte in a tall glass on a saturday morning, and the arrogant impatient motorists who appear to be blind to people on bikes and nearly run them off the road because they are too important to slow down and lose 20 seconds on their morning commute waiting to get past a slow bike. I clocked up thousands of km's on northland roads about 15 years ago when I was in highschool, and the majority of people were pretty good and would give you space, although now the roads are a lot busier out maungatapere/kokopu/matarau with all the new lifestyle blocks. And no matter how many considerate drivers there are it only takes one moron to put an end to it, you don't often get a second chance in a car vs. bike. *edit* and just to clarify, I have never been a roadie, I've been riding mountain bikes since I was 13 (nearly 17 years ago!) and used to ride my mountain bike during the week for a bit of training. I must confess, I did wear lycra back in the mid-90's when it was actually cool to do so, but as soon as they became available I started wearing cycling shorts that looked like "normal" clothes, not tour de france team colours. Yes, you can actually get padded shorts that look normal and function just as well as the tight lycra ones, so there's no excuse for over-weight middle aged men to be crowding cafe's on sunday morning wearing tight pants!!! Here's a pic of my current ride, wasn't cheap but worth every cent! http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k186/ ... urner1.jpg

Seachem Prime is the most economical off-the-shelf treatment.

Looking good!!

Northland Pet and Aquarium in Whangarei is ok, not a huge selection but pretty good for a small town store.

HA! I just found it in the corner of the garage the other day, I'd forgotten all about it as it had some sand in it that I wasn't planning on using and I'd stashed it away, but now I'm planning on using the sand so I'll get it back to you asap, still in the same place? Barrie I presume I email one of those people mentioned on that page?

Putting a new filter on won't change anything, unless you've taken another filter off?

Any small holes/cracks they can wedge themselves into, especially dead-end ones where the fish first in can be trapped by others. Best to avoid holey bits of wood etc and get some big flat pieces of schist to make natural-looking hiding spots where they can't get stuck [like the ones in my tank].

Two swappas of Double Brown?? Reef how much "consultation" does there have to be and with how many Maori of what stature? I have a couple of people at work who may be able to be of assistance...

How long have the tetras been in the tank? Unless your pH spiked from <7 to 8 in a matter of minutes, or you rapidly acclimatised them from a tank with lower pH into your tank at 8 then that won't be whats killed them.

To answer the OP's question; if you're worried about the kid fiddling with the a HOB-type filter then there could be other problems like him/her getting into (or putting things into) the tank. IMO the best way to avoid the fiddling issue would be to put the tank higher up where it is out of reach of someone too young to be taught not to fiddle. And as for the debate about when to clean them out, both Caryl and Rabbit are right, to a point. It is true that with certain types of filter you can wait until they are so clogged up that the flow is reduced until cleaning them out with no ill effects, Caryls many years of experience are proof of this. However, what Rabbit said is also correct, imagine what would happen with a canister filter full of 6 months worth of crap in a long power outage if it turned back on before you had a chance to clean it out?! I know [also from years of experience] that the water turns real nasty really fast. I'm pretty slack at cleaning my canisters (mainly because they are only supplementary to sumps on my tanks) and when I have forgot to turn them on after a water change it only takes a matter of hours before the water is so toxic that it could easily kill off sensitive fish in a smaller tank. And as mentioned if you are relying a small quantity of quality porous media for your biological filtration you will lose much of the efficiency and surface area if you allow it to be clogged up with particulate waste. You may not notice if your tank is well filtered and your maintenance schedule regular, but you almost certainly have wasted your money buying expensive media. I'm amazed at how quick certain people were to jump on someone who was offering some pretty basic facts that happened to go against what someone else had said, when in fact the two opinions were not necessarily mutually exclusive. No wonder people don't want to contribute if that's the kind of treatment they get when offering up something that challenges popular opinion. Perhaps we need a few more real moderators to keep the back-seat mods in check...

I don't know the exact dosage rates for the products you're using, but they seem overkill. I dose my 220L barrel with 5ml of Prime, and even then often add another 1/3 of water straight out of the tap when doing water changes. You might want to look into changing from the API conditioner to Seachem Prime, it might be a bit more expensive but you only would need to use 1/10th as much. And there is no reason to use cycle with every water change if your tank is well established. As for the pH, yeah its a bit high for tetras, you could try adding some peat to your filter to help soften it. Do you have any driftwood in the tank? And is there anything like shell or limestone in the tank that could be making it so high? Another option that would be fairly cheap and easy with the small volumes of water you're changing is catching rainwater to use for the water changes.

Depends whats on there? I'd be happy to put up some cash, depending on how interested I am in the species being worked on...

How does one join this club???

And while we're picking on peoples spelling, you'd better read this as you seem to say alot a lot...... OP; can you please define "pH problem"? And I'd love to know which shop suggested it was caused by "not enough conditioner" because, unless you're topping up a tang/malawi tank with rainwater and are using some sort of packet-buffer to make the water harder, it sounds like a sales pitch for something you don't really need...

Seems like Reef is doing more than all of us combined. I've put the offer out there, if Reef or FNZAS "Fish Committee" want me to help all they have to do is say so.

Happy to look at providing this for the species I mentioned [and others].

Best solution IMO, but as Henward also said, I find it hard to imagine a 150L comfortably housing a single full grown discus, let alone a group of them, hope you're planning on upgrading....