Today I pulled the back seat out of the barina so that I could get to the innards of the seat release. I have temporarily put a cable tie around the tie rod that is snapped off the plastic release button so that I can at least actuate it and release the seat.

Unfortunately it looks like the plants hate the new tank =) I suspect it's because the is no food for them (as I am doing a fishless cycle). There is no phosphate in the water. The rest of the level (ph, amonia, nitrate, nitrite).

A bit of hose and barbs from Bunnings plus the Gauge from eBay. The little compressor is now useable! It has a valve on the bottom of the 3 way manifold because I don't have a plug for it. On the right of the manifold is a Ryco quick release connector. The regulator is from some scrapped pneumatic equipment, an SMC AR30 which will allow 0-100PSI adjustment. The only problem is that the compressor doesn't have an automatic pressure shut-off.

Finally all the gear I've been collecting for the tank has been combined. The kids and Kel are away, so this is a suprise for them. We were given this 2ft tank maybe 2-3 years ago. It came with a hang on back filter and some pretty ordinary looking gravel substrate. The gravel substrate looked like maybe 3 generations worth with no replacement =) There was a lower layer of darker small river pebble type substrate, then ther were day-glo coloured pebbles, then on the top layer some generic fine pebbles.

I decided on the larger 5-6mm gravel with some fine black gravel for  a little path and a "Volcano". I plumbed the air with two valves and a tee so you can independantly control the volume of the bubbles in both air stones. The little house came with the tank, as did the volcanic rock.

The plant on the left is Ambulia and the one on the right is an Amazon Sword.

I opened up the aircon because the blower does not seem to start. After some probing around I rubbed up against the motor body and burned myself. Yep, it's probably got shorted/burnt windings. It gets really hot. You can sometimes start the blower by giving the squirrel cage a little push. The bottom blower has nearly the same mountings but is 90W, the bottom blower pulls inside air through the condenser and then fires it out the window duct. The upper fan is just 55W, but has 3 speed taps. I may just get the 90W part and cable all three speed relays together. Usually if you need this thing on, it's going to be going full boar anyway!