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some good karma

This is slightly off topic, but please bear with me.

In light of all the negativity that has been passing through this list
for the past day or two, I'd like to tell you a story.  It is the story
about a young man who had been out of the hobby of fish keeping for the
past ten years or so, and has just returned...

Getting away from dorm life meant he could go back to his fish, and this
time he wanted to try his hand at a planted aquarium.  He wasn't
expecting any thing miraculous, simply a few nice plants that would make
his tank look more "natural" than the plastic ones most people start
with.  Amano he is not, but he was willing to try.  After much research,
including www.thekrib.com, www.aquariacentral.com, and many other web
sites (especially those by Hoa G. Nguyen and Chuck Gadd), he felt that
he had enough general information to take a stab at it.  He began with a
tank and stand.  He discovered the APD.  He asked a few questions, but
mostly lurked.  From this list and the aforementioned sites he found
information on affordable and affective substrates, fertilizers, test
kits, and lighting.  He got the setup going, with just the few sword
plants and anacharis that his LFS carried.  After a few weeks of this,
making sure he had the yeast generated CO2 working properly, he ordered
enough plants for what he considered "dense."  There were even a few
leftovers.  He now has, what he considers to be, a very nice, densely
planted 55 gallon (~205L?) aquarium with Egaria densa, Didiplis diandra,
Cabomba caroliniana, and Echinodorus x. "Ozelot."  Pretty modest, but in
his opinion it looks nice.  From the APD mailing list and archives he
has been able to get his CO2 levels (after some tweaking and input from
list members) to aproximately 12ppm basically for free.  Yeast, sugar,
and advice, all costing next to nothing are the ingredients.  He is
happy, his school of Telmatherina ladigesi are happy, all his friends
are envious, and some even want to give planted aquariums a try
themselves.  All-in-all a happy ending/beginning to his story.  And he
owes 99% of his success to this list and its archives.

I hope this lightens the mood of the list, as I think it is in need
(sorry for the newbie saying so, but the past days' posts are getting
away from plants per se and into attack-defense).

Oh, and the final thing I want to say is...THANK YOU, all of you.  This
list is an incredible resource that I look forward to each day.  I
always learn something new, and rarely even have to ask.  I love my
tank, it looks better by far than I ever hoped, and I owe most of that
to you guys.

Again, thanks,

Cameron

p.s. if you're interested I'll *eventually* get around to posting some
pictures...I hope, and you can all see what you've helped me achieve.