adechazal

Kaptain Karl,
I'm by no means an expert but on the question of the kelvin temperature what I've read is that it's mostly about what your eyes like to see in the tank. My T5 fixture came with 10000K and it was just too blue for my liking, but a saltwater friend saw them and said they'd look great in his aquarium .

I've since switched over to 6000k Geisman bulbs and the lighting "looks" perfect to me.

Kaptain Karl

Thanks adechazal, I will probably keep the 10k bulbs that are in there now, and then switch out the Actinics for some 6500K bulbs.

Dustymac: I really would like to have some nice angelfish, serpae tetra, rummynose, and cardianl tetras. I'm sure the list will change...we'll see. I would like to have some large schools of three or four fish.

As for the tap water. We are running a whole house water softener. City water is hard that we are on. I will be getting some GH/KH test kits soon. I already have a pair of RO/DI units that I use for the salt tank. I hope the tap will work for the Freahwater tank. Or a 50/50 mix with the RO/DI.

This is all good stuff folks...keep it coming!

Diana K

Serpaes nip too much. Look at Red Phantoms instead.

A mix of RO/DI and tap water is often a good way to get just the right amount of minerals for the fish you want. Testing GH and KH is the way to get the mix you want.

Kaptain Karl

I just did a search on the red phantom and red serpae. Interesting - I had always thought red phantoms and the red serpae were the same fish, and people just used both names for the same fish. They sure look alot alike. I'll have to make sure I am getting the right one from the store. Thanks Diana.