The ammonia detector I expect does work and you DO have safe levels of ammonia, which is to say none at all as would be typical for a mature tank. For London tap water having a pH 8 or higher is totally normal. You won't be able to "fix" that with a water change. If you want a lower pH (which you don't actually need) you'd need to use rainwater or RO water in your tank. Take home message is both pH and ammonia levels in your tank are perfectly fine.
Not that I know of. You might want to look at some All In Ones - Waterbox, for example, do some. But each electrical item would still have it's own plug.
Oase style line are plug and play systems that don’t break the bank.
Quite apart from anything else it is impossible to arrange plants in them given the refraction once they are filled with water. Cheap second hand ones make nice terrariums though 🙂
You can make a go of it. My Fireplace Aquarium is a biorb. The vertical height is nice for plants. The ceramic filtration media it comes with won't support plant growth, but you can dump a layer of aquasoil directly on top and that works just fine.
Haha why?
Dubious claims about his brand of filter media called Biohome
To be fair, I do have some Biohome in one of my aquariums and I do like it, even though I don't believe any of the claims of nitrate removal (in fact, I'm certain this doesn't happen), nor would that even be desirable.
Have you see the BiUbe? Similar but cylindrical rather than spherical so it might be better for planting.
