Heaters and lights for first FW tank

[Pipertron]

Apologies in advance for Newb questions

My tanks is 60x18x15 = 70 Gal (US) although it will only have water to a height of 15-16 inch, making it around 60 Gal

I'm going to use and eheim 2224 external filter (Bloozoo2 convinced me to spend a bit more and get this) but just want suggestions for:

1.400W (2*200W) under substrate heaters with thermos
2.100W ish of compact lighting for plants, with the idea of upgrading to 2wpg at a later date. These need to be attached to a DIY hood.

Money not really an issue but always looking to save,

Thanks in advance

 

[lyquidphyre]

Any reason it isn't going to filled up all the way?

 

[Tiffi]

I wouldn't take an undergravel heater if you can. Heard a lot of times in this forum (especially from plantgeeks) that they don't do any good.

As for the light I have a 70gal too with a DIY hood and got some Current USA SunPaq Retrofit from www.premiumaquatics.com. They have great, friendly service, and the quality of the lights is great. The bulbs are handblown, the ballast and cables are great heavy duty, and everything is easy to install, plus they have waterresistand encaps for CF bulbs! Don't buy at aquatraders, that stuff is so cheap fabricated, and they don't refund easily! My light kit from them lasted only 1 hour!!! If moeny doesn't play a big part, why don't you go with 2wpg from the start?

 

[TomK2]

Don't exclude in line external heaters when you have a canister filter. They are good, keep hardware out of the tank, easy to set.

 

[malkore]

substrate heating won't keep the water warm, and it doesn't really benefit plants. skip it.

 

[Pipertron]

Two reasons lyquidphyre, I’m going to have a very small waterfall in the tank and once it’s established I’m going to have an African Butterfly Fish, so will want to be able to look down on him (a bit).

K looks like under substrate heating is out, that makes life easier. Ill check out the in line external heaters as the reason I wanted under gravel was to keep the heaters hidden.

I don’t want to get 2WPG to start with as being a newb to all this I think a CO2 set up straight away will be a bit much for me.

I’m going to look into the lights you suggested Tiffi although I’m UK based so will have to find a local supplier.

 

[sudz]

Correct me if i'm wrong, the waterfall will rob the tank of CO2 it would normally get from surface area? or help get more natural CO2 from the apmosphere?

That would be a cool thing, with the waterfalls. A nice peice of rock for it to trickle over would be nice, but i'm not so sure about the smell it may encourage being wet and exposed all the time...

Sounds like your building a nice tank though!

 

[Pipertron]

I’m hoping the waterfall will increase the natural aeration of the water; it is being made from polystyrene (cemented) so I’m going to design it to be easy to clean and in theory it would not reduce the surface area down too much.

 

[Pipertron]

As i havent bought my filter yet what are people views on a combined external heater and filter like the Eheim 2324 Thermo Filter
http://www.theaquariumshop.co.uk/eheim-2324-thermo-filter-o-75.html

 

[sudz]

150 watt heater for a 70 gallon is not enough. If you follow the "5 wpg" rule of heating, you want at least a 300 or maybe 2x 200's. Unless canister heaters are more efficent? I don't have experience with them.

cheers

 

[Pipertron]

Yeah I just noticed it only had a 150W heater, although it still says suitable for up my tank size.

Anyone else have thoughts on this low wattage ??

 

[sudz]

"anyone else" lol. My two (additional) cents:

If the difference betwen room temperature and the temp you want your tank is less than 4 degrees centigrade, (~8 degrees farenhiet) you MAY be ok, but that poor little heater will be working away!