Not much gardening going on with me either. I NEED to be dividing some black-eyed susans and cosmos, but we seem to spend a lot of weekends going to grand-kids soccer and football games. And like catbird, we're trying to get ready for the onslaught of the holidays. Also our house is topsy-turvy right now. We're having hardwood put in our BR (which we should have done when we built the house), so everything is a mess. Should get the final coat of finish tomorrow and can move furniture back in this weekend. Then we've got to paint the walls at some point when I pick out new bedding. It's been interesting to try to find stuff we've moved around. Oh yeah, we're also rehearsing for the Living Christmas Tree, which will be the weekend before Christmas.

T5's are very good for plant growth, and at 5000 lumens per bulb, those sound very good indeed! They are highly unlikely to give off any uva/uvb, so you'll still need a special bulb for that. Now assuming your tank is 60" long (not tall), you definitely do not need a metal halide or any other bulb like that. Fluo's will do you nicely, especially T5s. In fact, you won't need all of those bulbs. I would avoid the 3000K ones, and just stick to 6500K, as that is the closest to natural sun. 3000K will look very red, and make your plants and animals look weird. So if there is a fixture from the same company (or a different one) with only 2 bulbs in a 6500-6700K temp. rating, I'd get that instead.

Sahoy: Be sure never to get in the position I am in - ordering 1000 crickets every other week!! I have special 12" tweezers made for picking up crickets. They don't hurt the crickets at all (unless you squeeze too hard!). I only use them to handfeed certain animals, but you could definatly use them to avoid touching the crickets. If I were you, I would go to petsmart once weekly and buy a few dozen crickets. You could keep them in a plastic critter cage and use the tweezers to transfer some to the the frogs' cage daily. When you run out of crickers, you could take a day to clean the cage with hot water and then re-stock your supply. I honestly don't know why everyone makes such a big deal about the crickets. Yeah, they're gross, but it's not rocket science. In my experience, you just need to keep the crickets alive in their cage with plenty of food and water, and then clean and re-stock the cage when you run out. It's that simple. BTW, my firebelly eats up 3/4th inch crickets, has no UV light, and is has been going on strong for 5 years now.

That's IT, Mr.B! You have totally inspired me! I now know what i want! You are spot-on with the stream edge/riverbank idea! So, I will now make one very large, fake tree going down into the water. It will be enormous, like a very old red-wood or Douglas fir, or even a mangrove, and you will see about 3 feet of trunk, and then about 2 feet of roots going down into the water. The rest of the walls will be the 'riverbank'. This is still realistic because the tree can be growing out of the side of a riverbank, not just on top of it. And it also allows for realism with branches coming down from the canopy (most likely fake, since I want everything to weigh as little as possible) or fallen branches sticking out of the riverbank. I will also then make my 'pool' like a river, with directional flow. This wil be very well-suited to discus, who live amongst the tree roots going down into the Amazon in nature. Sweet! I'm REALLY excited about this now! Not to mention eternally grateful for this forum that enables me to communicate with people I don't know and would never have met! As for where my tree will be, I don't know. Perhaps the back left corner, so that I'm not totally copying Mr.B =) and so that my waterfall can still be on the right side, now more of a stream that is flowing down the riverbank and into the river. I will also likely put some more tree roots entering the water on the right side, to suggest the larger picture. Hmmmmmm. . . I think I will leave the tree trunk hollow, so that it weighs less and also provides space to hide cables and whatnot. And of course I will have some jungle vines draping down, to provide additional space for epiphytes. I am really excited about making the texture of the bark! I love how moss grows on the ridges of tree bark in the forest, and I will strive to emulate that in my tank. What would y'all suggest for my main tree form, since I want it hollow? I think that a piece of PVC that large would be too expensive. Perhaps I could build a plywood frame that is sort of hexagonal (only not totally round, because the tree will disappear into the back of the tank, not be entirely molded 'in the round' so to speak)? Oh, another thing I am very excited about is the plants. I have decided that I must have a super dwarf lotus in my tank! I adore these plants, but it is just too cool here in the summer to grow them successfully. I think a terrarium could be just the thing! And mine would have enough space (I think) for the smallest variety out there, right? Gary, please chime in here and tell me if this will work or not at all. Would it require a cooler dormancy? If so, could this be accomplished by removing the plant and storing it somewhere for the neccessary dormancy period? And also, since I'm going with a riverbank idea, I think I will make some holes in the bank to contain pots for terrestrials. Some paphs. and phrags. would be REALLY sweet! Especially with the flowers arching over the water. . . oh my goodness, I hope you all can see this in your head like I can. It's a piece of paradise! One question about the fake branches: how does one heat the PVC pipes in order to bend them to the desired shape (a la the Dutch vivs)? Heat gun? Blowtorch? Homer, I don't mind you being contradictory. =) I think that I will need excellent air movement in my tank though, especially if I want a lotus. You're probably right, I probably am too worried about the technical aspects (I'm more artsy-fartsy than handy, especially when it comes to electricity. Thank goodness I married an electrician!). And the wet/dry filter probably scares me more than it should because I simply have no experience with them. I should go check out the pond forum, so that I at least know what you guys are talking about. =) Are they similar to the sump method of filtration for fish tanks? Because that's what I want to use. You know, the water flows out of the main tank via an overflow, which contains a pre-filter, and then it goes down into the sump, where it flows through various chambers containing foam, sponges, 'bio-balls' or other media good for growing beneficial bacteria, etc., and then back into the tank via some powerheads. I think I will need two, maybe three powerheads on the right side to create my river flow effect. Am I making kind of a riffle tank here?