Will the SAE's grow and stop eating algae, and hogging food?

A lot of people claim they stop eating algae as they get older, but that hasn't
been my experience. Even when they are babies, they still like fish food if
they can get it. It doesn't keep them from grazing on algae. My SAEs are huge
now. They do eat fish food, but they don't hog it. No more than any other
fish, anyway. :-) And between feedings, they are constantly grazing on
thread-like algaes. They will take care of your black algae, though it might
take awhile. (They prefer tender new growth, so they may not eat the stuff
that's already established. But they will keep new algae from growing in.)

Will there be
special problems/things to know about the Amano shrimp? I have read that
they will escape the tank if possible.

I haven't had any problem with them. I do add a couple of drops of Kent Marine
Iodine to the tank for them, with each water change. I have no idea if this is
necessary, but it's necessary for ghost shrimp, so I do it for Amanos, too.

The thing I don't understand about CO2 is, I was told by Phyl at TAP that I
wouldn't necessarily even need CO2 at all. But after I put the plants in,
my pH shot up to above 8.0 from a normal 7.0.

I remember that. That was weird. I didn't have a problem with 2.24 wpg over
my non-injected tank. The only thing I can figure is that you really had a lot
of plants, or it was just because the bulbs were brand new. (New PCFs produce
much brighter light for the first few hours of use. Generally, this lasts only
for a week or two, as we use them.) Or maybe you didn't have enough surface
agitation.

If I have a "low-moderate"
amount of light, do I need CO2 in the 25ppm range? Or is stability of the
CO2 level more important?

I think any CO2 helps. Though conventional wisdom has it that CO2 should be up
around 20ppm, the data someone posted here suggested the biggest benefit comes
from boosting CO2 only a little -- to 7 or 8 ppm. More is better, but if
that's all you can get, it's still worth doing.


Leigh

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