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New build!

Hinterfield on of our sponsors have some reasonably priced lighting. have you look at them? They currently also stock a programmable timer for doing sunset and sunrise settings that a few people are reviewing in the forum at the moment. Last I read they were working well. A lot of Aquascaping equipment can be as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be. Obviously there are brands to avoid, you pay cheap you pay twice at times. I got a cheap air pump once and couldn't hear my self think over the noise, ended up buying an eheim one and the sound of the bubbles in the water are noisier than the pump.

Good thing about this forum is people will have bought most of the equipment out there and gave their opinion on it so you tend to find out what's good and what's not. Now you've found out ferts are ferts whatever bottle they come in and light is light so it comes down to how it looks on the tank. The majority of mid range led's are more than bright enough for the hobby in fact you'll find a few people dimming them down. Next will be filter media :D there's your Carlos Fandango brands claiming to perform miracles, in a planted tank you don't really need fancy filter material, the plants are the filter so people tend to use simple sponges etc that don't clog up to easy and don't over fill the canister. You want to get max flow out the canister really, flow is more important than the media in it.
I wish I could just get you to order it all for me!! Hahah
 
If someone is claiming to be George's own brand I would let him know.
Hi,

I collaborate with Evolution Aqua to develop and promote The Aquascape brand. It's not "my" brand, but I have had a significant input into the range (tanks, cabinets, fertiliser and glassware).
 
Hi all,
As Ian points out though you can buy everything that's in that bottle as dry salts and mix your own which works out at £1.16 per bottle and makes 16x500ml bottles. The 500ml EA stuff works out at £12.95 per bottle ex delivery and based on 5ml per 50 ltrs per day dosing in a high energy tanks would last you 25 days at 20ml per day dosing in the EA900 tank.
Up to you whether you want the hassle of making your own and what that's worth to you.
Ferts also comes down to how much hassle you want and the ££££ you're prepared to spend.
That is really it, it is like @AverageWhiteBloke and @ian_m say, you have to balance economy and ease of use.

After that there aren't really any differences. Plants can only take up nutrients as ions, and it doesn't matter which compound an ion came from, once they are in solution <"every potassium (K+) ion is the same as every other K+ ion">.

cheers Darrel
 
I wish I could just get you to order it all for me!! Hahah

Just send me your credit card details and I'll sort it out ;):D Only joking mate. The AE tank is a nice bit of kit. I'm debating on it being my next setup. As for co2, co2 Art and all of our sponsors have some decent gear and good customer service because they often get scrutinised in this forum and a lot of people here buy kit off them. Only suggestion I would have here would be to get one with DIN477 thread so you can use fire extinguishers or pub bottles. The 600 or 900 @ 200 ltrs is going to get through some gas. Disposable or branded gas bottles can work out expensive or hard to get hold of depending on where you live. Most people can get hold of a fire extinguisher or have a gas dealer locally that will refill pub bottles.

The lighting, worlds your oyster really. Your best best is to set what you can afford and look for stuff in that range. As you've found out the Twinstar and Kessil stuff comes at a premium. Most leds look sexy these days and regardless they also form part of the tank aesthetic. If I'm going to be staring at something all day I'd like it to look nice and premium on the tank but underneath it light is light. Some lights render different colours which can change the whole effect of the tank, some have a slight pinkish hue and some make greens stand out. People generally go for lights around 6500k which looks more natural and makes the greens stand out. The majority of planted tank leds usually are around this colour anyway. Lot of people here use the Chihiros ones which are a bit more reasonably priced. Use the forum, find a light you like and search the board for people's opinions. If you can't find an opinion make a post, someone will have owned one and tell you the pros and cons. Whatever you get just make sure you can dim it if necessary.

Substrate, me personally, I look at tanks like houses and the substrate is the foundations. If I was going to drop the neck end of £1000.00 on equipment which it looks like you're about to do I wouldn't skimp on the substrate. I've seen people mix and try various things with underneath layers of this with that on top and had issues with stuff mixing and clouding water when uprooting plants or whatever. I play it safe and go with a brand, once it's in it last for years and can be reused in most cases. However, I have a stash of cat litter that I use for various short term projects that I keep in a 25ltr bucket and just keep washing and using again without issues. I think I bought about three bags of it for about £12. On the other end of the spectrum for my living room looking at it all the tank scape I used Tropica Soil which cost around £70-80 I wouldn't mess with substrates unless you know what you're doing, ultimately if you get it wrong you're ripping the whole lot out again.

Filters, again, the worlds your oyster. They suggest looking for one that will turnover 10x the volume of the tank as when loaded with media it will be lot lower in real world on the 600 aim for over 1000ltrs per hour on the 900 you want to be around 2000 ltrs per hours. You can always add extra pumps to move water if needs be but that's just more equipment in the tank which ruins the overall look so try and get as much turnover as you can and check in the forum for other people who might have one and see what their experience is with it.

Other than that happy shopping, I can smell the plastic burning from here :D only other suggestion I could make is some of our sponsors when you register with them will send out codes for 10% off or similar as well as other online retailers. Register with them and see if you can get as much as you can from one supplier, stick them all in your basket and buy a few bits and pieces of inexpensive stuff now and again, diffuser, drop checkers them sorts of things. Wait to see if you get a coupon or discount then drop the bomb on all the big items. Also saves on delivery costs. ;)

I collaborate with Evolution Aqua to develop and promote The Aquascape brand. It's not "my" brand, but I have had a significant input into the range (tanks, cabinets, fertiliser and glassware).

That's what I thought, just thought it was worth checking in case somebody out there on ebay or something was claiming to be you and your own brand of substrate. I do think it is important that people still buy commercial products to keep the industry alive and visit their LFS but in the OP's case the ferts were going to get really expensive for them.
 
Just send me your credit card details and I'll sort it out ;):D Only joking mate. The AE tank is a nice bit of kit. I'm debating on it being my next setup. As for co2, co2 Art and all of our sponsors have some decent gear and good customer service because they often get scrutinised in this forum and a lot of people here buy kit off them. Only suggestion I would have here would be to get one with DIN477 thread so you can use fire extinguishers or pub bottles. The 600 or 900 @ 200 ltrs is going to get through some gas. Disposable or branded gas bottles can work out expensive or hard to get hold of depending on where you live. Most people can get hold of a fire extinguisher or have a gas dealer locally that will refill pub bottles.

The lighting, worlds your oyster really. Your best best is to set what you can afford and look for stuff in that range. As you've found out the Twinstar and Kessil stuff comes at a premium. Most leds look sexy these days and regardless they also form part of the tank aesthetic. If I'm going to be staring at something all day I'd like it to look nice and premium on the tank but underneath it light is light. Some lights render different colours which can change the whole effect of the tank, some have a slight pinkish hue and some make greens stand out. People generally go for lights around 6500k which looks more natural and makes the greens stand out. The majority of planted tank leds usually are around this colour anyway. Lot of people here use the Chihiros ones which are a bit more reasonably priced. Use the forum, find a light you like and search the board for people's opinions. If you can't find an opinion make a post, someone will have owned one and tell you the pros and cons. Whatever you get just make sure you can dim it if necessary.

Substrate, me personally, I look at tanks like houses and the substrate is the foundations. If I was going to drop the neck end of £1000.00 on equipment which it looks like you're about to do I wouldn't skimp on the substrate. I've seen people mix and try various things with underneath layers of this with that on top and had issues with stuff mixing and clouding water when uprooting plants or whatever. I play it safe and go with a brand, once it's in it last for years and can be reused in most cases. However, I have a stash of cat litter that I use for various short term projects that I keep in a 25ltr bucket and just keep washing and using again without issues. I think I bought about three bags of it for about £12. On the other end of the spectrum for my living room looking at it all the tank scape I used Tropica Soil which cost around £70-80 I wouldn't mess with substrates unless you know what you're doing, ultimately if you get it wrong you're ripping the whole lot out again.

Filters, again, the worlds your oyster. They suggest looking for one that will turnover 10x the volume of the tank as when loaded with media it will be lot lower in real world on the 600 aim for over 1000ltrs per hour on the 900 you want to be around 2000 ltrs per hours. You can always add extra pumps to move water if needs be but that's just more equipment in the tank which ruins the overall look so try and get as much turnover as you can and check in the forum for other people who might have one and see what their experience is with it.

Other than that happy shopping, I can smell the plastic burning from here :D only other suggestion I could make is some of our sponsors when you register with them will send out codes for 10% off or similar as well as other online retailers. Register with them and see if you can get as much as you can from one supplier, stick them all in your basket and buy a few bits and pieces of inexpensive stuff now and again, diffuser, drop checkers them sorts of things. Wait to see if you get a coupon or discount then drop the bomb on all the big items. Also saves on delivery costs. ;)



That's what I thought, just thought it was worth checking in case somebody out there on ebay or something was claiming to be you and your own brand of substrate. I do think it is important that people still buy commercial products to keep the industry alive and visit their LFS but in the OP's case the ferts were going to get really expensive for them.
I’ve got all the Co2 Art kit already just need to find a fire extinguisher! And what would you recommend for bubbles a minute?
Think I’ll be going with the 900, lights wise I love the look of the twinstars but haven’t seen that you can dim these? What would the purpose of dimming be anyways?
Filter wise Biomaster Thermo 350 with 1100lph running the Evolution Aqua Skimming Set
Substrate wise, Tropica Soil which turns out to be £45 is the cheapest off Amazon for 9Litres of the stuff so will more than likely need two bags of that!! seems to be you can’t actually buy it anywhere?? but other than that I’ve got it all sorted!!
Just waiting for pay day to place the order to build the tank!
Lights and substrate are my only worries as I’d love the twinstar but don’t understand the dimming etc? & substrate I want something like the Tropical Soil but whys it so hard to get hold of? I love the look and what it can do! All in one which doesn’t affect water Coloumn!
So if anyone out there that knows of a cracking substrate easy to get hold of small black pellets let me know
 
Hiya mate AE have the aqua soil, so does Amazon, you might even find it in your pets @ home. They stock all the tropica stuff now. Bubbles per minute don't count so you need to buy a drop checker and fluid. Which bubbles do you mean, my bubbles, your bubbles, see what I mean? They're all different, the bubbles are just there as an indicator of when you turn your co2 up or down so you can see what you've done had made a difference. They have no relation of what's going into the tank.

Some people are testing the hinterfield dimmer with Twinstar lighting and I think so far it's working so look for the thread. The reason for the dimming is very bright light causes the majority of problems. If you can turn the light down it can solve a lot of issues. You can always turn it back up later when things stabilise.
 
Hiya mate AE have the aqua soil, so does Amazon, you might even find it in your pets @ home. They stock all the tropica stuff now. Bubbles per minute don't count so you need to buy a drop checker and fluid. Which bubbles do you mean, my bubbles, your bubbles, see what I mean? They're all different, the bubbles are just there as an indicator of when you turn your co2 up or down so you can see what you've done had made a difference. They have no relation of what's going into the tank.

Some people are testing the hinterfield dimmer with Twinstar lighting and I think so far it's working so look for the thread. The reason for the dimming is very bright light causes the majority of problems. If you can turn the light down it can solve a lot of issues. You can always turn it back up later when things stabilise.
Just been and put some in my basket on there! & yes I’ve got a drop checker!;) & okay I’ll bare that in mind if I ever have issues! once figure out a dimmer, just seen @Andrew Butler had some for sale a Smart LED controller if it works with dimmer then I’ll pick one up off him and then that’s it then just got to buy everything, then plan the scape once it all arrives! Hahah
 
This is getting exciting :D Some people get a cardboard box roughly the same size of the tank and try different layouts with their aquascape materials. Gives you something to do while waiting for the stuff to come plus when your gear turns up it stops you rushing into setting it all up without thinking it through. Have a mess around with the scaping gear and take pictures of it so you can replicate them again if needs be.
 
It's always worth the time to call/visit the shop & discuss your system purchases & see if you can get some sort of discount ;)
 
This is getting exciting :D Some people get a cardboard box roughly the same size of the tank and try different layouts with their aquascape materials. Gives you something to do while waiting for the stuff to come plus when your gear turns up it stops you rushing into setting it all up without thinking it through. Have a mess around with the scaping gear and take pictures of it so you can replicate them again if needs be.
Oh mate, payday can’t come soon enough!! Hahaha and yes that’s a brilliant idea! Get some boxes from work!

@alto Aquascaper tanks are set price so not a discount happening! But the only other place that I could go to a shop in person for is Maidenhead for the filter.. lights and substrate they don’t sell the ones I want! No other shops around me sell anything I’m after all online!!
 
I suspect if you went to a single shop for tank, lights, filter, hardscape, substrate, plants etc - you'd manage some sort of appreciation "gift" :angelic:
 
Word to the wise mate, thought you'd already got it but if you haven't the external will maybe just cutting it. 1100lph is a touch on the low side for the 900 tank which is 200ltrs minus say 10% for substrate and hardscape. Going of the 10x rule of thumb and considering the filter won't turn over that unless its empty you should maybe try and investigate something a bit more powerful. Bit limited for choice when it comes to externals with built in heaters unless you go down the eheim route but then you're talking ££££££££

You could of course add wave making pumps like hydor koralias or maybe internal filters but you need to factor in that cost and what it will look like. Which cabinet are you getting?
 
I’d
I suspect if you went to a single shop for tank, lights, filter, hardscape, substrate, plants etc - you'd manage some sort of appreciation "gift" :angelic:
love to but unfortunately don’t know which shop I’d go to for it all!
 
Word to the wise mate, thought you'd already got it but if you haven't the external will maybe just cutting it. 1100lph is a touch on the low side for the 900 tank which is 200ltrs minus say 10% for substrate and hardscape. Going of the 10x rule of thumb and considering the filter won't turn over that unless its empty you should maybe try and investigate something a bit more powerful. Bit limited for choice when it comes to externals with built in heaters unless you go down the eheim route but then you're talking ££££££££

You could of course add wave making pumps like hydor koralias or maybe internal filters but you need to factor in that cost and what it will look like. Which cabinet are you getting?
Love the look oh the Biomaster!
 
Only place you could probably pick everything up in one go is Aqua essentials who have the tank's and cabinet. Bit limited on regulators and lighting though, they tend to stick to big name brands.

Regarding the filter, looks aren't that important for something you'll never see inside a cabinet. Function over form every time here. One thing you will find out very soon is the most complicated thing about running a planted tank is getting the co2 right and flow around the tank. Using an under powered filter will give you problems unless you plan to add to it in another way. Read a few posts where people are having issues and you will see with even the correct size filter they still have issues if the pipework and outlets aren't setup right.

With high lighting plants are going to want to be getting a good supply of co2 and ferts in all areas of the tank. Once the tank starts filling out with plants they tend to block the flow and you need good circulation to push through them.

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk
 
Only place you could probably pick everything up in one go is Aqua essentials who have the tank's and cabinet. Bit limited on regulators and lighting though, they tend to stick to big name brands.

Regarding the filter, looks aren't that important for something you'll never see inside a cabinet. Function over form every time here. One thing you will find out very soon is the most complicated thing about running a planted tank is getting the co2 right and flow around the tank. Using an under powered filter will give you problems unless you plan to add to it in another way. Read a few posts where people are having issues and you will see with even the correct size filter they still have issues if the pipework and outlets aren't setup right.

With high lighting plants are going to want to be getting a good supply of co2 and ferts in all areas of the tank. Once the tank starts filling out with plants they tend to block the flow and you need good circulation to push through them.

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk
Maybe to save on cost a powerheads? I’ve got a diffuser but unsure on which glass one I like.. lights are going to be the Twinstar 900E or S.. going to ring and speak about them to save at Aquarium Gardens if the price difference because it is a price difference worth doing then by all means I’ll do it for the sake of running into issues later on but if it’s not worth the extra money I’ll go for the E!
 
unless you go down the eheim route but then you're talking ££££££££
Eheim vs OASE price doesn't seem that different
Eheim Professional 4 350T (including all media) prices from €240 - £280
- comparable flow rate to OASE Biomaster thermo 600 £240

For the higher flow rate filter, Eheim price is rising (but then OASE doesn't seem to offer a model with this flow rate)
Eheim Pro 3 600T £445
- more suitable flowrate for this tank perhaps
(though I'd prefer running 2 x Pro 4 filters, eg, 350T & 350 @ £420 or the 250 versions @ £390)
 
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