eventually when i get a place to put it, i want a 180g tank with one oscar, 2 fire eels, and a trinidad pleco. i love live plants, but three of those 4 fish are diggers/burrowers. what i'm thinking is to only get plants that have really strong, thick root systems, like swords, plant them in nice deep substrait, then place rocks around the bases to deterr the fish from pulling them up. i also will plant the tank first, then fishless cycle it, then add all 4 fish at once as babies. i'm hoping that when i add them, they'll be too small to do much damage to the plants, and by the time they're big enough to pull them up, the plants won't be new and interesting anymore. does this sound feasable?
the other question is.......how on EARTH do you properly light a 6 foot long tank?? the dimentions will be 72x24x24 inches. how much light would most sword species need to thrive? and how would i achieve that level of light in such a large tank? could i get away with a little less light if i focused it along the back of the tank where the plants will be, rather than have it diffuse through the whole tank? i have 2.75wpg on my 20 long right now and i have two ozelot swords that seem to be doing really well. whatever i do, it will probably be home-made and retrofitted, so give it to me in terms of what kind of bulbs and ballasts to buy.
the other question is.......how on EARTH do you properly light a 6 foot long tank?? the dimentions will be 72x24x24 inches. how much light would most sword species need to thrive? and how would i achieve that level of light in such a large tank? could i get away with a little less light if i focused it along the back of the tank where the plants will be, rather than have it diffuse through the whole tank? i have 2.75wpg on my 20 long right now and i have two ozelot swords that seem to be doing really well. whatever i do, it will probably be home-made and retrofitted, so give it to me in terms of what kind of bulbs and ballasts to buy.
