The incandescents are for when you are growing without any sunlight. I was in a basement. With your bay window and fluorescent you should be fine. You don't say how close the shelves are to each other. Usually they are much to closely spaced. People end up removing every other shelf to get more space inbetween. And just so you know, 60W inc. are just a little too hot for a shelf setup. 40W would be about ideal. They are hard to find these days. I am told it can be done but most stores I see start at 60W and up. In that setup I described the lights were 29" above the floor but most of the collection was 18" off the floor on storage tubs so they were much closer to the lights than you think. The incs. were staggered so as not to be directly above anything tender. Some things like cactus and succulent types love it under incs but most orchids do not. H

I wish I'd seen this forum earlier. Poor guy. First of all, it may have been the 100% water changes that killed him. Stark fresh water can be difficult for fish to live in. believe it or not, old water is healthier, provided it's clean, than fresh water from the tap. The trick is to do PARTIAL water changes, not 100% ones. I highly suggest never doing a 100% water change. You might also think about it from this point of view; temperature changes of more than 1 degree can put a fish in shock and stress it out, which makes it more likely to get a disease in the first place. (Aside from potentially dying from the shock.) The water temperatures need to be exactly the same before you transfer your fish to new water. Someone should have advised Ezzy not to do a 100% water change like that. Wish I saw this thread earlier. Also, gravel is a must. It seems that the tank/bowl did not have any substrate at all. This is a bad thing because a substrate is needed for helpful bacteria to grow. The kind that break down waste and thusly help control the ammonia and nitrate/nitrite levels. To anyone who reads this, gravel, pebbles, sand, or the beta-hobby-popular glass/plastic beads MUST be at the bottom of the tank for there to be a natural cycle within it. Also, I can't believe someone would take a fish which is very practically named "Siamese Fighting Fish" and put them next to each other. I could tell by that comment alone that Ezzy is extremely new to fish keeping. It's common knowledge that putting 2 betas together like that would stress them out. A person should be able to sense that they aren't really "friends." (I suppose they're as good of friends as an Oscar and a goldfish. The Oscar loves the goldfish, for his part.) And, yes, even in separate tanks, if they see each other they'll be going crazy trying to get the fish in the tank next to them. Very simple thing to avoid and it's common knowledge. Even the people at Petsmart will tell you to let a new tank run a couple of weeks with no fish in it before introducing a catfish or another hardy fish. They will also tell you to float the fish in it's bag of water IN the tank for at least 15 minutes to allow the water to gradually equalize with the tank and prevent shock in the fish. Furthermore, most Petsmart employees know that Betas will fight each other and that putting 2 bowls close together is not something that should happen long-term. These are simple rules that all fish keepers need to know and it appears that Ezzy wasn't aware of them. I hope this helps someone who is trying to care for an ill fish, because you can contribute to its demise if you stress it out too much. Always be aware of the effect YOU have on the tank/bowl, and don't get tunnel vision trying to remove the disease at the cost of your pet's life.

Thanks for your replies! These aren't things "I" have to have... most of these came from a thread from about 3 years ago and I wanted to eliminate things that are unnecessary or overkill which I know is quite a few. Allison, I apologize for the length. I, many times, have opened loooong posts and quickly returned to the main page. Thanks for coming back. ;) David - I should have removed Cat 7 from the list. Electrician already told me he uses Cat 5. You're right they were copied, that's why they don't make sense. As far as expense, if I pre-wire for many of these will that cut down a lot on the price initially? I should have added that in my first post. This is a whole house remodel and addition, and unfortunately we won't have a garage anymore, just a storage area, so the outlet for the extra refrigerator will be in the laundry room. I'm deleting extras now. I thought the 4 light switches were a bit much myself. Thanks for your help.

I seldom read on Conversations but drop in and read select threads on Home Decor. We're retired and travel a bit but we have a portable internet connection so I'm rarely far from the 'net except where cell service is unavailable. I occasionally post but I know I don't care as much as many others here about changing things in my house. We have a fairly new home on a large acreage and I like our accumulations of "stuff" in our home so will probably seldom post pics as I'm not looking for advice on changing things. I find lots of inspiration here as well as on other MB's and sites. There are some posters homes here I could happily adopt! ;-) As others have also said my favorite shopping places are yard sales, vintage, antique and consignment stores. I could probably start a store with my finds but I just play around and rotate them frequently. I mostly post on Garden Junk as I'm really into that right now and they're a very friendly group. I finally learned to post pics and it's not all that difficult, if I can do it anyone can. I also "read" and infrequently post on several other forums when the mood strikes. Here's a YS find I just couldn't resist! LOL