Hi gang,

Just an introduction of myself and my setup. I've actually been a
lurker in the aquaria ng's for a couple of years, but have always had
a free server feed (read non postable feed) usually from halfway
around the world. I finally sprung for a subscription feed. I had a
couple of tanks as a teenager back in the early 70's, but never heard
of cycling a tank, so you could imagine the disasterous results of
that. Took about 30 years off for college, females, life, wife,
children and work. Anyway now I've got a pair of tanks, a 10G
quarantine, and a 75G AGA. The tanks have been established for about
2 1/2 years. After reading the aquaria ng's and especially this one
(seeing all of your pictures of your lovely tanks, and wanting the
best for the fishies) I decided to do the live plant thing. I was able
to do the no spared expense route, so here's the 75's setup.

tank params...
magnum 350 w/ wheels filtration
2x150w visitherm heaters
110 oz of laterite
plain aquarium gravel
25% wc's at about a 14 day interval
filter maintenance at same time

ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 20 or so (needs a wc)
pH = about 7.2
hardness = about 8
co2 = about 15-20
tank temp = about 72 to 74 after the lights have been on all day

live plant necessities
ahsupply 2x55w retrofit
pressurized co2
eheim liquidoser for fertilizer applications
currently dosing with mix of flora pride and flourish
(haven't had time to get the pmdd chemicals yet)

happy plants
ambulia - almost rampant :-)
dwarf hairgrass - growing/spreading lazily
lace plant - slow and steady
sword plant - quite the shade tree
java fern on driftwood - the wood's obscured
2 crypt's - happy
anubias nana - slow and steady
corkscrew vals - spreading nicely via runners

unhappy/deceased plants
cabomba - couldn't compete with everything else or not enough light
rotala - never was happy...
micro sword - lighting issue?
anacharis - tank too hot?
hornwort - too messy for me :-)

fish load (as best I can remember/see with the tank lights off)
(from the top down) (time in tank)
4 silver hatchets (2+yrs)
2F 1M guppies (3 mos)
1 betta (1+yr)
2 glass cats (2+yrs)
1 blue tetra (2+yrs)
4 h&t light tetra (2+yrs)
6 cardinal tetra (6mos)
1 zebra danio (2+yrs)
1 molly (2+yrs)
1 bosemani rainbow (2mos)
1F 1M angel's (2+yrs)
2 leopard cories (2+yrs)
4 yo-yo loaches (1 1/2 yrs)
1 do-jo loach (1 1/2 yrs)
1 dwarf bristlenose pl*co (newest at 1 week)

Anyway I'd like to thank all of the regular posters to the aquaria
ng's. Through your sharing of knowlwdge I've got a tank that has
neighbors awe'd at the fact it's full of live plants, and looks like a
jungle. Thanks, and now thinking it's time for a 150G reef :-)

Joe