Introduction
Most of you who know of me will associate me as being a killifish enthusiast, this is true, and will always remain that way, but I do like, on occasion, to turn my hand to other aspects of fishkeeping. I've been on many a venture over the numerious years I've been in this amazing hobby, hell I even got salt in my mouth at one stage, but this proved to be an expensive interlude away from my beloved killifish. Whilst I enjoyed every moment of my dive into marines, I always knew I would return to freshies one day.
I am about to retrace my steps from the late eighties/early nineties and try to aquascape a planted aquarium from scratch. Technology has moved on a pace since those halcyon days and one has to stand and wonder at the range and diversity of aquariums on offer today.
This was my old tank from the early nineties, although it did cover a lot of the basics of today's modern equivalent, it would now be considered old skool in the eyes of many a fine aquascaper on these boards.
So now I'm going to endeavour to, once again dip my toes in a river venture and see where the boat ends up.
I hope you will all chip in an offer up critical comments on my mistakes and failings, I am still willing to learn and who better than from TFF's finest.
Follow me now in this warts and all view of how I went about aquascaping my latest aquarium. ("Not another bloody tank"! shouts Mrs C
)Today I purchased a new tank and some bits and bobs. Not really what I was after, but if your living in this god forsaken country finding what you need is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Problem is we are so poorly serviced by the aquatics industry up North that we usually end up paying through the nose for postal items from the mainland. Anyhow I took what I could get to let me make some kind of a start.
I suppose I may start at the beginning;
The Tank:
I have already got a wooden stained cabinet on which to site my new aquarium. I couldn't get hold of the tank I wanted which would have been a bog standard 24x12x15 Clearseal brand. So after trawling around the country I ended up with a Juwel Rekord 60. The canopy of this all in one kit will be defunct but I'll hang onto it. Whilst A Record 70 would have been a better option, "Yes" you guessed it...No one had any. So with the attitude that it fits the cabinet (admittedly a little short on height) and it will grow plants (hopefully) I made the purchase.
Now if there's one thing you dont do when you've gone to your LFS for something specific is to start looking around, this is a big NO NO. So I came away with pieces of bogwood, substrate additive, fine gravel and river pebbles and a few other pieces of equipment. (She is gonna kill me). I've been down this street before though
So that's about it until tomorrow, I hope to be asking you all a lot of questions, this, coupled with the myriad of books I've amassed on the subject, may just help me on the road to a successful planted aquarium.
First and foremost I want to try and keep this as simple as I can. For one I will probably be drawn toward a Low - Med light plan when it comes to layouts of what plants and where to place them.
Initial Questions: Because this type of aquarium has all the filtration within the aquarium will it become more susceptible to algal problems. What type of extra media could be utilised within the black box.. Rowaphos perhaps. (I know most folks like to rip out those Juwel compartments in favour of more room but I'd like to keep it for now at least)
Secondly do you guys use RO, Tapwater, Rainwater or permutations of such resources.
Regards
C
This will actually make it easier to control the CO2. Can I ask what the lighting is? Again, being from the US, I'm not familar with the Jewel lighting. 
