Caryl

I use a white hankie but I hear coffee filters work well too.

Thank you all for your kind words. These were only a few of the photos taken :lol: I actually have over 800 - mine, suemack's, Marion's and the ones taken by the Downs Family. Those on the website are the best of the mix. When you go and look at the pics in the album, do you see the words under saying what each one is? I assume, from comments, that you can. When I am logged in to it I see 3 lines below with url, tags and img. I also see what the pic is actually called but if I look at the album when logged off, I get the url, tag and img but not the explanatory title of the pic. :roll: Bill, it took almost 3 days to resize them and about 6 hours to get them uploaded into the right albums. Hate to think how long it would have taken without Jetstream!

Yep! :lol:

Thank you chim but I must also point out some of those pics aren't mine. Quite a few are suemack's and I think most of the closeups of the sea slugs were taken by Marion.

You only get a power overload if the total power is too high. We have some 8 point outlets but they are home made. All power boards sold these days have thermal cutouts in them so you can't overload them. There is nothing wrong with plugging one power board into another. This way you get 11 outlets from 2 6 way boards. Bear in mind 2 sockets in the wall are wired together so are no different to using a single socket with a double adapter.

The thermostats were originally bought from a lfs. The pads haven't cracked the glass because the wire was coiled evenly around and around the pinex sheet so weight was evenly distributed. I have heard of people cutting channels to put the wires in but we didn't. Our heat pads are under two 4ft tanks and a 3ft.

How's about these? Believe it or not this is the same butterfly, top and bottom...

Here is a link to my photobucket album (I hope it works). http://img47.photobucket.com/albums/v144/carylnz/ You should find 16 albums, 8 of them from Fiji and split according to contents - animals, birds, conference and people, entertainers and locals, fish, flowers and sea critters. Feel free to look at all the albums As soon as I get the pics onto CD it will be sent to Cees and hopefully onto a gallery in the fishroom.

Fiji was brilliant! Am working on the pics to get them on here so you can all see. We use bought thermostats on the heatpads rather than make our own. Any thermostat will do but we used the one you get when you buy a heater and thermostat separately. They used to be common but nowadays you get them as one in a heaterstat. That shows my age doesn't it? :lol:

What on earth are you planning on doing with them? I doubt they actually hold their breath when taken out of the water. Bristlenoses can last several hours but I don't know about the others. As long as they stay wet they should survive a leap.

I have never had trouble growing plants over UGFs. The trick is to make sure you have a decent depth of substrate on top - about 5cm at least.

Well done Cees. Boy Megan is growing up fast! I am resizing all the Fiji conference pics to send you so you can put them on site with the others. As there are over 600, they are taking a while! :roll: Don't panic - I am not sending you all of them :lol:

To stick my oar in too :lol: I have never had to strip an UGF (like Alan the only time I did so was when moving the tank) and I have had them running 7 or 8 years non stop. Everyone knows I am very lax in my water change and maintenance routines but never had a problem. As stated before I believe, the best filter for the job depends on which fish you want to keep. As to the original question - sorry fins, I have never tried to make an UGF so can't help you there. They are so cheap to buy and you can lock them together to cover most of the base. The do not have to fit snugly all round the sides either.

I have always found the peel and stick ones easy and accurate enough. Whatever you choose, look at the lot in the shop and check most are reading about the same. Don't pick ones with readings a lot higher or lower than the majority.

Did you actually pull the impellor out of its casing to clean it? It should not be noisy so soon.

Welcome to the fishroom cal. We have quite a few Canterbury members here. Pop into chat around 9pm and you should find someone there most nights.

If real plants are planted and looked after correctly according to their individual needs, there is no need to replace them as they die. I haven't bought a plant for years - unless I saw one I didn't currently have and it appealed. Most of the time you should be throwing (or giving, or selling) live plants away as they grow so fast!

They will be fine with no parents or other fish to eat them. They will sit on the bottom if there is no cover for them as they feel safer camouflaged against the gravel.

The fry zip all over the place but spend quite a bit of time higher up rather than at the bottom. Livebearers are usually found in the middle water level of a tank so that's where you need the hiding places.

Smaller males will often be less colourful.

Bet he has a smile on his face! :lol:

Sit wait and watch. Practise makes perfect

Well this silly old moo says "well done BG" :lol:

It isn't ground cover they need but floating plants. Java moss is excellent. Water sprite is good too. They will drop fry (assuming they have been inseminated at some point - remember females can produce several spawnings without a male) every 4 - 6 weeks.

You want to put the fry in one of those little acrylic Kritter Keepers? You need something bigger than that as they need lots of room to grow well. Unless you have lots of keepers and only putting a few fry in each.