Carol, mine would generally be considered partially to mostly closed, I believe. When I obtained my 90 and 55 gal tanks, the top glass came with each. (The 90gal was a garage sale purchase, and the 55gal a hand-me-down from a friend's father who decided that after 20-30 years he was tired of keeping cichlids.) With the 55gal, the top glass covers about 75-80% of the tank -- it's missing the rubber "hinge" section as well as the plastic backsplash section. With the 90gal, about 90% of the tank. Having the top glass does help with keeping the humidity higher and more consistent. The only way the "above fluoros" would be anything more than useless would be if the tubes sat across the top of the tank. Sorry about that. You are absolutely correct that you would need to provide supplemental lighting. I did have a buddy who did just that with one of his larger terrs. He got 2 -two bulb 4ft shoplights and sat them across the top of the tank. Worked well. My tanks both have simple hoods I designed and my dad helped me make years back when I went upstate to visit. Each hood is hinged so I can flip back half of the hood to access the tank and the bulbs. The hoods -- from front to back -- cover about 90% of each tank. For lights I use six 200W equivalent coiled fluorescent bulbs in my 90gal and four 200W equv + two 100W equiv in my 55 gal. I have pondered trying some of the newer tube LEDs (I know a grower who supplies plants to the pdf hobbyists. He has done a great deal of investigating to find a brand of LED he feels will actually work for growing plants... as opposed to the junky ones you will find at a BBS.) Unfortunately, the suckers are EXPENSIVE. That has held me back. I'm currently testing out 2 LED tube bulbs on my plant stand. I'll see how they work out. (Definitely a LOT less heat than even regular fluoros, but haven't had them in play long enough to see what the plants think of them.) If your tanks are open, you will have to play much closer attention to humidity issues ... or more to the point a lack there of. Even without a top, you should wind up with an overall higher humidity level within the tank than the rest of the room. And depending upon just what plants you wish to grow, the humidity levels you will need to maintain may or not be more challenging to maintain in an open system. The buddy of mine who had the shoplights lying across his tank had a stream running through the tank (I think it may have been a 125gal L tank but it has been too long so memory is fuzzy.) The stream kept the tank envir. quite humid even though the tank was open.

Tree dimensions are largely determined by environmental conditions. Wet rainforest plants like Syzy. papy. grow much shorter in drier conditions. Its like feeding a pig more food. They get fatter with better conditions. Kenilworth is a far cry from tropical north Qld, the species will tolerate the harsher conditions but the optimum time of the year for good growth maybe only 2-3 months out there. So grow is slower and due to less humidity-lower rainfall and colder conditions the height will be shorter. Ive seen very large growing rainforest species put to a hedge situation. Syzygium malaccence-Syzy. tierneyanum-Xanthostemon chrysanthus- and many others. Give it a go. You wont end up with the hedge being 80% trunk!! From Kris

Some great feedback in this thread - I only wish the GA people would read it ... OK, on to my crazy ideas re gardening and the media: 1. I believe that the time has well and truly come for a 'Tropical Gardener' magazine, covering the area from Coffs Harbour north. Apologies to Dee and the rest of the Southern contingent, but many of us live in areas which couldnt be *further* from the English ideal in terms of climate. Even within the area I've prescribed, there are huge variations in climate - the temperate New England climate vs the Sunshine Coast's mild abundance - but the majority of the region will support plants from the subtropics. What do others think ? 2. Les Hiddins has been absent from our lounge rooms for far too long. I know that he shuns the spotlight, but I think he has a lot more charisma than DB and his delivery is priceless. How about a 12-episode series which puts Les into a slightly different setting (everything from rainforests to suburuban gardens), documenting the many positives that natives offer in the noughties, for gardeners, conservationists and survivalists. 'Bush Tucker Man' was a great series, but it had a limited focus, IMO - I want to see entire native gardens, listen to their owners talk about the wildlife that they attract and hear Les recount the natural history of an area in his inimitable way. OK, enough of my fantasies - as DB found out, there is a lot more to putting a TV show to air than having an idea. I do believe that 'Tropical Gardener' would sell like hotcakes, both in Oz and overseas.

Climatically Cambodia probably comes closest to the 'Top End' of the Northern Territory or far north Queensland. There are many attractive flowering trees and shrubs native to these regions, e.g. Eucalypts such as Eucalyptus miniata, E. phoenicea and Corymbia ptychocarpa, and many species of Acacia, Brachychiton, Calytrix, Grevillea, Xanthostemon, among others. The only seed supplier I could find listed for the Top End was: Top End Seeds 2 Leung Crt Milner 0810 NT ph (08) 8985 6885 It's worth noting, though, that many of the rainforest and vine-scrub trees from Autralia's far north are related to and quite similar to those of South-east Asia. These include genera such as Ficus, Terminalia, Gardenia and so on -- a great many in fact -- as opposed to the more distinctly Australian groups I have mentioned above. I suspect there is a greater wealth of potential ornamentals from these rainforest groups among the native Cambodium species than the Australian ones. I have spent some time in Thailand (whose flora coincides with Cambodia's to a large degree) and have found that plant enthusiasts there are beginning to look to their local natives at last. I expect that Cambodia lags behind a fair way. I found a small nursery on the outskirts of Prachinburi, the owner of which was actively collecting and propagating some beautiful local natives.