advice on what i need, new 20 gal for low light/maintenance

[Purrbox]

For the 48 gallon, you would need three additional 2L bottles and the appropriate number of airline T's.

The bubble counter is nice but not strictly necessary. One thing that is a good idea, especially if you're using a yeast that likes to float (like Fleichman's) and/or your bottles are likely to get bumped is a gas separator. This also serves the purpose of a bubble counter, but more importantly will keep the yeast mixture from making it into your aquarium. Not sure of the size of the bubble counter that you linked, but the basic setup would be the same. You'd want at least a 1L bottle for this.

With as large of an aquarium as you've switched to, it's going to be much harder maintaining good CO2 levels. This means that you'll want to use an extremely efficient CO2 diffusion method to make things easier on yourself. Neither of the diffusers you linked would fit the bill. You could use one like you described building (plastic mesh kitchen scrubbers would work better than the poly fiber), an Inline CO2 Reactor (which can be built with PVC), or the mist method.

 

[Big Ben]

that's alot of bottles and t connectors so I'm going to just go wiht the old idea in the 20 gal with the co2 in that tank. I put a few plants in the 48 just temporaraly because it has the highest lighiting of all the tanks and thought I'd just use that one.

I obtained for free from a friend, a diffuser similar to this one i showed alrady http://cgi.ebay.ca/Heavenly-stairs-...hZ015QQcategoryZ66794QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem . I'm thinking that it isn't a very good diffusing method?

Just one more thing, it's very likely that i'm going to build the diffuser, is there any perticular type of powerhead needed/recomended?

 

[Purrbox]

Instead of five 2L bottles you could go with 3 gallon bottles instead on the 48 gallon.

That's a fine passive diffuser, however, powered diffusers are much more efficient.

 

[Big Ben]

Interesting..I think I'm going to go with that for the 20 gal. If all goes well I'll put together another for the 48 gal. I just finished getting everything I need today for the co2. The lighting in the 20 needs to be upgraded and I've decided to go with one of the 2 that were previously mentioned.

http://www.petsandponds.com/securestore/c64280p16901493.2.html
http://www.petsandponds.com/securestore/c64280p16512136.2.html


Going into the high light category has caught my interest because I have a feeling I'm going to get into this because I already enjoy growing the other plants in the 48 gal. If this is anything like getting an aquarium then wanting a bigger one later, if i start with low or medium light it'll probably be pointless cause I'll just want to go higher later on . I'm liking the corallife and all its specs but the
second is less wattage, good for a medium-high lighting..still pretty high and hm...im not minding plant maintenance from the ohter if it requires more but hmm..which should i go with?

I've been looking into substrates and can't make up my mind. Both the eco complete and the flourite substrates look sweet to me.

I'm still regretting not going for at least a 75 gal.

 

[Purrbox]

I'd recommend going for the EcoComplete for one main reason, no rinsing. Even with lots of rinsing the Flourite is going to cloud your aquarium for a few days and will cloud up each time you disturb it for planting and such. This doesn't harm anything and does get less with time, but it's a major pain.

As far as the light fixture goes, I'd probably go for the 65 watt fixture for two reasons. First off the brand is one that I recognize as being quality, and secondly 65 watts is going to give you more flexibility with your lighting. If you go with the SW version which comes with a 50/50 bulb, that would give you medium low light and a nice place to start. Then once your ready for more of a challenge you can just swap the bulb out for a daylight bulb and jump into high light.

 

[Big Ben]

I had to settle for flourite, no one had any eco here in Winnipeg. The few that sometimes have it in said that their supplier stopped sending it :x . Yeah i rinsed the mud stuff of it prob for about half and hour. The clouding stopped after a day though. I wanted to go with eco because it was black+less washing but after the water cleared the flourite is looking pretty sweet.

The corallife 65 w came in last week, I just finished getting everything set up from moving the tank upstairs. I have a large bottle of seachem flourish comprehensive supplement. I used it yesterday and I'm wondering how often I should use it? the bottle says 1-2 times a week. So far I have 2 jungle vals, a cabomba trimming, some thing else what i think may be moneywort. I got a nutrafin co2 set from a buddy but i used a diy recipe and it's working pretty good so far.

also I'm thinking of possible putting together another bottle of co2 just to make sure theres enough to go with the light.

Just wanted to say thanks to you all for all the input and advice, I'll prob be back here this week with more q's

Ben