Hello all! My wife and I recently moved to NW Florida (specifically
Crestview) and I'd like to introduce myself in the hopes that I can meet
some like minded individuals.

Let me start by saying that I am probably the worst sort of aquarium person
ever. I rarely maintained the last tank my wife and I set up, but
everything went fairly smoothly for the 2 years we kept it. I think we had
only two or 3 fish die (except the damn Mollies which we took back because
they kept killing each other). Algae was a frequent problem but I never
understood why.

Here we go, with the usual newbie questions (keep in mind I am reading the
usual FAQ's available on the web, mainly the libraries at
www.aquabotanic.com). I fear I made some terrible mistakes on the outset -
well, maybe not terrible. Here goes:

1) Are there any clubs in NW Florida for non-marine aquarium enthusiasts?
My boss is a nut for marine tanks - he cultures coral - but I haven't met
anyone here who's into freshwater tanks (yet). Most of the stores around
here seem to be marine places.

2) My tank set-up is as follows:
28 gallons
1 - under gravel filter with
1 - AquaClear Powerhead 301 (Hagen?)
1 - 22' light bulb, about 3/4" diameter (don't know the wattage or
spectrum - plants didn't do well in the last tank we had)
About 2.5 - 3 inches of cultured gravel assorted sizes (we got a nice
mix, I thought it would help to hold plants in)

Please don't cringe. I should have read up a week ago before we bought
the gravel and such, but that's what I got. I have a test kit that I use
infrequently, so if you guys think it's right (as I am beginning to suspect
it is) I can get chemical readings.

For fish, we have 6 rasboras (can't remember the variety - as I said, I'm
new!) 3 tetras (Shadow?) and 2 (Black) Plecostamus (plecostamii?). We
have some plant food (Kent Freshwater Plant Micronutrient Supplement) that I
used whenever the whim took me. As you can probably guess, the water's
still cloudy after about a week of stabilizing - mostly I guess because of
the total lack of filtration of the cultured gravel. My actual question is
this - can I hold the fish in a fishbowl or something while I put down a
plant-friendly substrate? I'm thinking about trying to get a bunch of
Florida native aquatic plants and trying to set up a lot of microfauna that
I'm finding lately (I work part-time for the state sampling salamander
populations at Washington Point). How long does it take for a nice system
to get up and running? Can I just add sand and hope the fish will get do
the work of colonizing the substrate? I think we made a mess of things
before we even started...

3) Assuming we can save the fish, what sort of Florida native aquatics
should I keep an eye out for? I'd like to keep to low-light levels, low
tech (although I'd like to experiment with CO2 injection later, maybe). Is
my equipment enough to support this system?

I know it was a lot, but if any of you nice folks would like to take a
beginner under their wing, I would appreciate it. Heck, if you live in NW
Florida, I might come bring you a 6 pack for your troubles.

Whew!

Thanks again,

Noah