Thanks John, I leave the lights on from about 7:00 am to about 10:00 pm. The tank is reasonably well sealed against loss of moisture, so I have had to add only about 20 ml of water every 2 or 3 days to keep the substrate wet. The big irregular shaped area minus glosso will be where I plant Rotala green (probably) along with possible one other plant. This will then be my experiment in pruning to achieve a shape I want. After I have this set up for a few months at most, and feel I have learned what I want to learn about it, I will probably tear it down and try something else I want to learn about.
Pat: I felt like you do - I envied those with multiple tanks who could experiment when they got the urge. So, I used Craigslist to find a ten gallon tank at a good price, $20 for the tank and the Perfecto hood/light fixture - both brand new. Then I made a stand for it, using scrap plywood, that looks good enough for my wife to allow me to set it up in our living area, modified the Perfecto light fixture to use two screw-in fluorescent bulbs with good reflectors, and started experimenting with it. The filter is just a HOB design, very cheap, so the whole thing didn't cost much. I find this to be a great learning tool.
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hoppy
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