I have been playing with lillies for a bit now since my previous post. A daylight bulb is sufficient for lilys.....with a temp of 6500K with 10K being better.....So far I have a tropical lily (Dauben) in a 10 gal tank for a bit more than a month now, and its been constantly in bloom and have had as many as 3 blooms at once on this one lily. Its a tropical, but it is very well suited for a small container as it readily adjusts to water level and its size constraints.....It is also known as the Madagascar Dwarf Lily.... I have a 20 gala tall with another dauben in it and it too is just fine, not quitea s great as the 10 gal setup, but then this lily was just planted from a cutting from the one in the 10 gal tank, so there is no doubt it too will do fine. Its leaves alal reach the surface without a proble. In yet another tank along with the Helvola mentioned previously, I have a Charlies Choice. Its not a slouch by any means and its leaves etc also adjust readily to its container size. It grows quite vigorously and its a constant leaf factory on steroids. I moved the Helvola over to ne side and put the Charlies Chlice Lily on the opposite side...Both are still blooming just fine As some one stated above they need 4 hours of light....they need 6+ hours of good light if you want them to bloom and remain in good condition, anything less is not going to give you good results..... I can recomend the Dauben (tropical), Helvola (Hardy) or Charlies Choice (Hardy) for use in aquariums.....with the Dauben doing fine in either deep or smaller tanks, and the Helvola and CC needing a bit more space than a 10 gal but it should still grow and bloom but with these 2, your going to have to keep removing leaf growth sooner. Tropoicals do fine in water 70+ deg and Hardys in 60+ but all like water temps normally kept in a freshwater aquarium so will all do just fine........but use a 6500K or 10,000K temperature bulb if you want results.

Squirrel-- I think the test sets you are refering to are the old pH dip-strips with the pH up and down additives. You are correct they where crap. Battleing pH with those powders was temporary, especially trying to bring high pH down. Just monitoring ammonia and nitrite is important because it can be found in tap water. Some water treatment facilities even add them in their efforts to make drinking water "safe". As far as fishkeeping not science, I find it more a science hobby now than ever. I had the same opinion as you when I lived in a different part of the state, never a problem and never tested. When I moved I couldnt keep from killing a fish within 2 weeks. The well water I have now was a little different to say the least. I purchased a test set and found my cycle would stall. For whatever reason my ammonia would spike and stay, never lowering. I tried every useless product the petstores would reccomend, nothing. I read books and magazines, the books where a little out-dated and the magazines offered newer info, but not as quickly as I needed it. Most research from then started with a search on the net. I just lurked on boards,and still do,and found consistancies with advise from different ones. Anyway within 2 weeks of good advise my aquarium cycled and have started several others. I am still learning, and find I learn alot by trying to answer questions. So in my case and more often than not, fishkeeping is a science- ecology, biology, and mostly chemistry, not to mention botany. For years I thought was just an art, but chemistry taught me otherwise

If your pleco is the P. Gibbiceps species then I've had them get up to 14"+. No matter when you change to sand out it's going to cause a major re-cycling in the tank. When you do it take the fish out then stir the sand. All the "dirt" that floats up out of it is wahat you want to save some of. I'd try to keep as much of that water as possible. At least half to refill the tank with. It'll look bad for a while but hopefully you'll have enough bacteria in it to keep the take from going thru a complete cycle. Also have ammonia and nitrite test kits on hand and check those daily. If you see either getting high enough to be dangerous or starting to make the fish uncomfortable then change some of the water in the tank but NO cleaning. You'll take out more of the bacteria you are trying to cultivate. Just remove some water and refill. Be sure to check the temp and use dechlorinator.That should keep any amm/nitrites at a level the fish can survive in temporarily until everything gets back to good levels. Lisa

Use your mind's eye to envision what I'm about to explain. Adding 'some' gravel to a medium with small particles will do very little to increase either drainage or aeration (unless the volume of gravel is a VERY large fraction of the medium - like more than 80%), but it will reduce the amount of water that can be held in the perched water table (PWT) of soils that support a PWT. IOW, the pebbles will take up space that would normally be taken up by particles that hold water. If you have a bucket filled to the brim with water, and you ease a brick into the bucket, the brick will displace a volume of water equal to the volume of space occupied by the brick. The same principle can be applied to PWTs, which is why using ballast can be so effective if done correctly. This is something I wrote to explain why adding 'some' coarse material to a water-retentive medium does precious little to increase either aeration or drainage: Pudding Obviously, I think the grower's soil choice when establishing a planting for the long term is the most important decision he/she will make. There is no question that the roots are the heart of the plant, and plant vitality is inextricably linked in a hard lock-up with root vitality. In order to get the best from your plants, you absolutely must have happy roots. If you start with a water-retentive medium, you cannot improve it's aeration or drainage characteristics by adding larger particulates. Sand, perlite, Turface, calcined DE ...... none of them will work. To visualize why sand and perlite can't change drainage/aeration, think of how well a pot full of BBs would drain (perlite), then think of how poorly a pot full of pudding would drain (bagged soil). Even mixing the pudding and perlite/BBs together 1:1 in a third pot yields a mix that retains the drainage characteristics and PWT height of the pudding. It's only after the perlite become the largest fraction of the mix (60-75%) that drainage & PWT height begins to improve. At that point, you're growing in perlite amended with a little potting soil. You cannot add coarse material to fine material and improve drainage or the ht of the PWT. Use the same example as above & replace the pudding with play sand or peat moss - same results. The benefit in adding perlite to heavy soils doesn't come from the fact that they drain better. The fine peat or pudding particles simply 'fill in' around the perlite, so drainage & the ht of the PWT remains the same. All perlite does in heavy soils is occupy space that would otherwise be full of water. Perlite simply reduces the amount of water a soil is capable of holding because it is not internally porous. IOW - all it does is take up space. If you want to profit from a soil that offers superior drainage and aeration, you need to build it into the soil from the start, by ensuring that the soil is primarily comprised of particles much larger than those in peat/compost/coir, which is why the recipes I suggest as starting points all direct readers to START with the foremost fraction of the soil being large particles, to ensure excellent aeration. From there, if you choose, you can add an appropriate volume of finer particles to increase water retention. You do not have that option with a soil that is already extremely water-retentive right out of the bag. I fully understand that many are happy with the results they get when using commercially prepared soils, and I'm not trying to get anyone to change anything. My intent is to make sure that those who are having trouble with issues related to soil, understand why the issues occur, that there are options, and what they are. I hope that helps. Al