"muddyfox" wrote in news:1140721767.030595.259950
@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

versed and in others I'm a total newbie. Can you recommend good
companies which make reliable kit (available in the UK if possible)?

I'm not aware of any kits, outside of what a good retailer may be able to
build for you, that offer the maximum amount of flexibility.

Most kits come with a plastic hood and very basic fluorescent light of some
sort, both of which you will need to replace if you want to upgrade your
ballast. Some kits even build the filter into the hood, which means you
will need to replace just about everything short of the heater if you want
to get a better light.

There are a number of good heaters out there that anyone here can
recommend. I use Jager and Visi-Therm Stealth heaters in my own tanks.

There many types of filtration, some of the popular options today are power
filters (hang-on-the-back type), canisters, sumps, or DIY systems. If
you're a novice, you should probably consider the first two.

The two most common power filters are the bio-wheel type and the
AquaClear/sponge type. The AquaClear-type filter offers more adaptability,
but the bio-wheel filter offers nitrifying wet-dry filtration--though bio-
wheels generally require more frequent maintenance in the form of
replacement filter inserts.

Canister filters hold a much larger amount of media, which easily gives
them an advantage over the power filters. I recommend Eheim, RENA, Hydor,
and Fluval... in that order. My experience with Fluval is that they sound
cool and break a lot, but they've been coming out with a couple new things
recently. Hydors are reportedly very popular in Europe.

Your lighting choice should depend on the size of the tank you want. Small
tanks (30 US gallons/120 litres) can easily get away with a good quality
double fluorescent strip, very small tanks (10 gallons) can be fine with a
single strip. The taller and deeper the tank the more light you will need
to give your plants. For anything larger than 30 gallons you'll get the
best performance out of a power compact light IMHO. You can usually find PC
lights in single or double liner strips. Avoid the ones that come with an
actinic blue-spectrum light--they are of little use for a freshwater tank.

Keep in mind that you will have to match the amount of light you give your
tank to the amount of nutrients (including CO2) available to your plants.
If you blast too much wattage into a tank without an adequate C02 system in
place (either by injection or in supplement form), you'll probably just get
a lot of algae and some half-dead plants.