valentine

MsPerky

The +1 is running with his group this morning...only 13 miles. After that, we are walking up to the local little shopping center to return/exchange a couple of Ravensburger puzzles he bought me at Barnes and Noble. They are 1000 pieces and won't fit on the card table. I like the 500-piece ones. An interesting one I am keeping, though, is a 3D Eiffel Tower. I had never seen one of those. Should be a challenge to put together, since it has to be assembled from the ground up. Also plan to stop in Chico's, since I have a gift certificate from last year I never used. Not much call for clothes when working from home.

valentine

Our usual quiet weekend is in store. No big plans.

dean

Heading to what is supposed to be a high end aquarium shop to check out their fish and aquatic plants. There isn't much of a selection at the local stores. We've decided on the fish we want, but I know next to nothing about aquatic plants. We're hoping this place can provide us with some good advice and ideas about planting the tank.
I want to set up and open top tank with pendant grow lights hanging over it, so that some of the plants we choose can grow well above the water's surface. I think it'll make a good looking room divider and show piece.

boltonblue

if you go open top, how will you stop the jumpers?
nothing more disappointing than finding a découpage version of what was a costly investment.

MsPerky

I just got a vivid memory of "A Fish Called Wanda."

S1997

This project is interesting, Dean. I know nothing about aquaria or the beasties that live in them. I'll be watching for pics. What sort of lighting do you use? We were recently at a party were they had a large aquarium in the wall. lt was full of beautiful exotic fish.

dean

For this tank I'll be using a pendant light with four 48" T5 high output fluorescent bulbs for a total of 216 Watts of daytime lighting, with a color spectrum optimized for aquatic plant growth (~6700*K). The pendant also contains some low wattage "moonlights" to simulate nighttime conditions under a full moon. The lighting fixture has a built in programmable timer which can time the on-off cycles of each light independently to simulate sunrise and sunset also.

dean

Simple, don't put fish that are known jumpers - like hatchetfish for example - in an open top tank. The risk of jumping can also be minimized by using some floating plants.

Jumping won't be an issue in this tank. Rori had her mind set on angelfish, which don't jump. But once she got a look at a tank at the shop today set up with about eight adult discus of varying color strains, it was bye bye angelfish. Discus are also fairly sedate and are not jumpers. I knew she'd change her mind about the angelfish once she saw some live, healthy discus.

MsPerky

This one will be quiet! We had a busy last two weeks, so it will be a nice change. Hibernating to some extent because of the cold, but Sun will warm up quite a bit.