Mazela, It is so cool to have an Australian ponder on our forum. Your plan to keep the kookaburras out of the pond sounds good, although I admit I will have to google kookaburras. I think you will get more responses on the discussion part of our forum as the gallery is the picture portion. So please post some more info and pics about your pond. Sounds very interesting. Regards, Lisa

If the rainwater is traveling through several tanks or barrels over a long time and you are using it only for topping off, you may be alright. You don't say what the roofing materials are and that can make a difference. Try not to use the water at the very top of the collection barrel since oils can collect there. Aging the rainwater can help to eliminate some, but not all chemicals. The PH thing can be critical and using the stuff sold in bottles with measurements for aquariums is not the way to go. Rainwater is usually acidic or low PH. This is damaging to the gills of fish. It can literally eat them up. Most fish can tolerate a PH higher than preferred but not always. What kind of fish do you have? The most damaging thing is when the PH levels change fast. This can and will cause big fish kills from shock. I have a big aversion to rainwater when it is from storms that have passed over areas such as swamps or recently treated farmland. It has caused PH crashes as do normal storms but it also carries pathogens and diseases that have killed my fish. Not everyone on this forums believes that but it has happened too many times for me to discount it. Now I make sure the pond is topped off before the storm hits and a hose is adding tap water during the storm to reduce the amount of contaminates that can be carried down by the rain if I can't get a cover on to deflect it. Since I am not familiar with the winds, weather and geography of your area I can't give advice for your rainwater purity. You might want to do a search for PH crashes and rainwater. This is something that comes up fairly often and there are a number of posts that discuss both subjects. Learning to use a test kit is critical to pond health. It should be done often but not daily. It can spook you into over reacting but warns you when a problem needs to be addressed before it becomes a killing problem. Test strips give lousy results. Sandy

are morsag roses considered as baby roses,or they are roses similar to europeana roses,what are the diferences and similarities

Thanks Barbara I though it may have been a male bird. Yes GH I feel very privilaged to have these in my Garden. I try Dee to make it nice for all the birds as its their back yard too.. And We do enjoy them visiting.....Cheers...MM.