So I have IBS

I have finally been diagnosed after years of stomach problem and other stuff :/
I have been given medication but i dont want to have to rely on tables all the time. I know it gets worse when i eat certain foods but I dont know what those foods are, because of this I am going to try the FODMAP diet, It is not a diet to lose weight but a diet to see what foods your body can and can't tolerate.
Has anyone tried this diet? Has it helped them? 

Haven't posted in ages :(

I haven't posted in a long while, not really sure why. I will try and post more often.

I am getting rats again :D

I am really excited to be getting rats again soon, The only things I need to get are the cage and of course the rats.

I have brought them lots of stuff already, they are going to be really spoilt :D

Batwoman

My Batwoman collection so far.

Live rock is in

So Sunday was spent putting live rock in the tank

The water is in!

So, just a quick update- the water went in on Wednesday night, which was just regular tap water, with the conditioner treatment, and mixed up with Tropic Marine Pro Coral Salt. In hindsight; i suspect the regular, non-pro, salt would have been easier to manage, solely because of the initial levels would have been a little simpler- but none-the-less; two days after, and a small amount of swapping out some tank water with non-salted water to bring the salinity levels back down just a touch, and things are looking good!

Measurements from yesterday evening: 8.1pH (could do with 8.3, but we'll sort that with some buffer), 26.C on the nose, salinity @1.025, and very low ammonia and nitrite levels. Nitrates however are fairly high at 20ppm; but I suspect that's where the salt may have been a little too-pro! A heavier than normal water change after the cycle has finished should sort that out anyway :)

The tank after filling, with the lights on. Lots of bubbles on the glass in case you were wondering!

So, what's in store for this weekend? Live rock! Time to start the cycle going. Probably pick up some epoxy putty to stack the rock securely, and maybe an API Calcium Test kit- i've got some concentrated Marine calcium on the standby already, and it should help the pH buffer/levels a little once established too :)

Terrible Twos

The terrible twos do exist, They are not just an old wives tale to scare you from having kids.
My two year old has spent three hours this morning proving how terrible it is being two.
It is unbelievable that he didn't stop. After two and a half hours I figured he must be tired by now and but him to bed. This made no difference, He quickly got out of bed and just continued his tantrum on the bedroom floor. It is lucky that his floor is padded with all the head banging he does. (Head banging is completely normal at this age, even if it is scary chances are they will not do it hard enough to hurt themselves. It is mainly for attention or out of frustration.)
M is now sitting on the sofa and has calmed down. The problem is that he now needs his bum changed which will likely cause another tantrum.
Needless to say I am looking forward to him growing out of this phase. 

Setting up the tank

This is what our tank looks like at the moment with the coral sand and other equipment. We have got Fluval Roma 125 for our tank, the official fluval black/silver cabinet, Fluval U3 filter, Fluval M150 heater, and a Tunze 9002 as the protein skimmer.

This is our Tunze 9002 as our protein skimmer, It took a bit of tank and background modification to get it to fit- note that we've filed down the lip on the tank, as well as cutting out a large section of the background.

This is the protein skimmer with the top on- a very tight fit between the tank edge and lighting!

The left side of the tank lid- it's difficult to see here, but the front-most panel has been cut about an inch shorter length-ways, so that the lighting unit can be pulled nearer to the front in order to fit the skimmer bowl in!

Here you can see where we had to cut the lid of the tank for the protein skimmer cup to fit.
It is amazing the amount of things that you can do with a Dremel- excuse the rough edges... we'll sand them down at some point!

Tank with the lights on but no sand. You can see all the equipment in this photo though- heater on the left, protein skimmer at the far back right, and the filter just in front of that.

This is the hole that we cut with a Dremel to fit the protein skimmer.

Background is in

Was a long night with my 2 year old being poorly with a cold and then my husband woke him up by filing away a bit of the tank. Any way, we finally got the background in last night. It took a lot of cutting to get it to fit, but was easy enough to do with a combination of a wood saw and a bread knife!
The protein skimmer was a challenge because we weren't too sure where to fit it. My husband, our friend, and I all had a go to find a place for it! When we found the only vaguely likely place to fit it (ie. wherever required the least amount of modding) we cut a section of background off so it would sit nicely where we needed it.
FYI - We used Aquarium grade silicone to secure the background to the tank (it's non-toxic polystyrene and didn't want it to float!) so will have to wait until tonight before we can add the coral sand, water and salt. We are all looking forward to that step :)

Marine Tank Reef

So the hubby has decided he wants a marine tank. We already have a cold water and a tropical tank but lets face it marine fish are much prettier So I have decided to blog about if from start till I don't know when... haha!

We have brought a Fluval Roma 125 which I think the hubby said needs a bit or changing to fit all the marine equipment in.
My poor son has lost half of his bedroom at the moment while we store everything that we need!

Below are photos of the tank parts and the tank.

The first photo is the 3D background we have got, it needs to be cut to fit and then we will need to silicon it into place to stop it floating around

The second photo is the tank stand under construction. It was stupidly fiddly to put the hinges on the doors.

The third photo is either the stand in the box or the background I can't remember :/

The forth and last photo is the tank and stand all ready for and waiting for things to be put in.

This book is big enough to kill me!

Trying to study with a 2 year old and a new born is hard! It is far too easy to get distracted. I can read the book and feed baby S his bottle at the same time. Although it does get difficult when i need to turn the page. I think an automatic page turner is needed. 

I really want to do the CompTIA A+ exam and hope that I can pass it. Is anyone else doing or have done this exam?

Looks like I can do Open University :D

Super happy that I should be able to do the Open University course that I want. Just need to make sure that I can do the modules that I want at home then it should be all good. 

About time I blogged.

I thought it was about time that I actually blogged. I set this blog up a few weeks ago but never wrote anything. So this is it, Hello every one.