Sophia

verdict on the cookies n cream pav is that next time I would scrape off the icing from the biscuits and maybe use half as the oreos masked the delicate flavour of the pav. Still yummy though !drool: Caryl your piece was great

I won't be doing apistos till I get a bigger tank. And if I get a bigger tank I'd rather have more loaches... plus from what I read they aren't that friendly and I don't enjoy fishy fighting much, it doesn't relax me.

:sml2:

found the 2 snails that were in the poison water have finally died. Talk about delayed reaction - they appeared to be moving about and eating for the last 5 days. :cofn:

have you made a roll before?

I have just had an enlightening time on the Amazon.com website - have I misread something or is it cheaper to buy books there and have them shipped slow mail than buying from the shops here or using fishpond? I put 5 sewing books on the wishlist, proceeded to checkout and including delivery was $125. If I order just the one of them it comes to $25. Someone tell me there is something wrong before I get the credit card out :nilly:

thanks

I made the pavlova roll, didn't quite turn out like the photo in the book but not bad for a first pavlova roll. Recipe comes from this book http://www.pavlovabook.com/ 4 egg whites 120g caster sugar 2tsp white vinegar 1 tblsp cocoa 150g choc chip cookies 200ml cream Preheat oven to 160 degrees (fan forced is in the recipe, I don't have one so I put it closer to 170). Line a tray with non stick baking paper. In large clean bowl whip egg whites till they form peaks. While continuing to whip gradually rain in the caster sugar. Whip a further 5 mins till the sugar granules have dissolved. Add vinegar and fold in with metal spoon very gently until combined. With spatula smooth the mix onto the prepared tray in the shape of a rectangle 25cm x 30cm. Dust evenly with cocoa. Bake for 8 mins. Remove from oven and leave to cool for 10 mins. Place cookies in processor and blend till fine breadcrumbs. Whip cream to soft-whipped stage. Fold biscuit into cream. Place clean baking paper on top of the pavlova and turn upside down. Peel off top layer of paper. Smooth cream even over pavlova. Roll up width ways firmly Chill until serving time. Mine turned out more of a pavlova ring with cream in the middle and I used oreos so where the picture looks like a light brown inner, mine looks like mud. Also I used hot chocolate mix instead of cocoa and most of it peeled off at the last removing of paper where in the picture hers is intact. The only thing I am not sure of is why you fold it widthwise - there is much less of it to roll. Maybe so you get a longer slice? 8)

Joe, I've had various sands including silica and the Gh/Kh hardness was no different when I tested water with and without the sands. I don't know anything about quartz sand though.

There are smaller LEO or other LED lamps that say they are suitable for up to a 30cm tank. Mine is about 53cm long and this one has more than double the number of LEDs than the smaller ones. I understood that though LED uses less electricity the quality of light is better :dunno:

I have 4 pieces of that type of bogwood and some of it is quite flakey depending on what the grain is like, but that can provide lots of places for plants to take root. You can pluck it off if you like or leave it, doesn't make a difference. In my CPD tank (see signature) it stopped staining the water after a few months, in the loach tank there are 3 pieces and the water is still a light tea colour after many months. If I did bigger water changes it might clear sooner but for me it's not a concern and the little fish apparently like it. Usually I soak it for a while and give it a rub to get the most breakable bits off and then plop it in.

thanks for the suggestions but I'd rather not risk using it

Is it possible to find out whether an LED lamp fitting is going to be good/not good for my tank? I'm looking into upgrading the light on the loach tank from a 11W Jebo type with a short tube that sits over the width rather than the length (like this http://www.trademe.co.nz/pets-animals/fish/lights-lamps/auction-442700057.htm ) to something that runs the length of the tank for a better spread. It seems that a light to fit a just over 50cm tank is quite hard to find, they seem to come in 45cm long to 60cm long. I want to get something that has feet so it stands over the glass rather than sitting directly on it. So anyway I found a LEO fitting that has 16 5mm blue LEDs and 42 white ones (the light on this tank http://www.trademe.co.nz/pets-animals/fish/fish-tanks-aquariums/auction-444020384.htm ). It says it is 3.5watts and the colour spectrum is 6000-7500K. My tank is low tech so what I need to find out is whether the LEDs are going to be too much. I don't mind it giving off low light but too much will cause algae I think.

Thanks for all the replies, I will get rid of it

hmmmm, so I could give it to my mother in law instead then......... can the plug be changed to one of ours by an electrician or does the 100V mean that it's internal bits are only capable of taking 100V?

I scored a very cool pedestal lamp from a neighbour and it would be perfect for my fish room. It has this very heavy ballast/plug on it and I can't see '240V' anywhere on it. Looks like it would need a universal plug or an adaptor to make it fit our plug sockets. It appears to have the pin holes for a halogen bulb. Can I use this or is it best sent back to where it came from?

he looks like a little fishy punk with his orange spikes :love:

Happy Birthday Caryl :happy2: Did you make a cake? I'm making a cookies n cream pavlova roll tonight so tomorrow I will eat a piece in your honour

is the filter hooked up yet? If not that will help clear the cloudyness but in my experience it is to be expected in some cases. If you do have the filter running and it has something other than filter wool inside you could swap out some of the media for wool as it traps a lot of the crap quickly, you can then take it out and put your other stuff back in when you like the look. You could keep the other stuff in the tank in an onion bag or such like so it keeps growing bacteria.

probably less than half an hour. Some of my plants are very temperamental princesses

are they tied on to the stick? when I take my java fern out of water it goes brown and dies :roll:

I don't have a single favourite but I'd like a marine tank with seahorses, hermit crabs and triplefins.

:cofn:

try Ira's house..... an 8 or 9 hour road trip but :slfg:

are you still putting neons in here Liam? I'm just thinking of some of Deepsound's tanks, his plants and aquascape take up a lot of the tank and look healthily overgrown so Liam's might be ok with tiny fish.