Hi guys ...my first post here so first ...a quick hello...

I have kept fish for many yrs, including tropical freshwater and marine.

It has always been a dream of mine to house a very large collection of beautiful Characins in a Themed Amazon habitat set-up aquaria, complete with area specific plants and other Amazon habitat suitable community fish.

My knowledge of Characins is reasonably ok, but i would like to set this tank up in such a way, as to provide the max suitable environmental features suited to the Tetras well-being, hence my joining this forum for help and advice and hopefully to start a long and happy time making friends here and eventually offering advice when i have the experience.

My present tank is a very large tank..it was used to house a marine collection over a number of yrs but eventually due to a number of reasons was emptied and striped down.

I now wish to fill this tank slowly over the next 6mths with a lovely Amazon themed tank, complete with Bogwood, a large variety of living plants and a huge collection of as many Tetras as sensible and possible.......

I have read that the best water for tetras is slightly acidic and soft, so i will be using a RO unit to fill up the tank and for partial water changes..

I was hoping to have a slightly 'blackwater' soft brown 'natural' Amazon tinge to the water using some humic acid and tannins leached from the Bogwood and maybe supplemented using a small amount of peat in one of the filters...

I assume in the natural habitat of most Amazon tetras that there must be a continual influx of these decayed plant materials and the dissolved organic contents in the water are an important constituent in providing as realistic environment as possible....

Has anyone here ever used Bogwood they obtained from anywhere other than a shop?...i have a local forest which has numerous peat coloured water bodies such as lakes and ponds dotted about in it...many of these water bodies have old submerged branches and old tree roots....would these be suitable after cleaning for a tetra tank or would there be problems?..after all the places where most of the tetras come from is littered with such branches and roots...along with decaying leaves and other plant material...


I was hoping to include a large supply of plants and maybe the odd sandstone rock as a focal feature....


What's the best and cheapest way to illuminate the tank to create the right balance between plant growth and fish observation..i was thinking of using just two fluorescent tubes......my main concern is water depth my tank is a full 36in deep!...

What sort of substrate is recommended for such plants and how deep?
I once had a 6'x2'x2' tropical set-up which housed a large group of large Amazon sword plants which were in a substrate of two inches of garden loam covered with 2 inches of fine gravel...those plants grew so well i was continually pruning them back and taking cuttings which i sold to a local aquatic shop!...is this a good idea for my tetra tank?

Anyway sorry for going on, i have so many questions!.. here's a picture of my tank i took today...it still needs completely emptying and cleaning before i start putting the new substrate in....the picture is a bit fuzzy due to being taken on my mobile phone..just click the picture for bigger view.


It measures:-
84 in = 213.4 cm long
38 in = 96.5 cm high
24 in = 61 cm wide