Subj : New fishkeeper?
To   : Janis Kracht
From : Carol Shenkenberger
Date : Fri May 02 2008 08:18 pm

    
 > Super :)  Thanks for the info :)

Welcome!  I know you havent decided where or 'if' but you'll see other notes
now.  Someone else wanting to start a tank may want that info too!  :closet
fishkeepers may be lurking:  ;-)

BTW, most of the time with a tank of the general size you were mentioning in
the other echo (10-20) dont need a fancy stand.  A deep bookshelf will do
just dandy if it's stable.

Also note Mark's comment about 'little sun'.  What he means is it isnt set in
a window for direct sunlight.  While you can do that it creates 2 problems. 

One, the water can overheat and even if the room is in AC, the water might
hit very high (up to 90F) in the more southerly locations.  In yours, would
not be shocked to see high 80's in summer.  Most fish aint too happy at over
82F.

Two, the direct sun will cause algae growth all along the tank walls first
then everything else.  Fish dont mind this (heck most of them think it's
great!) but it isnt very pretty in the livingroom and battling that back can
take 20 mins a week or more *forever* til you move the tank.  This is in
addition to other tank chores.

Honestly a well cycled tank is mostly self maintaining, but nothing will fix
it if you put it in direct sunlight.

But you want live plants?  Direct sunlight will work well.  What works better
is the fabric plants (they look quite good) with a few real ones among them
and in my situation we had a direct sun plant tank used just to frow plants
and stock the bigger one with.  For substrate there, we used a 2 inch layer
of kitty litter.  The completely cheap totally clay pellet with no additives.
       xxcarol
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