Kronosdelsol

I vote for either black or blue. You can buy them on the same sheet of paper.

If your looking for a reference book, "The Reef Aquarium" volumes 1 and 2 are pretty good. by J. Charles Delbeek and Julian Sprung.

That light house is a nice touch.

I personally prefer using a sponge instead. My fish always seem to get startled and go crazy when I use the magnet. It also doesn't help that I have a sand substrate.

Can you provide more details? What type of substrate? How long is the lighting period. Does it get any direct sunlight. Are you injecting any co2? What is your maintenance schedule like?

Glad you came on board. I would love to see some pictures of these shrimps as well.

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Congrats on the spathe. I know what you mean by saying finally. Neat setup for your toad. Does it ever try to jump out when your doing maintenance? I guess I'm thinking more in the lines of fire belly newts.

Those are striking. Thanks for sharing. I wonder if the type of rock would affect the KH/GH?

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That would be interesting if more freshwater species chatted with noise. It would be better to hear more conversation than just the stripped raphael's at night.

It depends on the type of substrate you have. If it is a gravel substrate, you could either vacuum around the plants or just leave it. If its a sand substrate then you would just vacuum on top. You mentioned that you are looking for a nice foreground so eventually the micro swords will spread runners and cover the entire substrate. I agree with Jewels in that you will then rely on good water movement from your filter output/powerhead (if used) to as she says, kick the dust. Can you be specific and list what equipment you received with this new 55 gallon tank? We can help point you in the right direction.

That is very nice. I especially like how you built the base-platform that holds the legs.

Here is a link to a link of Chuck Gadd's co2 chart that corrosionjerry is referring to. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/fertilizers-water-parameters/23531-co2-chart.html

Hi and welcome to our forum. There are a lot of different methods to go with on a planted tank. I think it all depends on the type of plants you want and the look. Once you have that identified, we can work out the particulars of what exactly you need. Since you are not new fish keeping, I would recommend that you do some basic research at the link below. It will give you a more general idea of the different requirements and how you will want to approach a planted tank. Feel free to ask as many questions as you need along the way. http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=12298&pid=2110557&st=0entry2110557

I would recommend that you look into Tom Barrs estimative index. It takes all guess work out of the equation.

It depends on how fast you want the plants to grow and how much time you are willing to spend on pruning your plants. when my co2 was at optimal levels, and I was dosing estimative index for ferts, I had to prune at least once to twice a week. that took about 2 hrs a week, which includes a 50% water change. I now run absolutely no co2 but have a high fish load. My plants are still thriving. However, harder to keep species like HC and Glosso can't make it. To answer your question, get a co2 indicator from ebay for $8. Read up on how to make the solution. I have it posted on here somewhere. Start with 2 bubbles per second and monitor. Slowly increase it over the next couple of days. As Morphine mentioned, it all depends on your environments factors.

Most fish nowadays are acclimatized to the higher PH levels in comparisons to the wild. If it's not broken, don't fix it. Another alternative is to plant your tank and to get pressurized co2 and a ph meter. I think this would be a win win solution.

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Thats awesome news. but too bad you don't have a male in there too.

Do you have rocks and driftwood/ornaments in there? I find my corys going missing for week and then out of the blue there they are. Are you by any chance injecting anything into the tank like co2? Maybe it was that corys time to go.