Hi..

Okay, regular water changes cut down on cleaning. But if
you have to clean sand how is it done? Rinsing in a
bucket? Wouldn't getting it out disturb any poisonous
gases?

Hmm.., I'm not Dick but Marco..! :-) All my tanks are
"sandy" and I've never cleaned the bottom or changed the
sand in my tanks. So please let it undisturbed..

For a tropical tank I would recommend to add some MTS..!
Snails that love to dig around in the bottom and that will
clean it steadily..

I change 20% twice weekly.
I change filter cartridges only when more water is going
out the over flow than through filters.

That's okay..!

You didn't mention plants. They can be lots of fun, but
be sure they
are suitable for the tank lighting. It is measured as
watts/gallon, but I would think a tall tank less light
would reach the bottom.

Hmm.., there are some (few!!!) low light plants, too..

I've talked to him about his last attempt with plants, the
story is as follows. He went into a fish shop and picked a
couple of healthy looking plants more or less at random,
put them straight into warm water nestling the little
plastic root pot into pea gravel. He did have a
fluorescent tube that was supposed to be a good for
plants, but he can't remember the wattage. He added liquid
fertiliser as per the instructions, but after a couple of
days the plants started to slowly rot and after about a
week the water was getting bad. There were no fish in the
tank.

Life is so cruel..! ;-) The most plants love sand..

I've followed a link from Netmax's site and found a kind
of plant generator based on plant size and water
conditions. So I might recommend getting specific types by
mail order.

You'll reach NetMax _there_ , too..

http://makeashorterlink.com/?W2DC5199D

I'm reading some
of the websites listed in the newbie thread, but I hope
you won't mind when I'm back with more questions because,
as you can imagine, I'm quite keen for it to go smoothly.

Ask here or _there_ - I'm sure you'll get helpful answers.
In any case..!
--
cu
Marco