CO2 Natural Plant System Question

Hey Ease and welcome to the hobby. Unfortunately I'm afraid your setup is not a very good one for a planted tank. First of all, get rid of the air pump! It will disipate any co2 you actually manage to get in the water. You want as little surface agitation as possible, because the surface tension of the water is what keeps the high levels of co2 in the water. Remember, its much easier to evaporate co2 than to dissolve it!!!

Your filter is an excelent choice for a beginer, and for a fish only tank. But once again, power filters let the water run out on top of the water surface, hence driving off co2. What you really need, is a canister filter. The intake and return lines are both below the water surface, thus preventing surface disturbance. They aren't that expensive either, unless you buy them from your LFS. Look online, and places like BigAls or DrFosterSmith, should have good filters for around $50. Thats what I paid for my fluval 204. If you still want it to hang on the back, go for the Magnum H.O.T. But whatever your choice is, don't buy the cheapo no brand ones, do a little research and read reviews. The other thing, is get rid of the carbon from the filter as it will absorb the plant nutrients. Use it only after medications and when you need to clean the water (foul smells, etc). I hear Purigen is excelent for constant use on planted tanks.

Your lights look good, but if it was me, I would have set it up with higher intensity bulbs, like 2 foot 20watt t12's. The intensity of each bulb is at stake here, since adding them will not improve each bulb's power, only their total wattage. But what you got will probably work great.

The dudes at your LFS probably don't know much, and do you really want to listen to an opinion from someone who's trying to sell it to you? Yes, the co2 system would probably be sufficient for your tank, but you could've done it better yourself. All it takes is a large juice bottle (like apple and eve apple juice), and a hole in the cap that you pull some tubbing through. Then just use whatever works for you in the bottle... good place to start is 1 cup of plain sugar, 1qtr of the dry yeast packet, and a teaspoon of baking soda (thats their secret stabilizer :hihi: ). See how much cheaper? Mix that with lukewarm water, let the yeast hydrate and sink, and voila! Then you could place the other end of the tubing under a powerhead (~$10-15), or whatever you decide. There are plenty of options out there. A counter current reactor with bio balls (could use a gravel vac with sponge) is the most efficient as all the co2 will be disolved. I personally use the same bubble ladder you got, but I have a power head above that sucks up undisolved bubbles and breaks them up.

Read up this website as it has a lot of good advice: http://rexgrigg.com/
If you don't get your co2 right (meaning disolved), than all that other stuff you're dosing probably won't do much because of the limiting factor here. Or actually, it could promote algae! Since your setup is fairly new here, you ought to get on the co2 ASAP or else you wont see the light of day in your tank due to algae. But looks like you did some research, and are willing to commit, and that is good. One last thing, don't use any acids or bases to adjust the water pH, let it be whatever it is. The only thing I would use is Baking Soda to raise the tap pH if it is too low, but at the same time not letting the KH go above 5deg. But in the tank, you really ought not to put anything in to adjust the pH, other than water changes! Good Luck and keep us posted!