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Do both styles and see which you like. The plant police will not come and get you. You can change it after 1-2 years. I'd also make that same bet about LED's. Yes, the Echinodorus weed. Lower left is Alternanthera reineckii Everyone thinks it's a high light plant, nope. Red/yellow Ludwigia...

Some ferns under neath the thickets of stems in the middle ground might be nice. See Jason's B's example above. The stems top out and form a canopy, this shades the ferns. You will need to trim aggressively. Stems I'd leave nor lower than 5" from the top of the tank to provide cover. This...

I do understand and the $$ for the Reef Optix is awesome. They are cool looking(nicer than the ADA and more efficient). A Stark LED would have set you back more $, but at 60W of dimmable light, the energy savings would be recouped in 1.5 years and more color variables, the light footprint...

The lily pipes, be VERY careful with the outflows, they are so easy to break(been there, done it). I also added a sponge pre filter, mostly to reduce filter clean and also to reduce shrimp from get in the filters. You also might look up Dry Start Method if you plan more rooted sediment plants...

So if you have to raise the light up 24" or more.....then what is the point of using all this light to begin with? Why waste 100 Watts of energy? The question is not why waste 100 watts or more, the question is can we do it with less and why might that still achieve the goal and look nice, but...

This is plainly put, way too much light for such a small tank. You only need maybe 20-30wats max for this tank in T5 lighting or at most, 24 Watts worth of Cree LED's and adjust those down. I would not put a 150w/gal on 60 Gal cube, it's too much light there and was way way too much light on a...

Most everyone is lazy regarding testing, few bother unless something is wrong and they expect some "sage" like diagnostic analysis from the data. Which is rarely, if ever....... the case. The tropica article is good and well written. Less light= less CO2 demand and less fert demand, this means...

This is not an exact ppm..........it is much more helpful to think of a zone/range etc..........say 30-40ppm, or 1-5ppm or 0.2ppm to .8ppm etc. This gives you a much easier target to hit. I'd also not rely too much of testing unless you are REALLY into testing and like to run calibration...

This should not be viewed this way, stick with 30-40ppm of CO2 as target, this is hard to accurately confirm(CO2 ppm's), so these ppm's are relative anyways. According to the pH/Kh chart, some of my past tanks supposedly had 220ppm CO2. My confirmed measures in my own tanks that have this...

Sigh, yet another myth concerning high light plant requirements, aquatic plants are LOW light plants. In the "old days" of incad's and cheaper low output FL's, this was reasonable advice perhaps. Today with PC, T5, no one in their right mind should use more than 1.5-2w/gal ranges. W/gal is a...

You might consider a non CO2 method however. But plant growth will be about 10x slower, which you may not care much about. But the trade off is you no longer do water changes. http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/2817-Non-CO2-methods Also, with lower light intensity, your plant demand for...

I have electric blue rams. Sturisoma are breeding.......and have been for the last 6 months. I use tap. The results speak for themselves. Regards, Tom Barr

Few, if any one uses or certainly NEEDS RO water. Use tap as suggested. Add dechlorinator. If water changes are more the issue, then go non CO2 methods and do not change the water at all, just top off, maybe once every 6-12 months after a trim. I use this to drain and fill from the shower...

Well, you really do not need to worry about K+, and testing is certainly not required, nor likely what you want to do instead of enjoying the aquarium. http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/2819-EI-light-for-those-less-techy-folks I'd still dose micro's to the water column Eco has virtually...

Cause I am doing 1/2 this amount of light and doing quite well??? Just because someone cannot grow X plant with 3 w/gal of say T5 lighting, does not imply that lighting is the key. You cannot say that unless you have actively tested over the range of lighting. A good way to do this and...

Not much, but if you wish, you can mix powders together also, same as liquids. CMS + B for example, they add boric acid to CMS. GH booster, CaSO4/MgSO4/K2SO4. No biggie if you mix the dry micros and then mix the dry macros into 2 powders. You cannot vary the ratios then...but you might not...

Be easiest to not do an all in one. Some folks like messy liquids, bully for them. I dose 3-4 things, that's it, do so 2-3 x a week. Some folks prefer to divide into daily dosing, works the same as well. Dosing is easy. Folks, however, make it hard on themselves. I dose 4 things: KNO3...

CMS just has a little bit of Mg in it. I still add MgSO4(epsom salt) to my trace mix (CMS+B) and make a solution(generally about 4 tablespoons for a couple of liters and 2 tablespoons of MgSO4). I also add some DTPA iron with 1 Table spoon as well. This can bought many places as well. I dose...

Bakc about 15 years ago, the prevailign theory was PO4 = algae. That has changed, slowly...........but now few folks argue for it(under painful public humiliation for being shown wrong by many folks who dose copious amounts of it) Still, back when ferts where just being sold on line........a...

It needs beaten in to some folks:)