blueether

Hi and welcome Snapfish doesn't work well with forums, try flickr or the like. Not sure of the best way to clean the glass except to soak it and then maybe vinegar?

Ira, have you taken your pills today :digH:

Can remember seeing some as a kid growing up on the east coast in waihi/waihi beach

I would hate to do the paper work on that

What is you reasoning behind that?

one of our native mantis?

I used crushed lime (from my olds' aviary) worked a treat to bring my pH up from 6 to about 7.2 - 7.4, granule size of about 2-3mm I would guess. HTH

It looks the same as the plant(s) here: http://131.230.176.4/cgi-bin/dol/dol_terminal.pl?taxon_name=Lilaeopsis&rank=genus

Edit, I think I have ID them: Plant 1, could beMyriophyllum triphyllum or M. propinquum? Plant 2, Lilaeopsis ruthiana or Lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae by the looks. Edit 2, Some sites seem to list Lilaeopsis ruthiana and Lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae as the same plant, but the pic of Lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae that is on fnzas plant ID is nothing like what I have, but it does match the descriptions of Lilaeopsis ruthiana Plant 1; Found in medium light/part shaded, cold stream as enters a lake so lowish flow: Plant 2; Found in full sun, lake edge - damp to about 300mm down, propagation by runners - plants about 20 - 30mm apart:

I would be tempted to wash the gravel as I hav seen moved gravel turn water very cloudy. If you wash it you will loose maybe 1/4? of the bacteria so you will need to keep a close eye on the ammonia for a few days and probably do about 20% water changes for the first few days. You should keep an eye on the ammonia after moving the tank anyway as there is bound to be at least a small spike

No Swindon is in the UK, out west - with all that that implies Lights on roundabouts are nothing new, there has been light on SH2a/SH29 in Tauranga for years, but then you are from the middle of no-where :digH:

Wow, that is quite amazing. I dont think the Mrs will let you take me out spotlighting again after she see this. Glad to see the you both got out OK-ish from that.

Swindon has lots of 'fun' roads Two Bridges (Bruce Street Bridges): Groundwell Junction (note that in the middle of that photo you are driving with on-coming traffic to tour left): Images from http://www.whereitis.co.uk/featurelist.html

It scared the daylights out of me the first time I saw it, but it works very well.

You have never driven in Swindon then:

I see nitrate reduction in my native tank with only ~75mm to ~120mm of sand across over 1/3 of the footprint, no planting.

If I had a $1000 with nothing to do I would try and get the other 500 off SWMBO, it looks such a nice setup. The only other problem I would have is where to put it, 2.4 x 1m is a lot of floor space for most home and the only place I could put it would be the garage, and that would be a shame for such a nice tank.

I believe either bleach or sunlight are normally used

To put all that into perspective, I started using linux about 12 years ago and dont use any AV software (I did run clamAV on a mail server I was admin on for 1/2 a dozen people, but they used windows). In that 12 years I have had 1 virus, and that was intentionally run in a Linux VM running Wine. I sometimes wonder if I should switch back to windows, that wondering never lasts long.

You will find the best anit-virus for windows id to use some other OS. ie Linux or BSD :digH: Avast is what I install on friends PCs if I cant talk them around to Linux

Peat shouldn't be too bad, this tank of Stella's uses peat as a substrate

True They, in them selves, wont be a problem in the scape that I'm thinking of, it is just that I want to lower the bio-load a bit as it will mean dropping down from just under 400l of water to maybe 200 - 250l plus a sump. Or I could buy DavidR's 1400l monster, that would work just nice...

My mrs is the one that names my tank inhabitants as well, like the names. I guess the 180l tank is about 900*450*450? I would think with a good scape and lots of hiding holes you could have 3 or 4 commons. I see no real aggression between my bullies, apart from when one of the males is guarding a cave for spawning. I have a mix of common and Cran's, all up maybe about 10 or 12 in a 1200*600*600. I have a few ideas about a re-scape for my natives, but will have to wait till the inanga pass on. They are a year and a half old now so will probably start to die off this autumn.

Saw that years ago on some random TV show, still funny now.

The current system has more work involved (more thinking) than what the rest of the world use, and you are never sure if the car in the centre is going to give way if you have a car behind you... The 'old' rules were inplace as most roads weren't wide enough (in the 60-90s) to have a car sitting in the middle of the road waiting. Now most roads are much improved. I'll be fine as I do most of my KMs in a truck, and if someone doesn't give way as they should then it is their car that gets squished :digH: