After I had already posted, I did more than just skim your letter! I would encourage you to go ahead and use the sand!! I've also read many posts on many websites critical of the use of sand. I realize that everyones conditions, etc, are different but, personally I think that they're wrong. I have never had any of the issues with using sand that I've read. The sand does need to be on the deep side and the bigger the system, the better. If you look at my photos and explaination, you'll see that all of my water is pushed to one side. I have a hidden particulate filtration (refugarium) area. This is just an area screened off using my old under gravel filter plates across a back corner. The sand is swept clean by the current and I never vaccum it. Many of the negatives that I've read about have never occured. My system has been up and running for a few years now. I added a completly active/living system with plants and the fish went in next! Bam! No waiting, no anything! I've had fish since the early eighties and tried everything and it doesn't get much better at this point! I have at least half a ton of black gravel that I bought over the years. It's being stored along with my wet/dry filters that I used for my Africans and all of my other huge power filters. I'm very, very happy with the performance of this one! Scott

Here's an updated pic of my terr. Note that the waterfall is dry (still haven't got it working), the moss on the driftwood at the back is removed (I have now moistened it and placed it in sealed plastic bags, still nothing coming back to life. Oh, I also discovered it was not sphagnum at all, just sheet moss of some kind), I have placed a few bits of live wild-collected moss in there, I removed the small pond that was on the left (will use it for some other terr. in the future), and I planted a small sanseviera. I removed it two days later on learning that it needs dryish soil. There are also some misc. bedding plants for my patio pots in there, just to make it look fuller. They include the golden vine by the sans, the purple-flowering vine in the upper left corner, the silver vine by the waterfall, and the New Guinea impatients by the phal on the right. Also, the phal is now nearly done flowering, as you can see in the pic, and I added a very small brom beside the Cirrhopetalum orchid on the wood at the back of the tank, about centre (behind the Dendro. orchid). You can't see the flower of the brom in the pic (it's cut off), but it's red and yellow. It's a very tiny Guzmania lingulata that I got at Superstore for $4. =) They had other tiny ones too, and I'm still kicking myself for not buying more. . . Sorry about the weird glare in that one spot, don't know how that got there, as I didn't use the flash when taking the pic. Oh well! Y'all will just have to deal with it. . . =)

Joyr: Here are some amazing links I have complied over the years.... didn't edit... Best Sherry Number one Dutch Vivarium site: http://www.vivaria.nl/home/intro.html Special projects from above: http://www.vivaria.nl/photogallery/photoprojects/photoprojects.html Great site: http://www.victri.net/tanks/vivarium_2005-06-20.html Amazing vivarium site, and how to, nicely videotaped? http://imageevent.com/audiomaster/tincvivarium His first project (from above): http://imageevent.com/audiomaster/40gallonhexagon/ Fantastic driftwood (and I thought the wood I found at Cresent city CA and in redwoods was fantastic) http://www.amazonmoosey.com/swampwood1.htm other wood source (moss on as well) and other products http://www.blackjungle.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=BJTS&Category_Code=WFWH Amazing strange and highly unusual woods - twisted, viney so on... extremely unusual from around the world: http://ecoterrariumsupply.com/index.php Garden Web Forums (small membership fee but well worth it) http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/ http://www.aquahobby.com/tanks/e_tank0412a.php#2 http://www.greenchapter.com/view.php?pg=0&tp=0&id=28&vp=pic_100.jpg&vs=11 http://home.att.net/~a.j.calisi/moss.html http://www.kingsnake.com/ http://www.museumrock.com/sculptural_fountains.htm Backgrounds: http://shell.world-net.co.nz/~jenniefield/ http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_other_netmax_styro.htm http://www.back-to-nature.de/aquaristik.htm http://www.chamberlain.dk/?eid=2&seid=&overskr=Background http://www.rockandwater.com/ http://p088.ezboard.com/fboroniaaquariuminteractivepagesfrm14.showMessage?topicID=3.topic http://www.geocities.com/~amazingaquaria/fiftyp.htm http://members.tripod.com/~Tropic_Cove/aquariums/totgb.html http://www.urdls.com/ http://www.blackjungle.com/ Orchidarium http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/terrarium/msg010323113138.html Vivarium: http://imageevent.com/audiomaster/40gallonhexagon Very very large vivarium: http://www.poison-frogs.nl/e0302.html Collection of vivariums from various members from around the world: http://www.wildsky.net/vivarium/evivariu.htm How to make from same sourse above: http://www2a.biglobe.ne.jp/~wild-sky/vivarium/nfrraz050127.htm A variety of vivariuns and other things, parts work some out of date, but useful: http://home.earthlink.net/~kenuy/pVIVARIA.htm Great site, many photos.... how to: http://www.poison-frogs.nl/e03.html Loads of information of all types: http://www.amphibiancare.com/frogs/articles/tropicalterrarium.html http://www.blackjungle.com/gallery/talltank/page1.html Rubber 'lining' for use to safely seal wood so on: http://www.sanitred.com/WaterFountain.htm Source for bowls so on and other products from UK, but have ready made vivariums, so as to get ideas from (unusual shapes as well): http://www.paraquatics.co.uk/paraquatics%20online.html?target=dept_30.html&lang=en-gb Planted driftwood/rocks: http://www.poison-frogs.nl/e0302.html http://www.tropica.com/default.asp Plants (bog so on) and many other things ie substrate material: http://www.azgardens.com/newterra2.php Moss: http://www.mossacres.com/acc_retention_gel.asp Interesting use of 'laterite' for backgound: http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Kumar_Imagination.html http://www.mistking.com/ Misters: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=8&pCatId=9738 Reptile page/wood so on: http://reptilecity.econgo.com/?BODY=cat/c17274.1.esl&SID=334bf4a308b0 Ferns: http://www.glasshouseworks.com/fernpage.html Misc: Aquarium and many other types (bio) entered in competition: http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2000.cgi?&op=showcase&category=0&vol=2&id=36 Heating pads for reptiles, misters misc: http://www.pro-products.com/ Lights: http://www.arcadia-uk.com/en/230compactlampreflectors.html Misc products hydroponics you never know what you'll find - fine site: http://www.growhere.com/insectcontrol/wettablesulphur.htm Mosses, algaies and many other things re to aquariums: http://groups.msn.com/LyreTailsAquarium/plantsandalgae1.msnw Amazing and some strange plants: http://home.att.net/~a.j.calisi/plants.html Think I posted before (getting late) huge aquarium/terrarium and many others: http://www.greenchapter.com/view.php?pg=0&tp=0&id=28&vp=pic_100.jpg&vs=11 Links to many other links: http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/aquainfo/aquarium_all_links.html

ZZ - some plastics have photo-inhibitors that make plastic resistant to the sun's harmful rays. Plastics that lack those inhibitors break down much faster relative to those with inhibitors. Generally speaking, because white pots reflect more light than any other color, they would be more resistant to photo-degradation and help keep the soil/root mass cooler - especially in direct sun. I bought 36 white pots from the dollar store and nested 2 pots together so they were opaque - I didn't want sunlight turning to heat when it passed through the slightly translucent pots and hit the soil. At the years end, when I tried to lift the pots by the lip, the lip of the outer pots disintegrated, but the inner pot was fine because of the reduced photo load due to shading of the outer pot. I thought it was a good idea at the time, but it turned out to be more of a h/a than anything. Al