Carol, mine would generally be considered partially to mostly closed, I believe. When I obtained my 90 and 55 gal tanks, the top glass came with each. (The 90gal was a garage sale purchase, and the 55gal a hand-me-down from a friend's father who decided that after 20-30 years he was tired of keeping cichlids.) With the 55gal, the top glass covers about 75-80% of the tank -- it's missing the rubber "hinge" section as well as the plastic backsplash section. With the 90gal, about 90% of the tank. Having the top glass does help with keeping the humidity higher and more consistent. The only way the "above fluoros" would be anything more than useless would be if the tubes sat across the top of the tank. Sorry about that. You are absolutely correct that you would need to provide supplemental lighting. I did have a buddy who did just that with one of his larger terrs. He got 2 -two bulb 4ft shoplights and sat them across the top of the tank. Worked well. My tanks both have simple hoods I designed and my dad helped me make years back when I went upstate to visit. Each hood is hinged so I can flip back half of the hood to access the tank and the bulbs. The hoods -- from front to back -- cover about 90% of each tank. For lights I use six 200W equivalent coiled fluorescent bulbs in my 90gal and four 200W equv + two 100W equiv in my 55 gal. I have pondered trying some of the newer tube LEDs (I know a grower who supplies plants to the pdf hobbyists. He has done a great deal of investigating to find a brand of LED he feels will actually work for growing plants... as opposed to the junky ones you will find at a BBS.) Unfortunately, the suckers are EXPENSIVE. That has held me back. I'm currently testing out 2 LED tube bulbs on my plant stand. I'll see how they work out. (Definitely a LOT less heat than even regular fluoros, but haven't had them in play long enough to see what the plants think of them.) If your tanks are open, you will have to play much closer attention to humidity issues ... or more to the point a lack there of. Even without a top, you should wind up with an overall higher humidity level within the tank than the rest of the room. And depending upon just what plants you wish to grow, the humidity levels you will need to maintain may or not be more challenging to maintain in an open system. The buddy of mine who had the shoplights lying across his tank had a stream running through the tank (I think it may have been a 125gal L tank but it has been too long so memory is fuzzy.) The stream kept the tank envir. quite humid even though the tank was open.

Ha, I think alot of us zone 5 and colder know this pain more than zone 6 and warmer... We are a perpetual testing ground for roses here. Ive lost around 35-45 percent of all of my roses I have ever tried. Over a dozen buck roses GONE, half a dozen austins, a dozen hybrid teas, a poly or two, a couple of romanticas, a couple floris.. I LAUGH at the supposed modern HARDY rose label, its a joke to a truly harsh climate, plus the fact that most of these hybridezers really dont try them out in my conditions. Ive probable lost 70 roses all told you do the math 70 dollars x 12.00 or so = 840.00 bucks or so.. No wonder my wife cringes every year when I expand my gardens LOL. I NOW order 5-1 from truly hardy antiques vs modern roses. This coming year, 4 gallicas and a couple of canadians are going in. Quite frankly Ive lost even hardy roses to savage deer attacks or them being shipped SOOO puny there was no hope of survival. Pickering sent me the SMALLEST little gallica of Belle Doria last year, Im not impressed and I would be suprised to see it this coming spring. Its the constant freeze / thaw cylce plus the -15 degree lows. I have it hard enough here, I cant imagince those with -30 degree weather on a consistent basis. Last year was a very cold year here and we hit between -17 and -19. Even our major city who hasnt seen - in the teens saw a -15. I used to live in a zone 4b zone with temps getting as low as -25 or so. Ive really cut back as well. I wont have more than 60 or so roses in my new gardens in the coming years. With my schedule and my kids, I dont have time to deal with these fussy wussies! This is the constant frustration to us more northern gardeners. I love the antiques, but gosh , I like to see some roses in august and sept as well! We have such a short season here! (Yet after seeing other threads, I do like that I dont have to water much =). Silverkelt

I have my own story about food stamps going back to the early 70's. I don't know when the program started, but it sure was handled differently back then. I was newly divorced with two small kids and had just started a job at the minimum wage of $2 an hr. I'd been a SAHM mom during my marriage and sure wasn't prepared for this dramatic change. I was so scared and worried about feeding us and I did qualify for food stamps which were in paper form. At the scheduled time, I had to go to our Main Post Office and pay cash for the stamps I could afford. Only once did I have enough cash to buy my full amount; the rest was kept and no longer available to me. Gosh, I didn't like shopping with those darn things. I was only able to buy these stamps 2 or 3 times before I realized I could shop better on my own with my own little budget. FYI: Sadly, at that time, I only received $100 a month in child support for my 10 yr. old DD and my infant son. It took that amount to pay for child care for the baby so I could work. I wouldn't wish that kind of life for anyone. :( I just can't imagine people would prefer living that way, but I know it happens.

What about adding crown molding to the walls above the cabs? Then there is something there for visual interest but not as busy as a collection of something-or-other? Kitchens can look cluttered so easily - pots, pans, food, utensils, phones, papers, etc - that leaving that area clear, except for some crown, might be restful for the eye. You've done a nice job in your kitchen already. It's so much more pleasing than the before shot. Now a Disclaimer: I have crown molding on my cabs & the wall, both painted BM vanilla ice cream. I love, love, love it and how it looks against my wall color. Something up there if I happen to glance up but it's not busy & drawing my eye up. Or needing to be occasionally taken down & dusted/washed. Another thought:you'll have to buy/trade/create the whole collection at once to fill in the space. That might get expensive, especially if your 'heart' isn't really into the collection of items. P.S. And just what do you think you are doing climbing up on the counter-tops placing those blue items? You have a baby in the house - monkey see, monkey do - you know.