More frivolous purchases, stuff you don't need..

[Integroo]

VEA said:

Integroo said:

Yellow fog light covers.



Twenty quid for two plastic ovals. Pretend I bought them to protect my fog lights from stones; really I thought they looked mildly jdm and impulse purchased. Not even fitted them yet, and can't even be bothered.

Ovals? Are you sure?

Spent a lot of time thinking of this purchase, clearly. I suppose they are more triangular . . .

[Sway]

S11Steve said:

Uh-oh.... slippery slope. I started with a little tank like that.

2 years later, this happened....

Red sea reefer 425? I'm looking at the new peninsula tanks for my intended house move later this year. You know it's bad when you remove a house from your shortlist as the floor plan isn't conducive to a big saltwater pond that hoovers cash!

[GC8]

vikingaero said:

The Vaseline is for bum sex or lubing the O-ring seals.

I use Vaseline for O rings too. And bum sex onvs. Silicone grease is better, I think, but you can only use it for one sort of ring...

[alorotom]

S11Steve said:

matthias73 said:

I wanted a fish tank for the office.

No fish yet, apparently it needs time to settle.

Uh-oh.... slippery slope. I started with a little tank like that.

2 years later, this happened....

I had a similar tank made when I lived alone, 8ft x 3ft x 2ft
Loads of live coral and very reef like

There was a “brown owl” power cut when we were in Thailand and I returned to find that the protein skimmers and heaters in the sub tanks had not turned on again after the dip in current, from water testing it seemed like my puffers, stressed, released their toxin into the water and wiped out the whole tank

Lost about £4.5k of fish and gave it all up at that point - even ended up giving the tank and sumps away for free - which took an age as they needed a large home to fit in!

Agree they look ace though

[Lazermilk]

matthias73 said:

I love it!

I'm enjoying cultivating the plant and the "tankscape" for now. It has a very soothing effect in the office which can be manic at times.

Thanks for all the tips. I suspect the fish shops let you buy fish straight away because they want to encourage you to buy stuff. Not because it's good for the fish.

Probably depends on the shop, ours were really helpful and encouraged us not to get fish straight away, we must have gone back every week for at least a month to test the water until it was ready for fish, even then they just recommended a few hardy fish to see how they coped.
They even gave me some free water treatment stuff when I had a minor ick outbreak which was nice of them.

[Lazermilk]

alorotom said:

S11Steve said:

matthias73 said:

I wanted a fish tank for the office.

No fish yet, apparently it needs time to settle.

Uh-oh.... slippery slope. I started with a little tank like that.

2 years later, this happened....

I had a similar tank made when I lived alone, 8ft x 3ft x 2ft
Loads of live coral and very reef like

There was a “brown owl” power cut when we were in Thailand and I returned to find that the protein skimmers and heaters in the sub tanks had not turned on again after the dip in current, from water testing it seemed like my puffers, stressed, released their toxin into the water and wiped out the whole tank

Lost about £4.5k of fish and gave it all up at that point - even ended up giving the tank and sumps away for free - which took an age as they needed a large home to fit in!

Agree they look ace though

I can understand the rage quit from the hobby after losing that much!

I would like a saltwater tank but the expense mainly put me off, they do look much nicer in my opinion but ill stick to freshwater for now at least. Not the right thing to say in this thread though!

[Krikkit]

People often don't appreciate what a step up a marine setup is in terms of regular maintenance and delicate chemistry from a typical tropical or Cichlid tank.

It's really much, much more delicate, and very easy to bring something in on new purchases that destabilises and kills everything. Not to mention that everything costs more!

My OH has 240L at the moment, she keeps eyeing up bigger and bigger ones...

[jimmyjimjim]

Just ordered a couple of these:

https://www.wyzecam.com/product/wyze-cam/

At $20 each, definitely worth a go. Certainly cheaper than the d-links I've got already. Frivolous as I've no idea where I'll put them.

[Lazermilk]

jimmyjimjim said:

Just ordered a couple of these:

https://www.wyzecam.com/product/wyze-cam/

At $20 each, definitely worth a go. Certainly cheaper than the d-links I've got already. Frivolous as I've no idea where I'll put them.

They look really good for the price, look forward to hearing what they are like if/when you get them setup...

I have a Yi Dome camera which has been great for keeping an eye on my dog when out, wasn't expensive at 60 euro either. I like that the Wyze ones have smoke detector alerts though if they hear it going off, the Yi one just has baby cry monitoring, but I wander if they might add that in a firmware update.

https://www.yitechnology.com/yi-1080p-dome-camera-...

[Shnozz]

Lazermilk said:

jimmyjimjim said:

Just ordered a couple of these:

https://www.wyzecam.com/product/wyze-cam/

At $20 each, definitely worth a go. Certainly cheaper than the d-links I've got already. Frivolous as I've no idea where I'll put them.

They look really good for the price, look forward to hearing what they are like if/when you get them setup...

I have a Yi Dome camera which has been great for keeping an eye on my dog when out, wasn't expensive at 60 euro either. I like that the Wyze ones have smoke detector alerts though if they hear it going off, the Yi one just has baby cry monitoring, but I wander if they might add that in a firmware update.

https://www.yitechnology.com/yi-1080p-dome-camera-...

Can you move the camera viewpoints around? I am tempted by a couple of cameras but wonder whether I would want to be able to see around rooms rather than a fixed spot.

[jimmyjimjim]

They're usually quite wide angle. I wanted the same feature, to be able to move the camera, but it either comes at a price point I'm not prepared to pay, or with a (necessary) application that isn't supported on anything other than windows ME.

In the end I settled with wide angle and called it good. At $20 per camera, buy several to cover the view you want...

We did buy a motorola camera for the baby room with a steerable camera to keep an eye on the son as he moves to different ends of the crib, but it's frankly not as good as the D-link I've got alongside it (one monitor for the motorola for the wife, d-link viewable from my phone, several PCs, etc).

The Yi cam is PTZ so it can be steered.

[Lazermilk]

Shnozz said:

Lazermilk said:

jimmyjimjim said:

Just ordered a couple of these:

https://www.wyzecam.com/product/wyze-cam/

At $20 each, definitely worth a go. Certainly cheaper than the d-links I've got already. Frivolous as I've no idea where I'll put them.

They look really good for the price, look forward to hearing what they are like if/when you get them setup...

I have a Yi Dome camera which has been great for keeping an eye on my dog when out, wasn't expensive at 60 euro either. I like that the Wyze ones have smoke detector alerts though if they hear it going off, the Yi one just has baby cry monitoring, but I wander if they might add that in a firmware update.

https://www.yitechnology.com/yi-1080p-dome-camera-...

Can you move the camera viewpoints around? I am tempted by a couple of cameras but wonder whether I would want to be able to see around rooms rather than a fixed spot.

Yeah it has an app you can login to with your phone and control the camera that way, you can setup preset spots to jump to locations or have it auto pan. It detects movement and will alert you on your phone and so far has worked really well for keeping an eye on the dog, changes in lighting can trigger movement alerts but apart from that its usually just the dog stretching or going for a drink of water so far

Very easy to setup and decent picture quality, I didn't bother with the cloud subscription as you can save the videos to your phone when your alerted so didnt see the point, you can also put an SD card in it to store clips that way, think it was 32gb stores up to 80 hours.

Comes with a mount to attach on walls/ceilings but i just have it on my desk, this means you cant see directly under the camera though so ideally it would be best mounted on the ceiling I think.

This will give an idea what its like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDD6-drhbl4

[Lazermilk]

jimmyjimjim said:

They're usually quite wide angle. I wanted the same feature, to be able to move the camera, but it either comes at a price point I'm not prepared to pay, or with a (necessary) application that isn't supported on anything other than windows ME.

In the end I settled with wide angle and called it good. At $20 per camera, buy several to cover the view you want...

We did buy a motorola camera for the baby room with a steerable camera to keep an eye on the son as he moves to different ends of the crib, but it's frankly not as good as the D-link I've got alongside it (one monitor for the motorola for the wife, d-link viewable from my phone, several PCs, etc).

The Yi cam is PTZ so it can be steered.

Just wanted to mention, so far the app has worked very well with mine, I've only tried it on my works iPhone but they have android and a windows app too. You can also add multiple cameras to the app, but so far we just have one.

Those Wyze ones do look good for the price though!

[matthias73]

So I went to the shop to get another plant and a rock. I also bought a snail, on the basis it should be fine and can start eating the algae etc.

What I wasn't expecting was the shrimp that had hidden in the plants.

So I now have 3 shrimp in my fish tank. I spent a good hour just watching them earlier, fantastic creatures.

Must get a picture for the rear of the tank as it's currently rather unsightly

[alorotom]

Krikkit said:

People often don't appreciate what a step up a marine setup is in terms of regular maintenance and delicate chemistry from a typical tropical or Cichlid tank.

It's really much, much more delicate, and very easy to bring something in on new purchases that destabilises and kills everything. Not to mention that everything costs more!

My OH has 240L at the moment, she keeps eyeing up bigger and bigger ones...

Totally agree, I jumped straight into it and spent a fortune on finding that out.

It was amazing having a small colony (4) of seahorses though and my LFS breeds them which is fascinating to see!

[SystemParanoia]

Zoon said:

SystemParanoia said:

Definitely.. you'll need a steady hand and young eyes too

My latest frivolous purchase(s) have arrived.



Go Blinky LED Go!!!

What is it?

Another frivolous purchase to go with my frivolous purchase...
Ill be using it as a name badge for now

[WolfieBot]

SystemParanoia said:

Another frivolous purchase to go with my frivolous purchase...
Ill be using it as a name badge for now

Excellent, I need to find time to have a play with mine. I fancy having a go and making a gimbal for my small camera.

[SystemParanoia]

WolfieBot said:

Excellent, I need to find time to have a play with mine. I fancy having a go and making a gimbal for my small camera.

That would be great to see!!

[Shnozz]

jimmyjimjim said:

They're usually quite wide angle. I wanted the same feature, to be able to move the camera, but it either comes at a price point I'm not prepared to pay, or with a (necessary) application that isn't supported on anything other than windows ME.

In the end I settled with wide angle and called it good. At $20 per camera, buy several to cover the view you want...

We did buy a motorola camera for the baby room with a steerable camera to keep an eye on the son as he moves to different ends of the crib, but it's frankly not as good as the D-link I've got alongside it (one monitor for the motorola for the wife, d-link viewable from my phone, several PCs, etc).

The Yi cam is PTZ so it can be steered.

Looked at ordering a couple of the wyze ones but will only ship within the US sadly.

[Lazermilk]

matthias73 said:

So I went to the shop to get another plant and a rock. I also bought a snail, on the basis it should be fine and can start eating the algae etc.

What I wasn't expecting was the shrimp that had hidden in the plants.

So I now have 3 shrimp in my fish tank. I spent a good hour just watching them earlier, fantastic creatures.

Must get a picture for the rear of the tank as it's currently rather unsightly

I have ghost shrimp in mine too, great little cleanup crew! I fancied a bigger shrimp but they will eat slower fish apparently so gave that a miss.

Regarding the snails, i had a dwarf puffer some time ago and it needed snails to chew on to keep its beak worn down and the snails bred like mad, ended up with loads of them appearing, especially once the puffer passed away.
I ended up having to get some slow breeding cannibal snails to cull the original snails which worked surprisingly well! They also look cool with yellow/black striped shells.