Daily log of my new 55 gallon South American Tank.

I put some of my plants from my pond into the 55 gallon. I still only have the pearl gouramis and 3 barbs in the tank.... I am curious to see how the plants do going from outside to the tank...

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2009 bump lol
 
Great thread and very informative. I have never heard of using plants for filtration. If you put glass doors on the cabinet you could have a terrarium and an aquarium all in one.
 
Well it has been a while since I updated this thread. The 55 is still alive and well but I am lazy and too busy to keep up with my updates....

Right now my tank still has the pearls and I added "orchid" ciclids from lake tankignika. It sounds like it wouldnt work but it does. The orchids have been spawning like crazy and I have a bunch of 1/2" babies swimming all over. Half of my tank is taken up by java moss and I really need to clean it out but I am waiting until I set up my office tank. Most of the java moss will go over there once that aquarium is running. Right now the tank isn't pic worthy because of the moss overgrowth but maybe I will post some pics later...
 
A note about the 'fuge light - IIRC aluminum foil has a low reflectivity rate like 70% compared to good flat white paint which is closer to 99%. The only advantage metal has for reflection purposes is that if it is polished it is very directional. It is not as efficient due to the mechanism of reflection. This is practically evidenced by placing a shiny piece of metal and a white painted piece of metal in the sun - Try this in a parking lot on a sunny day (chrome bumpers and white cars)... The bare metal gets hot in the sun where the white painted metal does not - the bare metal absorbs more energy.
 
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