rick! nice to meet you all

i was real excited to find these forums, there seems like a lot of nice ppl and a plethora of knowledge related to taking care of fish. i have been interested in upgrading from my freshwater eclipse six for some time now and just couldn't find all the answers to questions i had before i started setting things up... and now i think i have

i've been eye'ing craigslist for some time now and recently found great deals on a 35g tall acrylic and a wet/dry filter... now i'm looking for lighting, heater, pump, a stand, and decor. i've always wanted to create a planted aquarium so that's what i'm looking to do... but i kind of screwed up when i bought that tank cuz it's a 35g tall so it might be too tall (24") for a planted tank...

which leads me to my first question: i know that fluorescent lights are good only down to a certain height, but do you guys think i can use them in a planted tank if it is 24" tall? i really didn't want to use metal halide cuz of the heat and power consumption...

thanks!

You'll have to ask over in the Planted Tank section. I don't think its a big deal to have light reach down in a 24" tank. But working in a tank like that -will- be a big deal. Plants need a lot of attention down at the bottom and I find myself frustrated at how deep a 17-18" feels, often I'm up to my armpit. Also, longer instruments to manipulate plants way down will be more expensive.

Good luck though, and welcome to the forums. This, by the way, is a great place to fine-tune your understanding of the nitrogen cycle, fishless cycling, good water change techniques and all sorts of great basic stuff. Be sure to avail yourself of that in the New to the Hobby forum and other places.

~~waterdrop~~

thanks waterdrop! i'll go and post my question over there and see if anyone knows...

and about the height being a problem, i figured i wouldn't have to mess with clean the substrate that much since it'll be planted... i could scrape algae using a magfloat and get a long vacuum. i never really thought about plant maintenance though and how much the longer tools would be to manipulate/prune the plants. lol, i have short arms too... maybe i'll just use the 35g tall i got as a quarantine tank (albeit a really big one) and find myself a lower one...

man, there is so much to learn, it's awesome...