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Introduction and question



Hello everyone,

First let me introduce myself.  My name is David Doyle and I live near
Nashville, Tn. USA  I am an environmental geologist by trade that enjoys
saltwater reef aquariums and keeping terrariums with the poison dart frogs
of Central America (If you would like to know more about the frogs go to my
web page:  http://www.mindspring.com/~davidceecee/Frogs.html

A friend has turned me onto planted aquariums and I'm working on setting one
up in my office at work.

Here is the setup:
Tank - 25 gall (2ft. long x 1.5 ft tall x 1 ft. wide)
Light - 3 20 watt tubes
CO2 by yeast method
Filter - I have a Whisper 3 Energizer and a Skilter.
           I was thinking about using the Skilter (a cheap protein skimmer
to introduce the CO2
           because I could let it go into the intake, through the impeller,
and into the skimming
           chamber.  This should increase the contact time.
                Should I do this or only use the Whisper 3 or use both?
Supplements - FloraSan and Floreal
Water - RO because the local water is hi in CaCO3
Fish - I would like to have approx.. 15 neon tetras, 1 male beta, and some
Ottocinlus
Plants - I'm going to have my friend help me pick some out.
Heat - via a submiserable heater

OK now for my question.

I have been looking into the Archive and some other web page and I'm now
even more confused.
I have 25 lbs of gravel about 3 mm insize (this results in a layer about 1.5
inches deep so I guses I will need about 25 more lbs) and I have 20 oz of
First Layer Pure Laterite on the way and I know you are supposed to use the
laterite in the bottom 1/3 of the substrate.
But should I mix anything into it ie., peat moss??

Is 20 oz of laterite enough??

What do you think about Flourite the substrate by Seachem??

What do you think about light bulbs such as Triton, Vita Lite, Aqua-Lux, and
Power Glo??

Well that should cover it for now.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

David Doyle
PS.  My web page has information about culturing some insects that could be
used as live food such as fruitflies and flour beetles.
http://www.mindspring.com/~davidceecee/Frogs.html