I thought that would be a lot of light for freshwater. It used to be a salt
water tank which needed more light. I've been successful with reef tanks;
however, this nature aquarium thing is new to me. I decided to get into it
when
I saw several books from a Japanese guy (Amano or something like that...
there
were something like 3 volumes.)

Takashi Amano's tanks are gorgeous. He's the reason I ended up keeping planted
tanks, too. :-) He injects CO2, believe me.

About how much CO2 do you need per gallon?

CO2 is measured in ppm. There are charts, like this:

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm

You need to measure your pH and KH to use the charts.

And the charts are generally conservative. You can have up to 35ppm without
harm to fish.

What spectrum bulbs are best? I
suppose one of my blue spectrum from my reef tank days may not be too good
for
the plants?

Planted tank keepers generally prefer light with more red in it -- maybe 6500K
or so -- but plants are not as sensitive to spectrum as corals are. For
plants, intensity matters more than spectrum. Some people claim that too much
blue light causes algae, but IME, it's not critical. For a planted tank, feel
free to choose your lighting based on aesthetics.

Is it easier to keep plants healthy in separate pots or to just plant them
into the bottom of the tank?

With as much light as you have, you should have a *lot* of plants. 80% or more
of the tank should be planted. That being the case, it would be easier to
plant in the gravel.

You have too much light for a non-injected tank. Either reduce your lighting
or inject CO2. Given the size of your tank, compressed CO2 is your only
option. Dave Gomberg sells CO2 systems for planted tanks, and offers help in
setting them up:

http://www.wcf.com/co2iron/

You'll have to get the cylinder of compressed CO2 locally, from a beverage
supply or welding supply company.

I would definitely remove a few bulbs until you can get a CO2 system set up.
Too much light without CO2 is asking for trouble. Not only will it be an algae
nightmare, but you can have sharp daily pH swings, because of the plants'
stripping CO2 out of the water during the day, as well as a gradual pH increase
over time, followed by a sudden crash, as the CO2-deprived plants strip
carbonate out of the water.

Unfortunately, you really can't start small with as much light as you have.
You must inject CO2, and you must plant heavily. The idea is to have enough
plants to out-compete the algae. Otherwise, that extra light will turn your
tank into an algae farm.

If you want to start small, try to get your lighting down below 2 wpg. You
won't have to inject CO2 then, though you should still have lots of plants.
You might find this article helpful:

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_newtank.htm

As for plants...if you're in the U.S., e-mail me when you've got your CO2 up
and running. I'll give you enough clippings to fill that tank for the cost of
postage (probably about $10).


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/