New Tank

To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
Subject: New Tank
From: DAWB.DSKPO33B at DSKBGW1_ITG.ti.com (David Webb)
Date: Fri, 02 Jun 1995 16:19 CST
I now have a tank "just like I've always wanted"  that I plan to turn into a 
plant tank.  It's an old aquarium store tank.  52 gallons = 48"x24"x12"h.

I'm going to do with it just like my micro plant tank that is currently in my 
kitchen:  3" of substrate and 2" of water.

I only have two problems:

1.  Where to put it.  (I know, I'll have to figure that one out myself.)

2.  The bottom is cracked and I will have to replace it (I got the tank for 
free).  I'm planning on doing one of the following:  

A:  Tear the whole thing apart and rebuild it with a new bottom.

B:  Have a piece of 1/2" glass cut to the proper dimensions and re-floor the 
tank.  

Your suggestions are welcome.  If I find that I can't fix it, I can always 
throw it away or recycle it.

Plans:

I'm going to try the vermiculite route just to see how well it works.  I'm also 
going to set the tank up with my undergravel flow and circulation designs since 
I can plug this one in and use pumps and heaters (unlike the micro tank).  I 
may also build a stand and add a trickle filter to it at some point, although 
I'm not sure it will be necessary since it will only have 47"x23"x2" (9.4 
gallons) of water in it.

My first plants will be pretty much a hodgepodge of whatever I can get really 
cheap from the aquarium store.  I'll do my best to arrange it in a nice 
fashion.

I want to get a semi self-sustaining setup going, so the fish load will be very 
low and I'll introduce some live foods to the tank as well.  (I wish I knew 
what it takes to breed cardinals.)  I don't plan to feed often at all.

I haven't decided just where to put it, and I might try a few possibilities 
before I make up my mind.  It would be neat to get some fish with a symbiotic 
relationship, like shrimp gobies and their shrimp in a marine environment.

I may also do fine sand in this tank on top of the vermiculite.  We'll see.

As you can tell, this will be my play tank rather than my show tank.

David W. Webb
Enterprise Computing Provisioning
Texas Instruments Inc.
(214) 575-3443 (voice)		MSGID:		DAWB
(214) 575-4853 (fax)			Internet:	dwebb at ti_com
(214) 581-2380 (pager)		Text Pager:	pgr at msg_ti.com Subj:PAGE:David 
Webb