Caryl

Went for a walk up the hill. Helped Grant clear and flatten all the cardboard boxes in the garage (and break up and bag the polystyrene) so he can fit thew MX5 back in the garage. Cardboard went to recycling centre (filled the whole back of the Odyssey with all the seats down!). A pity they won't take the polystyrene Went to neighbours' to feed the fish and discovered their hot water pipe overflowing down the roof and water starting to come through the ceiling. Oh dear. They will not be happy on their return from holiday! Turned the water off and called the friend we were told to call if there was any problem. He will organise a plumber if the leak continues. Hopefully James does not have Net access where he is holidaying and reads this :tears: (It was minor leakage inside James, honest! Just drips we think came from around the pipe and under the flashing) Finished current book and... Finished my 2000 piece jigsaw. Got two 1500's left to go.

I too got sick of the narration and sound effects. Better to watch it with the sound off

If it is fine and not too much of it may not make much difference.

You can also leave some free floating on the surface. It is looking good but what makes you think you have "finished" it? :sml1: :sml1: :rotf: :rotf:

If there is enough shell then yes, it will raise the pH. When I collect beach sand I do so as far above the tide line as possible as there is less shell in it. You can always spend your evenings picking out as much excess shell as possible

Sounds like insufficient flow to me. I have heard the battery operated siphons don't have much suck either. When I siphon my gravel I ram the tube as far into the gravel as it will go. I am more gentle over and about plants though so I don't kill the roots.

If the tests show 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and acceptable nitrate then I would not do a water change. I buck the trend here though. My tank is not heavily stocked but has lots of plants. I clean my filter about once a year (if that) and do a water change every 3 or 4 months (at the most). Since I do not have any test kits (mine are old and no longer accurate) I have no idea what the parameters are but fish are happy and some are breeding so it can't be too bad. :thup:

I do hope that is someone else's foot in the pic of the cat and dog Anthony or are you more flexible than I thought possible? :slfg: I would post my pet pics but the animals have all deceased over time and we have never replaced them (no need to find pet sitters when we travel). Waiting on the right bird to replace Pepper. RIP Misty (cat), Bud (budgie) and Pepper (conure) &c:ry

I like a good bug! 8)

Merely a reflection from the fireplace? How prosaic. I thought perhaps it was a portal through to Hell or something more interesting :slfg:

:sml1: :sml1: :sml1: :sml1: :sml1: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

You can buy the merchandise online

As my kids are adults I can't tell you about kids prices :sage:

The impellers need replacing too. These can make a filter more noisy than it used to be.

I have never noticed much difference in the power bill even when I had 18 tanks running.

The important bit is the outlet needs to be lower than the tube. If your tank is low to the ground you can have trouble getting a strong enough flow to lift the muck. Ira - behave! :roll: :evil:

PUMPKIN SOUP 1 Tbs oil 1 chopped onion 750g pumpkin, peeled and chopped 1 large potato, peeled and chopped 4 C chicken stock (you can make it or buy cubes or powdered stock) salt black pepper nutmeg Heat oil in pan. Add onion and cook until clear (only takes a few minutes). Add pumpkin, potato and stock. Cover, bring to the boil and cook until veggies are soft. You then pour it all into a food processor and whizz until smooth and creamy. If you don't have a processor or blender, you can mash and put through a sieve (a slow process) or try mashing then whipping with an egg beater. The idea is to get all the lumps out. If you don't mind lumpy soup then it is no big deal Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. For extra flavour you can add a ham hock or bacon bones (both sold cheap in the butchery section) to the pumpkin.

WEIGHT WATCHERS ZERO POINTS GARDEN VEGETABLE SOUP RECIPE Hands-on time: 20 minutes Time to table: 1 1/4 hour Makes 9 cups 6 cups broth (today I used Light Vegetable Stock) Cooking spray 2 carrots, peeled and diced 1 large onion, diced 4 teaspoons garlic (from a jar or substitute four cloves minced garlic) 1/2 cabbage, chopped (or use a bag of slaw, the biggest chunks you can find vs the fine, don't skip the cabbage for it somehow makes the soup) 1/2 pound (225g) frozen green beans 2 tablespoons tomato paste 1 teaspoon dried basil 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 large zucchini, diced Bring the broth to a boil in the microwave. (This is a time-saving tip that can be skipped if there's no hurry.) Spray a Dutch oven (pot, deep frypan or similar) with cooking spray and heat on MEDIUM HIGH. Add the carrots, onion and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes. Add all the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the zucchini and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to MEDIUM and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the beans are tender. Add the zucchini and cook until the zucchini are tender. Serve and enjoy! KITCHEN NOTES Zero point soups are easy to make without a recipe. Just cook a pile of non-starchy vegetables in 6 cups of a non-fat broth. It's even easy to convert one-point soups to zero-point soups.

Based on freshwater only, at a temperature of 22˚C, total consumption for a small tank (38L) is about 150kWh a year. A medium tank (114L) 150 - 200 kWh per year and a large aquarium (208L) 200 - 400kWh per year. This is using basic equipment only and merely an average to give you an idea. Exact usage requires an ampmeter, which measures actual energy used and not the energy based on the max output, as some equipment does not run full time (eg heater). watts/1000 x hours x kWh cost x 30 = 30 days cost of aquarium

A lot of people advise variety but I am one who likes eating the same thing and doing the same walks etc. If your diet kept you hungry all day then there was something wrong with it.

Hope the kids don't get too upset when the allosaurus eats the baby plateosaurus :tears:

What they can survive in and what they should be kept in are two different things. Good to know your cories are coping with such low temps. I would not have thought they could do so!

I really hate when shops advertise "coldwater guppies". There is no such thing! What someone can keep in an unheated tank inside a warm, well insulated home, is different depending where in the world you live.

It has Huxley, the narrator, who tells the timeline of the dinosaurs and we travel through time a few million years with him explaining how various dinosaurs developed as the planet did. It starts with some eggs hatching out and then moves on. Various dinosaurs appear and eat, interact and/or fight etc. There is dramatic music in the background and it is all very loud! Gareth has a short video of a bit of it in Facebook apparently.

Grant and I took Gareth and Dena with us to Auckland to see this show. It was brilliant! Very well done. Sorry about the poor quality pics but lighting was low and flash photography banned. Hopefully I have named all the dinosaurs correctly :roll: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v144/carylnz/Walking%20With%20Dinosaurs/?start=all