Greetings Brian,

You're welcome. It sounds like your new light system will help.

Perhaps you're right that the sand has contributed to your plants' malaise -
I don't know. Consider getting a bottle of the sera florena to experiment
with. I think you will find that it is helpful.

Great idea to heat the yeasty beasties! Really good creativity.

Keep us posted.

David

"Brian S." wrote in message
news:lmCkd.19327$V41.8327@attbi_s52...
Hey Dave,

Thanks for the info. I currently have a 65 watt compact fluorescent light
which has a 10,000K and 460nm Actinic side to it.

Since I used this in my 29 gallon, I have it sitting on top of my 55
gallon
right now, but will be getting the 130 watt 48" light tomorrow by UPS.

Regarding fertilizer; I never was much one for wanting to fertilize
plants.
I was hoping I could get away without using fertilizer because it is
already
pretty costly to keep this tank up and running. I haven't used fertilizer
before and my plants really seem to do good, but only lately they have
really slowed down. That is why I didn't know if it was because I am
using
sand now instead of rock (harder for the plants to get nutrients since
everything stays on top of the sand).

I did go home on my break a little bit ago. When I left, the bell was
about
half-full with Co2. When there on my break, it had reduced to about 1/4
so
it does seem to be taking it in.

I think I found the reason why my Co2 isn't making too much.. and it is
because I keep my house at about 68 degrees (heating is expensive).
Because
it is cool in the house, the yeast isn't producing much at all. I placed
both bottles in a gallon bucket filled with really hot water, and the rate
of bubbles went to about two per second. So, I just need to get a big
container (like my 10 gallon tank sitting around), fill it with water, and
put a cheapo heater on it.

Brian S.