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Aquarium Tank

“If” I were buying a setup from scratch where I anticipate things to go smoothly and to stay in the hobby I would purchase:
A dennerle scapers tank 55l or a 45x30x30.
I would buy a chihiros slim or twinstar, I forget the range name but the most powerful one. I’d run them at 50% for the first say 4months.
I’d buy a good quiet filter with circa 700lph something like an eheim experience 250
I’d buy a dual stage regulator (not to be confused with a dual gauge, they’re labelled like that to confuse people). Nothing like end of bottle dump for having a bad time.
An in-line diffuser. Up aqua is good but can squeak, co2art/quanvee are better.
I’d buy a bag of tropica soil. Others are available but in my part of the world it’s cheapest per litre.

Plants can be a money pit so pick easier ones up front and look for hobbyists trimmings add the hard stuff once the tank is stable.

Hardscape can be bought or collected. Don’t stress about it. Don’t hunt for the perfect rug to tie the room together, that’s rare, it’s easier to build the perfect wood or fake a larger stone by jamming two together. Or hide something under plants. Rocks are the foundation so they can be just cobbles. My own rock work is nearly entirely from road works.

Accessories are another money pit.
You will need scissors, tweezers/pincettes, a drop checker or a ph tester and a solenoid with a timer.
The timer is the thing I’d not cheap out on but all the others buy as needed. These days I pretty much use only jbl tools. I started with tropica tweezers and small kitchen scissors.

Ph tester is one of those real nice things to have if you have the budget and inclination to do a ph profile, the methodology is better than my spray and pray methodology.
Buy and all in one ferts up front till you have the confidence and stability to move on or if you want to stay that way for convenience. When I started I started with ei salts and it made me hate having to mess about with the salts and scales and ro and urghhhh. But it is cheap. But you have to decide if you value your time.
Everything else is time, experience and water changes.
Thanks for this information the money soon adds up…

But I like the way this is going although isn’t they filter to big for the size tank? It won’t be going on top of a cabinet this one it will be on a ledge in the spare room. Slow and steady wins the race buddy.
 
yeah i think it,s worth it to wait a bit and actualy have high tech instead of wanting to scape now and spending all the money on tank and light and filter only to not have the most lush possible tank
 
Hi everyone
Not sure if I’m allowed to hijack the post and add this (please tell me if I’m not) I just wanted to add in and help out someone hopefully. ArronM not sure if you’ve sorted a tank as of yet?
I have a twin star 600s v2 with inline dimmer surplus to my requirements since upgrading so am
More than happy to let it go at a reasonably cheap price. There’s a couple of small marks on it but feel free to message me on here if your interested at all!!

I know it all adds up haha soon gets very expensive ! On my second setup since joining this amazing forum !
Thanks
Matt
 
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