Planted Tank - Second Try  
"I decided that Dave Clubine & planted tanks don't mix."  That was the statement I made when I had my planted 180g Discus tank running and decided to tear it down.  At the time I wondered if I would revisit those words and here I am.  My Discus are gone, I've had enough of them for awhile, and I'm looking for new challenges.  So of course I have decided to try a fully planted tank again.  I have two 120g tanks that are lightly planted with relatively low lighting and potential plant eaters so I thought it would be fun to setup a thickly planted, highly lighted tank that could produce plants for the other tanks.  Then it wouldn't bother me if they were eaten or if the light was insufficient for much growth.  So this is the tale of how that tank came to be.  I plan to keep track of the cost of this venture and then track the value produced by it, whether that be by producing plants for my others tanks, plants for other hobbyists or for sale to a LFS.  I won't be factoring in the cost of equipment that I already own.
Cost to Date - $0 Cdn / $0 U.S.
12/04/04 - Here's the tank after adding 60lbs of Flourite.  I rinsed it once and plopped it in, then filled the tank.  The tank is 50g and is built into the wall of my office.  This will make it tough to place plants since I can't see the tank from the front while I'm putting plants in from the back, but otherwise it's the ideal tank for planting.  I am running an Aquaclear 300 filter with 3 sponges.  There is also a sponge filter in there but it will be gone when the plants arrive.
Cost to Date - $149.84 Cdn / $122.82 U.S.
12/09/04 - I ordered a 2x96w compact fluorescent light kit & bulbs from AH Supply.  I've used these before and they are awesome.  But you have to build a box to house them.  So I got some wood from Home Depot and assembled a rough looking canopy.  Luckily all it took was a few saw cuts and some finishing nails, I'm no carpenter.  This will provide almost 4 watts of light per gallon, which should be enough for most plants... possibly excessive.

Cost to Date - $430.58 Cdn / $358.82 U.S.
12/31/04 - I'm injecting Co2 into the tank so I had to buy some miscellaneous equipment for that purpose.  I had an O2 regulator but it won't fit on a Co2 tank so I needed to swap some parts.  In the end all was ready for the plants.  I ordered them from a distributor and some did not handle shipping well as there was ice chunks forming on the root balls & cages.  So here's the tank day 1 after jamming everything in hurriedly.  I was happy to get the plants in but the look was not what I was hoping for.
Cost to Date - $609.31 Cdn / $499.43 U.S.  
01/06/05 - I have made some changes to the tank.  I added some driftwood that I had in other tanks.  Two smaller pieces were in other tanks and had Java fern attached to them.  One of them had a suction cup that allows you to stick it to the wall so it is at the upper left corner of the tank.  I'm trying to get some height instantly.  Then I added a big piece that I attached some more Java to as well as a small Anubias.  I removed almost all of the other plants and separated them into single plantlets and put them back into the tank individually.  It was a huge pita and many came out as soon as I planted the next one but the tank has a fuller look now.
 
01/06/05 - So far the inhabitants of this tank are as follows:

2 Gold Rams
7 Guppy adults & about 30 fry
3 Schwartzi Corys
2 Farlowella cats
1 Otocinclus cat
1 Striped Redtail Loach
8 tiny Bristlenose Plecos