New Aquarium questions help needed

[Deano3]

Hi every one i have now ordered my aquarium an ADA 60F looking forward to it arriving,but not until end of month, i plan on buying heater and filter hopefully a inline hydor 200w but still not sure on filter maybe fluval 206 i still have a few questions about equipment, i am also getting a glo t5 light unit off a friend so happy about that but here are a few other questions i have

1- do u think fluval 206 will be more than sufficent or a eheim ? also what lily pipes will fit and be a nice fit ? also will the hydor 200w heater fit the 206 pipes ?
2-i am planning a FE co2 system what exactly will i require (FE,regulator,will i need one way valves etc and what lilly pipes will fit wel ? dont want to spend a fortune on ADA pipes)
3-i still have some fluval flora statrum substrate so might just purchase another bag of that for aquarium
4-i plan on doing a iwagumi style aquarium so were is best place to purchase the rocks and what is the best sizes ?
5-i want a nice carpet what would you recomend ? this is nice http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkQFfiW_aL4&hd=1 i like full aquariums so still not 100%
6-do you use magnetic scrapers as heard people saying they are rubbish ?

any help would be great
Thanks Dean

 

[Deano3]

anyone ? also were is cheapest to purchase Seiryu Stones want something like in pic so how much do u recomend rdering for 8.8 gallon tank same as vid

thanks Dean

 

[ceg4048]

In the upper right corner of your screen there is a search function. Try typing in some of the words you want to know about and check those threads. Just above the search box are the multicolored banners for our sponsors who sell things like rocks, or go to the board index and see a list of the sponsor forums. Contact any of these companies to get prices for equipment and hardscape.

Cheers,

 

[Antipofish]

Hi Deano, you might consider mini landscape stone instead of seiryu stone. It is of very similar appearance, has lovely structure and is a lot cheaper. The Fluval 206 would be ok but to be honest Im not a fan of that brand. I had a 205 and did not like it some years ago and dont see a huge difference in the current model. JBL make a good range of filters, and the E701 is both economical to run and inexpensive especially if purchased from zooplus's german website (10% initial discount and free shipping on orders over 29euros). Eheim would be the ultimate choice IMO but then I am a big Eheim fan. Remember to try and aim for 10times flow rate so 60L would require a filter that can achieve 600lph.

There are various smaller lily pipes available but you need to ensure they fit the tubes of your filter. A lot of the ones on ebay show measurements so you can decided whether you think they will look good, but as Clive suggested, have a look on the various journals as many of our current members are using glassware on that size nano.

There is a thread on here http://www.ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=7696 regarding Fire Extinguisher CO2 systems that you would be advised to read. It tells you all you need to know about setting up a CO2 system. Along with the article in the articles section (click top of page> UKAPS ARTICLES) on EI dosing and Drop Checkers.

Best of luck.

 

[Deano3]

thanks for replys what is a eheim filter that is around same filter lph as the fluval 206 ? just wondering for this tank what is most modern and best filter ? will the hydor 200w fit fluval 206 or an eheim ?

were would i purchase mini landscape stone ? what is the website AE ? heard they sell them

will the glo t5 light unit be sufficent ?

also do you think around 3kg of stratum will be enough for nice scape ?

thanks Dean

 

[Antipofish]

Hey Dean,
The 206 claims a flow rate of 780lph. In practice this can be as much as 50% less by the time it is full of media and pumping water around your tank. The JBL I mentioned is slightly less than that, or you could go for the JBL Cristalprofi E901 which is slightly more. JBL's tend to give higher actual flow IMO. In terms of Eheim, there are a multitude of filters that will match that. You would do best to google Eheims website and browse that. Read about their Classic range, and their professional range and electronic range and then you can decide what level of filter you want. I say WANT because as far as NEED, then the classic range will do the job.

AE are sponsors on here. "Aqua Essentials". Look on the sponsors forum and you will find them. And then you will find mini landscape rock.

Your light should be enough for most plants I would say. In fact less light is better than more light when you are at the beginner stage. If you throw too much light at plants and have not mastered how to balance fert needs and CO2 needs in tandem with light (the driving force of plant growth) you will end up with algae problems. Its very hard to answer a question such as "Is this light enough" because we dont yet know what plants you want. People could answer "Yes" and then you go and put a high light demanding plant in there that is overshaddowed by vallis or something and then the light is not sufficient, so it all depends on the setup.

I would say that 3kg of stratum would be insufficient by quite a long way, but again it depends on whether you want to "scape" or have a flat bed of substrate. Your tank is 60cm x 30cm as footprint.

There is a formula...

the formula is:

(length x width x depth) / 1000 = litres.

so for a 60x30x18 with a substrate 5cm deep (uniform)

60 x 30* x 5 = 9000cm2 / 1000 = 9 litres.

Hope this helps.

Also, looking on the bag of stratum I have, Fluval recommend 1 x 8kg bag for a 60cm tank to provide a substrate depth of 3to4 cms. So again, 3kg is nowhere near enough.

Any kind of specific planting substrate is going to cost a bit of money. There are other options though. Are you on a tight budget or are funds not too much of an issue ? That would help people advise on what your best option might be.

 

[Deano3]

thanks again very helpful , yeah i dont have huge amounts of money so being careful, think i will order 10kg of scape rock from AE as they say that should do for 30l or something around those lines, going to look at substrates now i dont want it flat i want a iwagum style with large slopes etc so may need around 10 kg for that , tank doesnt come till end of month so if i try but filter this month then co2 when payed and then the plants etc probs be quite expensive lol were do you purchase plants from ? also what carpet plant is good for beginers and looks good ?

thanks Dean