[Michael Hoaster]

I agree! The next part gets very interesting. Laying the foundation for an ecosystem starts at the bottom. My ideas on substrate have evolved and I'm dying to pontificate! I'm very tempted to get right into it, but I don't want to get ahead of myself too much, just yet. I think it would be better to discuss it when I'm actually doing it. Once I get through these system fixes I'll be free to really delve into the juicy stuff.

For now I'll just tease you with some general stuff to wet your appetite.

The big picture of what I'm attempting to do is provide the necessary ingredients to form a natural, functioning ecosystem, in the confines of a plastic box. Though I do have priorities, like growing seagrass, I'm thinking of the whole system. I'll be trying to balance and orchestrate natural processes, with the practical issues of aquarium keeping. I believe Nature can play a much bigger part than it currently does. I hope to learn a lot from this experience and pass it on to others. Can't wait!