Tom, thanks for the thorough and thoughtful responses to my
all-over-the-board questions. This is really helpful. I made a few
comments below and have a couple of other questions if you have a moment to
take a look. Thanks again.

Best,

Arnim

" wrote in message
om...

Pass on the pH controller part and just get a monitor.

Yes, the more I read, the more I agree with that plan


I can grow whatever plants you can think of at 120w
in a 55gal.

Okay, I'm convinced.


You buy an electronic ballast for either 4x 32 watt T-8's, buy a
reflector for them, or an electronic ballast for 3-4x 40w NO FL's T-12
lamps, this is plenty and also gives a nice spread of light.

Okay, can I get 4 T-8's across the 10" I have available on my 55g? Suspend,
elevate, build a hood? That DIY CO2 reactor link was great. Any DIY for
fixture enclosures and lighting setups you recommend? I think a ran across
one Erik Olsen wrote on doing T-8s, will look again.


I have a canister filter on the tank loaded with charcoal. Will the
charcoal remove the trace elements and nutrients from the water and
adversely affect the plant growth/health?

If it's more than month old, it's now biomedia and will not remove
much of anything.

The tank itself has been running for two years and I haven't lost a single
fish other than the a couple of of gold barbs that got harrassed to death by
the boesemani rainbows when I tried to introduce a small school to the tank.
The scissosr-tail rasbora school has always done fine but they roamed the
tank before the rainbows. The boesmanis rule the tank now but not are really
agressive toward any other species including a couple of smaller dwarf
gourami species (cinnamon and gold) nor do they bother the loaches. I
change the carbon about every six weeks to two months. The more I read the
more discrepancies on this topic I find. I guess I could just be sure to
add the iron if I'm that worried about it.


I'm worried about my current substrate. would I need to remove it? I
wouldn't think this wise with a living, established tank. Anyone ever
do
this?

All the time, vacuum the contents(the mulm/detritus) out and add to
new gravel you are adding.
Decant off the water and save the mulm.
Nothing is on the old gravel and the bacteria etc is added back to the
new gravel/tank.

Sounds logical and easy enough. Should I remove ALL the old larger gravel
or leave a small layer (~1/2") on the bottom of the tank? With the new
substrate, use the Flourite straight? Will it cloud the water/harm the fish
when I add it? It would be expensive to use it straight, should I mix 1:1
or 2:1 gravel/flourite?