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Diary of my new 100 gallon tank

Greetings fellow list lovers.  My name is Joanna Curtis (aka "JC") and I 
live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, but hail from the UK.  This is my first 
post, I've been reading avidly for about eighteen months.  It is truly a 
wonderful thing that so many people take so much of their time to share 
information and help other people with their tank issues - the world is a 
good place.

OK, quick re-cap on how I came to this point.  Several girlfriends at work 
decided to get Aqua Babies.  I didn't, thought it was cruel and a disaster 
waiting to happen.  One day, upon arriving at work, one of these little 
cubes was on my desk with a note, "Look after Killer [he'd already eaten 
his tank mate!], I'll be gone two weeks".  Well that was it, I was on a 
mission to  improve Killer's lot in life.  I now have five tanks ranging 
from 5 gallons to 100 gallons - I was hooked.

I'm sure I'm going to have loads of questions even though I avidly read and 
collect all the information I can lay my hands on.  Despite relative 
success with my smaller planted tanks, 100 gallons is a whole other ball 
game.  A quick extra thanks to all those people who take the time to set up 
web sites I've book-marked many for reference sources.

My latest tank has been set up for approx. 1 month.  Details are:

Substrate - Profile
Filter - Ehiem Prof II 2028 (filled with peat and filter floss - no 
effi-anything)
Temp - 75?F/24?C
Lighting - 2 x MH 175 watt 5500K's 10 - 11 hours per day

Water parameters (Hagen test kits)
pH - 6.8
KH - 30 mg/L
GH - 120 mg/L
NH3 - 0
N02 - less than 0.3 (barely pink and getting lighter on each test)
N03 - less than 5.0
P04 - 0.25 (only increased from 0 since adding jobes under plants)
Fe - 0 (although did increase to 0.1 after adding 15mls TMG)
C02 - Sochting carbonator

Tap water
pH  - 8.0-8.4
KH - 60 mg/L
GH - 120 mg/L

Tank Mates
20 or so guppies
14 Otto's
7 SAE's
2 Sailfin Mollies
2 Tetras (the sort that they dye pink & blue)
unknown quantity of MTS

Plants (new)
Anubias barteri var. nana, Java Fern & Moss all attached to morpani wood
Cryptocoryne wendtii green & brown; willisii lucens
Echinodorus rubin, rubin (narrow leaf) ozelot & tenellus
Cardamine lyrata
Limnophila sessiliflora
Rotala Wallichii
Hydrocotyle leucocephala
Ceratopteris thalictroides
Lobelia cardinalis
Lilaeopsis novae-zealandiae
Hemianthus micranthemoides

Plant transfers
Vallisneria (the only plant to be growing black thread type algae)
Hygrophia difformis
Ceratophyllum

Fertilization consists of Jobes plant sticks under a variety of plants and 
? strength TMG 15mls weekly.

Now here's the kicker and hopefully I won't be banished for this!  I 
actually like my algae!!!!!!  Well -  my beloved SAE's like my algae, so I 
don't want to eradicate it altogether - I don't mind seeing it (in 
moderation) because it means I get to watch my beloved fish nibbling at it. 
 Of course, if I was overrun with algae that might be a different story ?

I plan on removing the guppies eventually - don't want to get too many 
(seem to be particularly good at breeding those) and adding in some other 
SAE compatible fish.

I'm not much of a chemist, so for me the chemistry is the most difficult 
aspect of this hobby to get to grips with.  I guess I am going to have to 
add in extra macros to keep the levels decent.  So my question is which 
ones and how soon do I start adding them.  Plants all seem wonderfully 
healthy right now, but of course they are fairly new.  Stem plants are 
growing especially well.  I am planning a more sophisticated C02 system and 
am currently trying to acquire the components - especially that new reactor 
everyone's talking about right now!  Also on my shopping list are more 
accurate test kits and a pH monitor.  Setting up is an expensive business.

I read Tom Barr's post this morning regarding the addition of peat, so now 
I'm not sure whether or not to remove it - I'm currently building a cork 
bark wall to put against the back wall of the tank.

Thanks for your attention.  To all those attending, have a wonderful time 
in Chattanooga.

Regards

JC