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This is my aquarium that I shot as soon as I got my hands on a half decient camera as pictured in 2009 to 2011: SET UP Tank: 72 gal 48" long, 16" wide, 20" tall Hagen tank sitting on home built stand and matching canopy. Lighting: 3 Coralife T5 dual tube luminares on their own christmas light timers. Filtration: 1 Fluval 302 canister Heating: 2 Hagen 200w heaters in armoured housings layed on substrate. Substrate: Bottom layer - 100 oz pure laturite, Middle layer - 20lb Porpise Artificial Soil + 20lb black chernazem potting soil + 5lb spagmum peat, Top Layer - Fine gravel and course sand. Plants: Too difficult for me to describe the pictures might give you some clues but I only have 5 species of plants. Fish: 2 Black Marble angles, 4 Black skirt tetras, 2 albino corydoras, 1 chinese algea eater, 1 lonely and depressed moon gaurami. PHOTO INFO: Shot with Fujifilm finepix S200EXR bridge digicam in manual macro mode: ASA 400, Shutter 5 seconds, F4 appiture. Camera must be on tripod with timed release or remote trigger. All shot at night with no interior lights except for the aquarium lights. I sure with I had flash floods inside the aquarium hood.

It's been 2 years since I last posted on this forum about mixing Porpise brand artifical soil mixed with my other soil and peat layer. It was a successful and my plants rooted well with with less fogging issues than I was expecting. In less then a day my tank was crystal clear. Just to let you guys know the exact subtrate system it was: Bottom layer: 2 large boxes of pure laturite Middle layer: 1 20lb bag Porpise brand Artifical Soil + 1 20lb bag black gold potting soil(It's a local Chernazem Soil) + 5lb spagmum peat moss = All mixed as evenly as possible Top layer: Fine gravel with aquarium course sand. I have since broken down the fish tank for a complet refurbishment with the soil and gravel in careful storage. I have learned some lessons and realized that any substrate over 4" is not heathly since it was starting to trap noxious gases. My new set up has an average of 3" of substrate. I have used 60% of the soil mixture in the new setup along with some of the established gravel and new gravel of my choice.

It's been almost 9 months since experimenting with this artificial soil. Just to be safe I mixed it with laterate above a thin 3/4" layer of soil and peat. My plants are doing wonderful. I have done water hardness and iron content tests. The first 3 weeks the hard hardness shot up but not dangerously high. Then it fell back to what is normal. The peat might have something to do with keeping hardness in check I do not know. My plants get to have something to work with finally. Can't wait to by my new camera and clean the hard water deposits on the glass.

I have a fish tank with hard water build up like a bathtub ring along the top. I could try to attack this with vinigar to loosen things up, but....... I got live fish and plants in the tank. I am currently scrubbing the deposits with scotch brite pads and tons of elbow grease. I only do this during water changes as I create waves. It is a lot of work that is starting to pay off after two months. There has got to be an easyer way. Any ideas. I want to photograph my thank when cleaned.

Nice to know that my 65 gal tank and all its equipment suck up far less then my high end gaming PC or airconditioner. Those two Navidia 8800 graphics cards can suck up 700 watts if you really crank the graphics settings on the game or PC.

I use one timer for each light unit since I like to stage the light intensity throughout the day to simulate dawn, noon and evening.

I gotta shop there more often for other cool stuff.

I have invested some serious money in my home electronics and PC so protecting them with a really good power bar only makes sense since major power spikes and surges are getting common. After taking apart a really cheap power bar I found it only had a heavy wire with a few ceramic like lugs along its length going beside the curcit of plugs. One of the balls looked discolored. It was still passing power and the reset light still works but I know its not protecting if a flourecent ballast needs replacement after a couple of years. I have three 48" Coral Life dual tube T5 luminares with electronic ballasts and they have lasted me four years with no problems. When I first purchased them I thought they were pricy enough to warrant a better power bar as used on my home theatre. I use an 8 outlet model from Monster Power for $80. Its got a really rock solid protection curcuit where each outlet is electrically isolated from each other so if a given light or electronic appliance is failing the others plugged in will not have thier lives shortened. Great for those Coral Life fixture that other people sometimes complain about failing after a couple of years. Don't blame a bad batch of lighting units, blame the aging and overworked power infrastructue of your power company.

I found these neat digital out door chrismas light timers at Home Depot last year for $24 bucks each. Since I often work very long hours I sometimes fail to control how long my lights are on. To fix this problem I have a timer for each light and CO2 silinoid valve. To keep the mess of timers and cords under control I made a simple board which the timers are screwed to. The timers only have one screw lug so they are further restrained by 1/4"dowels. The 3/4" thick plywood board measures 16" by 22" has one single power bar with 4 christmass light timers plugged in. This board can still have 4 additional timers or aquarium sensor units fastened to it. If you think this looks ugly I guess you could build this as a shallow cabinet. This set up is firmly screwed to the wall beside the aquarium 24" off the floor. Everything electrical is neat and organized.

I have a 65 gal tank thats only 22" deep. Three Coral Life 48" dual T5 luminares are all I need for most plants. The alumanium reflectors in these slim fixtures make these lights nearly blinding to look at. I am sure the recfectors make the lights deliver more wattage to the water then stated on the package.

I would not wait untill the filter is slowed significantly. A motor is a motor and a prolonged strain on it will shorten its life. Then again I have a sponge on my intake and I clean half my filter elements every month so as to keep my water chemestry stable.

Gee. I must be lucky. I own a smaller 304 with all the origonal parts. It has given me little trouble in the three years I have owned it. Primer is a little flimsy, just got to be gentle with it or slightly overfill the filter with the aquastop left open when strapping on the motor lid since all the servicing is done at my sink.

Sorry for how you feel. I lost all my tropical fish last year when our city when through a massive 39 degree heatwave for a weak. So now I got an airconditioner. As for your power problems you can back up your filter and lighting for maybe 10 minutes with a UPS power back up from APC you can buy them at Future shop or BCOM computers. I am looking at one myself as power spikes and brownouts are a fact of life and I hate resetting my timers for my aquarium.

Hello: Glad to have found this site. I have used it for several days and have learned alot. I currently share my apartment with a tank which I have struggled for over five years to plant. Current tank setup: Tank: 65 gallon (16"x22"x48") Stand: Maple and Baltic Birch Play home made standa and canopy sitting on floor sleepers bacause I live on the third floor of an apartment. Lighting: 3x dual tube T5 48" coralife luminare each with thier own timers. Filtration: 1 Fluval 304 canister filter. CO2 source: 2 Hagen fermentation units and ladder diffusers. Substrate: Just 2" of gravel Plants: Amazon swords, Baby tears, and three other plants that I cannot identify. Fish: 6 Black skert tetras, two black marble angle fish, 1 chinese algea eater, two albino coridora cat fish. Remarks: Algea is not an issue unless the lights are left on too long. Water is on the hard side (200 Kh) but will be adding reverse osmosis water as a supplement to my water change by the 10 gallon jug. Would like to completly redo my tank as plants refuse to grow. I am blaming my substrate. Would like to know where to get Literate in NE edmonton if not I stumbled upon new aquarium store selling artificial aquarium soil. Artifical soil has a high iron and mineral content. Oh the new aquarium store is called Aqua Giant. It is located on 12816, 50St in NE Edmonton. The thing that stood out about this store was the selection of high end lighting and the emphisis on natural looking gravel and decorations. You will not find kid tank deco hear.

My fourth attempt at planting my tank. Straight gravel just don't cut it anymore. Tank: 65 gal less then 22" deep. Substrate: Bottom most layer: China-porpoise brand artificail soil to 1/2" depth; thicker at back of tank. (Never heard of this stuff it sounds like a fortified clay based soil about the consistancy of course sand) Middle layer: Black Earth soil mixed with 25% peat to 2" depth; thicker at back of tank. Top layer: 2" gravel;deep enough to set plants in without clouding the tank. (Was thinking of burlap between gravel and soil but you guys convinced me otherwise.) Lighting: three 48" dual T5 coral life fixtures each on its own timer. Works out to about 2.5w/gallon (I love the design and blinding power of these things. They have electronic ballasts to boot). Water conditioning: 1 fluval 304 canister filter (boy oh boy I going to be servicing my canister heavyly as I expect some debrise with the new substrate untill plants are established). I figure I will need to stick a sponge on the intake of my filter to precatch all the debrise as well. CO2: 2 Hagen fementation type CO2 tanks to tie things over untill pressurized CO2 kit is aquired. Plantings: Well I am still a total nobe at this when it comes to identifying and picking out plants but I figure I will need at least 30 assorted plants just to get me started ANY OPINONS OR IDEAS WELCOME as my last attempts failed.

Your forum answered one of my questions the go ahead for using peatmoss under gravel. Now I would like to lay a burlap fabric over this peat then cover over with 2" of gravel. This should help reduce any clouding should my stubtrate be disturbed. What I want to know is if anyone else used burlap between the substrate layers. Do the plants have the ability to pass through the burlap or would they slowly stegnate. Of course the other challange is if you want to transplant you might have to dive through the gravel with hemostats to cut way some of the burlap in order to liberate you transplant.