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god knows we could do with one of those!

chocolate chip

as i recall - the employees sat around smoking and drinking in the office most of the time, then one left the drain tap on when doing a water change and emptied all of the tanks, killing the livestock. the manager was on and off work due to health problems and finally an owner came in and took over but it was too late - i think they had problems with the baby factory next door getting flooded when they left the taps on as well. or something like that... i think the biggest challenge they had was being a pet store in the middle of town, but the more i think about it the more i would put it down to lazy staff/poor management arn't i the critic...

more details are always good - like times and such, and of course; what flavor cookies!

ok, so having thought about it and gotten settled into the new place i'm going to start sussing this out... where does these clubs meet up, and can i come and play? i could bake cookies or something

saw someone selling something like that on trademe - some kind of plastic run-through that is apparently good for rabbits and fish (?!)

one thought pops to mind though - it really helps if you put the tank over the joists that are on top of the extra piles. we are in the process of draining the tank so we can lift it onto the correct part of the floor... *sigh*

I find the subject of building/repairing tanks frustrating at the best of times, as i assume would anyone with an injured tank, so in this post I’m trying to create debate and enliven discussion to produce thought evolution (rather than cause an argument) to see if there is a solution. (And in retrospect I apologise for the verbosity that follows:) I have seen tanks that hold thousands of litres with minimal reinforcing and a good stand stay in use for years, yet I have seen tanks that are heavily reinforced break almost as soon as they are put under load, and it is often the reinforcing that breaks. Another aspect is functionality - for example I would like to be able to get into the top of my tanks so I can do aqua-scaping, or even net a fish, but with all the reinforcing that I’m supposed to have these simple tasks would become matters best left for contortionists or those with fish that do not move. Is there no definitive resource or physical research that defines parameters for building fish tanks? I shouldn't answer my own questions so often but judging from the variety of methods I have seen over the years I would assume that no one really knows where to go after they build the five essential sides. My 600l tank currently has no reinforcing at the top at all, I would like to think that this could be a long term solution, but being unsure of it being strong enough, and the consequences that follow, make me want to replicate the reinforcing I have on the bottom on the top, only I could never have access to the inside of the tank. Of course in doing this I would then begin to question the necessity for structural supports through the centre of the tank in all directions. Ok, so this is getting absurd, but how far should one backtrack these reinforcing plans before the tank becomes too weak? Some are comfortable drilling holes in the bases of their tanks and then placing hundreds - if not thousands - of litres on that theoretically weakened piece of glass. Others will build a two foot tank with reinforcing mirroring that found in tanks tens of times the size. One of the two-foot tanks in my collection has no glass reinforcing; it has been encased in stainless steel angles around all of its edges. One thing I can say for certain, it doesn’t break when you throw it around! Takashi Amanos' aqua-scape display tanks look as though they are about 800-1000 litres and filled to the brim, yet they have no lids and no top bracing. As with most things everyone has their opinion, my friendly glazier reckons that my tanks need no reinforcing; others cannot believe that I did not use 16mm rather than 10mm glass. I guess this also encompasses stands and other supporting concepts. I use a 75mm angle iron frame to support a 1000kg tank; others could use the same frame to support an 8,000kg truck. I would not recommend that anyone purchase a veneered particle-board stand due to the strength I believe they lack, yet the LFS stock these in surplus and apparent preference to the similarly constructed yet obvilusly stronger recycled rimu and solid pine stands that hold similarly sized tanks. My point is that there must really be only one answer or concept, albeit complicated, depending on what you are trying to construct. The basis for it is; we all live on the same planet, are subjected to the same gravitational forces, most of use refrain from using 'heavy water', and we all have available to us glass and stand materials that do not differ significantly (to the best of my knowledge) from place to place. After all, 10mm glass is 10mm glass, is 10mm glass... right?

i think that a tank falling through the floor or seriously bad water damage are the two potentially worst situations that could arise from this hobby - mainly because of the people to whom i am responsable to for the damage.

well the latest was moving the tank into the room! thought it would be a simple case of getting the flatmate to grab the other end - alas we ended up taking doors off hinges and moving everything that could possibly be in the way - took us about an hour but the tank is now on the aforementioned supports and is full and warming as we speak. i have had to hold off on re-sealing the tank for the moment (need to add in a few extra supports at the top after one of them fell out) so i have only half filled it in order to get the fish out of their tiny holding tanks. because the lounge is three times the size of the last one the tank looks miniscule - i think i need a 6 footer now!

Giddens argues that 'plastic sex' predominates in modern times, he argues it as sex that has no reproductive function or objective. now of course you could be talking about the practice of making stop animations... i have heard that referred to as PS before.

i am certain that in my own house i will have concrete floors or similarly strong floors - its part of the hobby thats why i took over the garage, and fortunatly the concrete pad is covered in part by the end of my bedroom which is exactly where i want to put a 10 foot cichlid tank... i wonder what the ambient strength of concrete is...

the trip was wrought with rain, bad visibility, and junkfood! i got back to find that my port hoplos have spawned - i never realised how beautiful they get when they are in their prime - they look like they are wearing paua jackets. oh - and cheers for the plants Jude - its gone nuts already! i stopped in at aquatic blue and got some test kits - so much cheaper than welly, and got the guys there to give me a guided tour through the sera co2 fertilization system... i want one

I thought I'd share this little miracle with you all. We just moved into a nice new house in Kingston, Wellington. Beaut views, garage for the growing tanks, concrete pad for the car , nice kitchen etc... and a helpful caringand active landlord. Makes a lovely change from a cramped flat in the middle of town - we can even get three people in the kitchen at once! Anyway... i digress... The landlord is keen for me to get under the house and put in some extra supports for the 600l tank that is to go in the lounge. So i got on my crawling-under-the-house-trousers and sent to see what i could do. As with most houses there are a number of piles holding them off the ground, but during my exploration i discovered some additional supporting piles and braces that appeared to be under the lounge floor. Further examination shows that these supports were against the lounge wall providing an extreme amount of extra bracing to a small area - an area that is 1400mm/850mm with the floor joists running in the 850mm direction. Looking at the lounge ceiling there is a very well plastered hole that is directly under some fresher looking tiles on the roof. Turns out there used to be a coal range sitting on that point of the floor. Also turns out that the coal range had almost the same footprint as my fish tank - the tank is 1400/650mm. Basically means that the two back legs of my tank will be sitting directly on their own piles, and the front legs will be 150mm away from their own set of piles, all whilst sitting on massive rimu floor joists. How is that for amazing?!

take a look at this: http://www.thekrib.com/Filters/noodles.html shotgun wadding, plastic scouring pads, foam noodles, fishing line, puréed plastic milk bottles, fake grass - i fyou can stick it in a cannister filter someone has tried it! i was thinking perhaps scouria, roughed up PVC piping offcuts, even road grade chip - small things with large surface area will work for mechanical pre-filtration as long as they are made from substances that will not leech anything into your tank - there was a warning in the link above that shotgun wadding may be available in 'bio-degradable', in which case it could melt into your tank. other places to try would be Para Rubber or your nearest Plastic Box/ Payless Plastics, Warehouse or local Pool shop - never know what you'll find - as Pies said, 'butcher it'. heck, you could nick off with hundreds of plastic forks from KFC and break the necks off those! When i was filling my F404 with medium i went and purchased everything i was going to use and it cost an absolute fortune. I do however fail to see the point in replacing any of it as the tank ran for a year with 4 water changes and kept stable chemistry the entire time. After that i had to move house.

:lol: you'd have to start feeding it mice and the occasional chicken drumstick! i think that most of the aquatic substrate additions like peat, potting mix and rootblast would float but most even aquatic potting mix which is designed for underwater use is supposed to be added to an empty pond then covered with about 2 inches of gravel to stop fish from disturbing it and it floating to the surface. comparing the ingredients i would assume that the aquatic potting mix is just the stuff from the bottom of the pile that is sodden and has a better chance of sinking or staying down.

i was thinking the same thing... i got a couple of them from California in the weekend along with some type of Drosera - been a long time since i have seen them around. i guess another point of research for you is what bugs have the highest nutrients for meat-eating plants.

any reason why not? from what i can tell of the ingredients it should work OK excepting the secret ingredient ROOTBLAST® which is probably a glob of chewing gum from the executives boot or something, but still needs to be identified.

but wait theres still more! http://www.rootblast.com you do scientific type things Chris.L? i'm looking around on the net at the moment trying to find if someone has done a comparison or a breakdown... i'll shout if i find anything

I remember seeing some late-night infomercial about 8 years ago promoting a product called Root Blast. This stuff apparently produces greater growth in plants by stimulating root growth... i forget the specifics but, there are pictures of tomatos on the website! Does anyone have any idea what this stuff is comprised of, have experience with it or knowledge of those that do? I am trying to get some without paying for it, even though it is only $49.95 and comes with a free set of steak knives... does anyone know the secrets of this stuff?

if you have filtration attached to the tank i'd advise checking and cleaning the pipes on occasion if having problems with brown algae - too many times has the stuff clogged up my filter pipes causing really slow filtration which just complicates matters. (We use a substrate with extreme levels of nutrients for propagating and i would assume therefore high silicate levels also...)

learning is fun!

Here it is! The Unwanted Organisms Register Thanks for the pointers - this is actually a very useful resource! In direct relation to my question about vallisneria; Vallisneria Gigantea aka eelgrass aka wild celery(?) is the only offender they list The reference materia from NIWA is also good and not only that, it agrees with MAF! Always good when all the departments are working together.

do they have some kind of listings? eg: i have been told a few times that valisneria is not allowed to be sold or grown in NZ. not only do i have a lot of it that i am considering selling but i have had some shops offer to purchase it/exchange it for goods or services. it would be interesting to see what they think as well as not getting in trouble for growing it if such a situation should eventuate where they find out and crack down.

where can one find information about what fish and plants are allowed to be brought/bred in the country?