[An idea for the Co-Op website.]

Please take this as a friendly idea as I truly enjoy your site. I just put in a plant order and was applying some gift cards I was given. Due to the number of plants and varieties the list was so long that I could not see the link to add my gift cards with out zooming out to 35% view. I am not sure what the workaround would be other then adapting the code to be sure you can scroll down all the way on the page.

[Driftwood prep]

Thank you

[Driftwood prep]

I got several new pieces of driftwood from a reputable supplier. The setup guide says that I should presoak, boil, and then resoak the wood before introducing it to my tank. I got the wood not only for the aesthetic of it but because the tannin is a good way of helping control how hard my water is.  Is soaking like this going to release most of the tannin that I need in the tank? The current water hardness is greater then 300 and I am trying to bring it down to hopefully introduce some new verities of fish.

[Reworking an old tank]

The pictures are what it looks like now, I am wanting to get rid of the plastic plants and replace them with live plants. 

[Reworking an old tank]

I started this 55 Gal tank around 15 years ago. Its had good times and bad but about to redo it with the largest change it has ever had. I want to get more live plants into it. This has proven to be a bit of a challenge.  Last year I added some plant friendly substrate and purchased a a kit of live plants. What I got was a few bags of substrate several small puck size containers that contained plant clipping and a bottle of fertilizer along with some other assorted tools. The Duckweed lasted just over a month before all of it died, of the rest of the plants only some of the moss survived even that long. My Pleco's would not let them alone to allow them to root and since they are as old as the tank I am not getting rid of them. Where I live in South Eastern New Mexico the water here is just about the hardest in the country per the USGS.  The water stains on the back should be some indication of how hard the water is as I clean them off every few months. The air here is also very dry. I tend to add 7 to 10 gal of water every other week or so. I have not added fish in about a year and most in the tank are 7 or older. The pregnant Zebra Danio is probably 7 or 8. My question is this, with the goal of making this tank more plant friendly and perhaps more friendly to other types of fish, hard water is hell. What steps should I take and what plants are going to be advised. 

[I found a unknown Floater!?]

CharlesD, If you don't mind me asking were in NM are you from? I would love to be able to collect some of that for my own setup but do not am not able to travel very far at the moment. I do not want to introduce something into my local watershed but if it is already here might be nice to add to the tank.