The Hydor External Aquarium Heater

Like many keen Fish Keepers, I used to have the traditional tank set up. It consisted of an External Filter and an Internal Heater which was attached inside the back of the Aquarium by a couple of suckers. As long as the flow of water was good across the heater, the temperature was distributed evenly with no cold or hot spots.

This was fine until I purchased a Bristlenose Catfish. He often would rest on the heater or get dangerously close to the heater element itself. With the species habit of continuously sucking everything with a microbe of algae on, I could see this was an accident waiting to happen. I considered a plastic guard to clip over the heater, but this looked ugly and further took up much needed space. So what was the answer?

Then, when Googling, I found the answer! The Hydor External Heater !!!



I bought this almost straight away after viewing. Put simply.. it is Brilliant. Controlled by internal electronic circuitry, the heater slots into the return piping of the External Filter. It was very easy to install, with just a sharp knife needed to cut the filter piping.

The benefits I saw were immediate. Firstly, the Aquarium was now at a more even and universally stable temperature. This was because all water now entering the aquarium was at the correct temperature and didn't have to be heated and distributed uneconomically from one stagnant place.

Second, the amount of extra space created by removing the Internal Heater was greater than I had imagined. I hadn't noticed before, but fish generally would give the old Internal heater a wide berth as not to burn themselves. With this threat now gone, the area and immediate surrounding area were converted to free swimming space.. much healthier for the fish.

Thirdly, my Britlenose was now free to go wherever he wanted without the unknown danger of being suddenly frazzled!

If you are experiencing similar problems to those that I had or you simply just want to free up some more room in your Aquarium, I would whole heartedly recommend the Hydor External Heaters. The model I have is a Hydor 200 which are suitable for tanks from 100 to 200 litres (26 - 53 Gallons). I paid just over £30 and have it connected to a Fluval 105 External Filter. A great bargain! Also there is a version avaliable for larger tanks called the Hydor 300.

I have now had the heater in place for 6 months and it has proven extremely reliable.

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www.jenkin7.co.uk

Chelsea - Avram Grant Sacked !?!

I don't know... eight months into a supposed four year contract, you finish second in the Football Premiership and come within one penalty-kick of winning the European Championship. Result: Not good enough, you're Fired !

It defies belief. After hardly losing a match and having the unenviable job of following a character like Jose Morinho, Avram Grant has been forcefully ejected. Surely it was worth building on this first eight months for the following season? This would have been the sensible thing to do, but sensible and big money Football don't tend to be the best of friends.

Well, there you have it, that is the world of Football or more accurately, the world of Chelsea Football club. A club backed by a Russian Billionaire who thinks he's not seeing a great return for his money. This is a sport after all, but it's becoming increasingly easy to forget in an environment where big money talks and any problem or shortcoming can presumably by solved by a sacking and throwing more money at it.

It seems now perhaps likely that Chelsea have had a high-profile replacement manager in mind for some time. Who could it be? It will have to be someone with a sense of humour. A precedent has now been set that if you finish second, you're out!

If he can work on the sense of humour bit, my money is on Bobby Davro.

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www.jenkin7.co.uk

Snails in the Aquarium

First of all, how do they get there?

Generally these crafty critters hitch a ride to your Aquarium on new plants. More often than not, they are in the form of eggs, so you would not immediately notice. Running the plants under the tap would make little difference.

Your newly set up Aquarium is going fine, the eggs hatch and suddenly it's Snail City!

Snails, in themselves, are not a bad thing. They do a great job of clearing waste food particles and also turning over any sandy substrate present. This is important as their movement helps to prevent the sand compacting and producing, what is know as, dead spots. Within dead spots, gasses can build up which could prove lethal to the fish. This phenomena only tends to occur in substrate depths of an inch and a half and greater and can be compensated by manually stirring the sand every so often.

The key here to a healthy aquarium, is controlling the snail population. The Population will soar if there is an abundance of food to snack on. If you are in the middle of a sudden snail epidemic, cut down on feeding.

If your current stocking allows, one cure is to add some snail eating fish. Dwarf Chain Loach, Clown Loach and Yo-Yo Loaches are particularly good snail eaters.

During one bad spell, I had particular success with manual removal by hand. Removing 20 snails a day until it was hard to find 20 to remove. This combined with a better cleaning regime worked wonders. Snails will also feed on old plant matter. Regularly remove or siphon this out.

Snails tend to hide in the substrate a bit. Sometimes it will seem like your snail problem is improving when in reality, it isn't. One method is to create a trap. Place a lettuce leaf or piece of weighted down cucumber in a jam jar overnight. By morning, the jar should have attracted a considerable number of them. Repeat this for a few days.

In summary, snails are not a bad animal to have in the aquarium and certainly nothing to worry about. They serve a purpose as they would in the fish's natural environment. The key is Population control.

I hope this blog is of some help for those who are currently experiencing problems.

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www.jenkin7.co.uk

What's that Fish?

Hi there. A few people have asked me what that pretty fish is in my Avatar.

It is a freshwater tropical fish called a Pearl Gourami (Trichogaster Leeri). Sometimes referred to as the Lace or Mosaic Gourami, it is native to Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra. Growing to around 10cm in length and living up to 8 years, in my opinion, this is one of the most beautiful of all the freshwater tropicals.

Although each tend to have their own temperament, generally the Pearl Gourami is a very peaceful and hardy fish. Two males in a small aquarium however will probably have a bit of a go at each other so this is best avoided.

The Pearl Gourami is a wonderful fish. For more information on Aquarium fish and fish keeping, I would highly recommend the forums of www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk.

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www.jenkin7.co.uk

eBay - FREE Picture Gallery

Things have got a bit hectic on the Forums of eBay UK of late. Following on from my Blog of yesterday, it would appear that the Feedback system, initially, has not gone down very well. Not surprising really. With just 1 Neutral Feedback in a 12 month selling period now effecting a Sellers overall percentage score, gone are the days where a long term established Seller can easily hang on to a 100% / 99.9% reputation.

Perhaps this is just a settling in period. A time where what is considered a good Feedback score is totally reevaluated.

It's not all bad news however.

Maybe to placate this inevitable Seller backlash, eBay UK have announced a FREE Gallery promotion. The Gallery Picture upgrade feature usually costs 15p and is the small picture you see beside each listing during a main search. Naturally Auctions with Gallery pictures get a lot more interest and in turn better sales.

As a quick example of the savings, a Seller who lists 1,000 items a month will save themselves £150. Not bad! Although members in the US have enjoyed a FREE gallery as a regular option anyway. Still... it's important to focus on the positives and any reduction in costs must be good for business. It will be interesting to see the reaction in the US when the new Feedback system is rolled out there.

Remember, FREE Gallery in on eBay UK runs from 19 May until 30 September. For the full announcement, please click the link below.


Free Gallery Announcement

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www.jenkin7.co.uk

eBay.. so, who leaves Feedback first?

Buying or Selling on the auction site eBay?

So, who should really leave Feedback first? Buyer or Seller? It shouldn't really feel like a shootout at High Noon, but if you've used the Auction site for a decent length of time, occasionally it can feel that way.

In an ideal world, a seller would sell an item at a profit to make a living. A buyer would buy an item they liked or needed and leave happy and no feedback or red-tape would be documented anywhere. In these modern day times, this is a bit of a unachievable utopia. The Internet is a large faceless arena where you can be trading with just about anybody in the entire world.

As per usual, I'm perhaps slowly drifting off topic. So who should leave Feedback first then?

Well... recent changes on eBay within the last couple of days have perhaps made this blog rather moot. It doesn't make too much difference who leaves Feedback first now as Sellers cannot leave Buyers any Feedback other than Positive. It does rather unbalance things a bit and makes the value of Buyer's Feedback somewhat irrelevant. Imagine if you were a film critic, but if you saw a really bad film, you were not allowed to tell anybody about it. In this example you can see that the new system is maybe bordering on the ridiculous.

However... having just written the above paragraph, I can still see some business logic to this change. Buyers can now leave truthful Feedback without the fear of being left negative retaliatory Feedback in return. In theory this should expose a lot of the unscrupulous sellers. In theory. Without the fear of Negative Feedback, Buyer confidence goes up and therefore eBay generate more income.

Will this new Feedback system work? It's too early to tell. In the short term, Sellers are probably going to find things a bit uncomfortable. However, if over time, there are more Buyers on the site, good Sellers can only eventually benefit.

eBay plan near the end of the month to open a special hub for Sellers to protect them against Feedback extortion and underhand Buyers exploiting the new system.

So who should leave Feedback first? PASS.

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www.jenkin7.co.uk

5,6,1 Blast Off

Lets see...

It's a boiling hot day, I'm in an Office with no proper ventilation, there's major drilling occurring in the street outside, I've got a thumping headache, so what better time to write an opening blog? Well anytime really.. except maybe a time being chased by a mad elephant or stuck underwater somewhere with only two minutes of oxygen left.

Well Hello!

I'm thinking I should have written the hello bit at the beginning. Being fairly green to this new strange world of Internet blogging, I'm hoping you can let this minor faux pas pass unpunished. If you can't.... well... I don't know... maybe there's some sort of button you can push somewhere.

My name is Nick, a chap in his early thirties, single, and after a ten year stretch employed in the financial industry am now happily self employed in the the, surprisingly less stressful, domain of sales... a domain perhaps even stranger than the world of blogging. Well maybe.

If I could say one word about Banks and their office politics, that word would be, "Arrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!". A word no doubt still screamed by employees after they undergo their quarterly staff performance appraisals, taken by someone who hardly knows them. Don't get me wrong, I don't regret my sentence at the Banks, first with HSBC in Southend-on-Sea and then later with C Hoare & Co at London Fleet Street. They made me what I am today... hang on... maybe I do regret it. No no, you must always push on... never look back. For wasn't it that famous French woman who once famously sang, "Je Ne Regret Rien"? And you and I both know what that means, despite what my old French GCSE grade Certificate would have you believe.

Yes, blogging then. Through this short meandering ramble, I guess I've now joined the mighty and maybe dark realm of bloggers everywhere. Now all I have to do is to find a way to stop that incessant drilling. Maybe that mad elephant is available I mentioned earlier.

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