Re: thoughts and inputs appreciated

[Steve <hutchins.33@osu.edu>]

At 12:32 AM 3/30/98 -0500, you wrote:
>I think there isprobably more than enough floor space for the apistos and the
>D. filamentosus, provided you give them plenty of cave structure on the
>bottom.  Plants will tend to break up the "turf" into sections, making
>territories easier to define.  But the filamentosae will do best in water
that
>has a TDS of 10ppm or less, and this is very soft for succssful plant tanks.
>I think you may find it to be a tough balancing act.  Other than that, I
would
>think about tossing in some "top water" fish, like hatchets, just to get some
>vertical balance in the aesthetics (sp?) of it all.
>
>Bob Dixon
>
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
The hatchets would work wonderfully, but this is an open top plant tank.
They'd be gone in like two minutes.  I am running the tank right now (I am
redoing it and moving it upstairs from the basement) with straight RO water
with just the littlest bit (smallest recommended dose) of RO-Right in it.
I seem to get great results with this.  I don't use any sort of acid buffer
in the water, because they all tend to have phosphates in them, and quite
frankly I dont have the trust in peat filtration that a lot of people have
(not an exact enough science for an engineer)  Anyway, the bottom of the
tank is suppost to be _covered_ with E. tenellus and then there is going to
be several medium pieces of driftwood sloping from the back right to front
left that will be covered in bolbitus and java moss.  Then along the back
I'm putting Crypt. retrospiralus, so I think the maze of driftwood will be
plenty of cover. Any other suggestions, keep sending them, I _really_
appreciate getting the great advice I always get on this group.

Thanks :)

STeve