Caryl

Looks great!  Would love to do a pond in my back yard - hmm, maybe another winter project. 
Wouldn't the Hebe's be giving a lot of shade over summer and keeping temps down or is the pond cool enough anyway?  Have put Puha in my tank & its flourishing, another plant to compliment the mint and cress?

Some of you have followed the build of my pond, starting in 2006. Here it is today. The hebes are well overgrown (and hang almost halfway over the pond, making it look a lot smaller than it is) and some will be hacked back and others removed entirely. As I have to get into the pond to reach them I am waiting for warmer weather
The mint is doing well. I am thinking of planting watercress as well as it will be nice and green and act as extra filtration.
 
 

Heres my thoughts -
Pearl Gourami will get too large as they max out around 12cm in length (they are stunning fish and my favourite gourami).
Harlequins look fabulous in groups.
Rummynose also are great in groups, they may spawn in your tank (they are egg scatterers), mine certainly did but it is not a common occurance.
Black neons are also great in groups, a bit more prone to disease than harlequins and rummynose.
2 GBR's (for the life of me I cant think what they are).  Do you mean GBA's - golden blackeyed ancistrus?
So harlequins, rummynose and black neons are all compatible and it depends on whether you want several smaller groups of fish or one larger one.  As far as gourami go, there don't - to my recollection - seem to be any mid sized.  They either group larger or are the dwarf species, and dwarf species are susceptible to stomach issues.  JJwooble on here has bred dwarf honey and is selling her young ones at the moment.  Possibly being NZ bred they will be healthier.
If you decide not to go gourami have a look around for another feature fish.

Both are easy to grow. Attach to a piece of driftwood or rock and away they go. Neither like their roots buried.

Is your cold water piping copper or just hot water?  Most houses only have the hot water system on copper because its more expensive then pvc alternatives.
If your cold water is copper I still wouldn't worry about it unless you want to keep invertebrates like Ira said.  Some fish medication (Malachite Green) consist solely of copper and are used in much higher doses then you would get from water running through the pipes.  If you are worried then just run the tap for a while to flush out any sitting water in the pipes before using in the tank. The longer the water sits in contact with the copper the more will be dissolved so by running the tap you will be bringing in fresh uncontaminated water.
If you are using rain water it won't need filtration before putting in the aquarium, it will be a lot more pure then most city water supplies and you won't need to deal with chlorine.

Don't forget this forum is only part of a whole website dedicated to NZ fish keeping

Welcome. You will find others around your age here too.

When someone mentions oxygen plants, I automatically think coldwater oxygen weed.
It is somewhere between $12 - $15  usually to post to Auckland. I can offer rotala, Java moss and crypts.

I have no idea about using garden soil but am happy to send plants as long as you pay the postage.

hot dang caryl, that's a beautiful tank.

With the tank in the office I've had a problem of grubby finger and hand prints on the viewing glass from kids & adults pointing out fish etc.  Unfortunately the law prevents me from hitting them over the head with a baseball bat every time they do it so I had to find another answer.  After trying various glass cleaning products, 2 weeks ago I settled on C-Thru Shower Sheild and it works wonders.  Fingerprints still show but a quick wipe with a dry cloth is all that it takes to remove them.  Another advantage is that it cuts down on the amount of condensation from having a tank which can be 10C below room temperature. Expensive but a little goes a very long way and instructions says a application will last up to a month in a shower so should be longer on the outside of a tank.  It is sold to prevent water spots so it could also be used to keep a tank looking like new although I haven't used it long enough to confirm this.
  Just to clarify: I apply it to only the outside of the tank with a cloth, since there is no spray and no water comes in contact with it then there should be no potential harm to the fish. The downside is that it is a glass polish and thus can increase reflections.
There will be other products that work just as well but this is one that worked for me.  Rain-X was another but wasn't anywhere near as good.  So if you have family or guests who just can't help touching the glass then I recommend giving it a try.

another update. the oldest batch are now 69 days old and about 25mm long, They are certainly slower growing compared to their L270 relies
and another nice surprise in the post. A breeding certificate from the FNZAS breeding scheme.

Not really sure which forum to put this in
 
I'm hoping to buy a bunch of books from the lovely Caryl but they're looking quite heavy to try to ship - is there anyone travelling this way that might be willing to work as a bit of a taxi service for us? I'm happy to pay some petrol money

Sanding and re-varnish of cabinet and hood done 

I would drop the salt as its not needed and your plants won't like it.  Salt's good for treating sick fish or preventing some disease when introducing new fish but it does nothing as a long term addition.
By the way if the pet store recommended using aquarium salt ($13 / kg) then take any further advise from them with...well.. a pinch of salt.  It doesn't have to be aquarium salt and even table salt ( < $2 a kg) is fine since the iodine and anti-caking agents added to it is at such small amounts that it will never harm the fish.

Yeah, I can see someone saying "I want to speak to the BigBossPants please".

I am sure all specialised shops have trouble finding knowledgeable staff, especially on the low wages they can afford to offer and in such a small town too. I would be contacting the owner (hopefully one of the women involved was not an owner) and explaining, nicely, what had happened and your concern the staff had not been trained in the correct procedure for catching fish. I would suggest too they get a book describing the basic needs of most fish sold there so they can look up information regarding individual requirements.
If the reaction you get is not satisfactory then I would shop elsewhere.

Any fish with 'barb' in its name can cause issues in a tank.  I'd go for a group of at least six dwarfs.  Rainbows are stunning fish - even dwarf rainbows, once in your home tank will develop colouring far above what you see in a shop situation.  Remember to give any tank with rainbows in some open swimming spaces as they do love to zoom along the tank.
They will happily adjust to the pH of your tank.  I had boesmani, reds, blues, dwarfs etc and they were fine in lower pH.  If you do find you have a pair of them and want them to spawn then would be the time to raise the pH to the optimum level.

Update
Ok, its been going for 6 weeks now and there has been a few minor changes.
Pump:  I had a DCT4000 Jebao pump powering the system which worked OK but it was at full bore to get close to the flow I wanted (has to pump through a chiller) so figured a more powerful one would be better as I can turn it down to what I want and have more flexibility.  Ended up buying a DCS7000.  At full bore this is as much as the system can cope with so normally run it turned down slightly and up full when I want to flush the sand before cleaning or to give the fish a change.  The Redfins like it turned up as it gives them a chance to do a bit of surfing (swimming into the current as much as possible then letting it blow them back) 
 Background: This originally was just coated in grout and I expected PH to rise a bit but for the first few weeks it was only at 7.6 (tap water is 7.4) so was quite happy.  But then it suddenly rose to 8.4!  A few part water changes to bring it down didn't help as it was rising to 8.4 again over 24 hours.  So I whipped it out and coated it with epoxy, taking the opportunity to sprinkle pool sand in the "valley's" and black sand on the "boulders".  I was hesitant to do this at the beginning because the grout / epoxy coated water dish in my Blue Tongues enclosure eventually lifted.  So it may not last forever but at least it looks better and the PH is a steady 7.4.
Water Changer: As in the previous post the plan was to have 25ltr per day continuously flowing into the tank to avoid major water changes.  Problem was the ball valve originally fitted was not accurate enough to give this amount so replaced it with a gate valve.  It still takes a bit of fiddling to get it right but its an improvement.  Eventually I will tee off from the main water line and fit a pressure reducer and irrigation drip attachment to it.  But got to say filling and emptying the tank is a breeze with only turning a couple of valves on and off.
Lights: The RBG strip light I had used worked OK until last week.  The only problems it had was that it wasn't bright enough to see into the recesses of the tank and the camp kids discovered where I stashed the remote and kept flicking it to colour changing mode for a fish disco!   Last week it stopped working so got a proper aquarium LED from Fish2Water - big improvement!
Fish:  The Giant Kokopu caused a fair amount of stress by not eating.  It would go for the food but quickly spit it out again, tried feeding it everything I could think of to no avail.  After a month I noticed its body was wasting away but the stomach was still fat so treated it for worms.  Did the trick as now its simply a pig and has put on heaps of condition over the last couple of weeks.  Even starting to teach it to feed from my hand.  
The tank is still very lightly stocked.  Over the last few weeks I have added 2x female Redfin Bullies ( had forgotten how much personality they have), 3 Inanga's (2 adults and a whitebait size one which is growing).  The Inanga's will probably be GK food eventually but since they only live for a few years I'm hoping they live out their life span before the GK is big enough to snack on them.  Also got a very light brown Koura who is missing its claws when I got it so it must have been attacked by an eel or more likely a trout at some stage.  Will continue to slowly add stock over the next month as I explore the streams around here.

 

Have you tried removing it? It may not grow back. If it is a relatively new tank still maturing conditions will change for it and it won't grow again.
I think others have removed such mould and it has eventually given up. Did you boil the wood before use? That might kill the spores.

If you wish to discuss this, rather than the whitebait sale ban petition, please start another thread in off topic!

The tank is looking good. When was that plec added? They are major poo machines and personally I think the aquarium would look a lot better without the plec. It will also rip up the decor as it swings its tail around so will dislodge stuff without even trying.
Frequent water changes is the best answer and that is what you are doing so see how it goes.

I can see the signatures now and I have replied to the messages. Sorry for the delay.

Thought I would add a full shot of the tank before once again hauling out excess rotala. It grows like a weed! :roll:

This thread is an inspiration!!
Thank you!.... one day... one day...