Well it took me 9 months to get it to where it's at now. 3 months of that was before aquarium advice and with stock lighting which was a 24 inch 20 watt aquaglow bulb. then i got an upgrade on the light. i put 2x 39 watt t6ho 34.5 inch bulbs over the 40 gal and the few plants i had at the time finally started to grow instead of sit there and rot out. then i got some more plants and they slowly grew until i added the diy co2. thats when they took off running. i was using the flourish excel which is a liquid carbon source for the plants but it seems they like the gas better.
best advice i can give you at this point is dont rush it. it is gonna take time and the slower you go, the more you read up, the less mistakes you make. When you go to the pet store take notes on what you see that you like and want to buy and research it on-line before you buy it.
It is definitley worth it in the end.
