Hi, I've owned freshwater aquariums before but there was nothing too fancy about them. And now I bought a 400L (approx.100 gallons) tank 63 inches (160 cm) in length and I'm planning to ''aquascape'' it just like the big boys do. I am able to get a very good deal on the following items so please let me know if they're suitable for starting a large planted tank such as mine:

1) Resun external filter 1600 L/H
2) JBL solar tropic lamps 80W 4000K T-5 (2 of them)
3) Resun fluorescent tubes 40W (2 tubes)
4) Red Sea Flora Base substrate 5.4 KG (6 bags)
5) JBL CO2 Set Easy 2 (complete set with night time switch off)

And of course I'm getting some of the other basic stuff such as the heater but basically those 5 points that I mentioned I have worries about especially the lighting & the substrate.
Are the mentioned items good enough for my tank? Should I add anything else to the list? Should I replace any of them by some other products? Any help would greatly be appreciated

Hello Sephr and welcome to the forum,
I think what you have listed is an excellent start so well done, however the filter may not be large enough, a slightly better option would be two smaller filters or two of the same filter, or one larger filter. You will find that one will be only just capable for such a large tank and i ran into problems by not having enough filtration in my first 4x2x2. Just remember that you can never have enough filtration.

The lighting sounds fine, people tend to go way overboard with lighting and you run into problems with fertilizing and algae etc. Keeping it simple is great, i would just go for easy maitenance but beautiful plants like valisneria nana, anubias, needle java leaf ferns and heaps of crypts, and then a few higher maitenance of your choice.

The CO2 sounds great, don't go overboard and use only enough that will give you average growth and no algae, it can take a while to find this "sweet spot" but once you get it you will never see hair algae again and your plants will be green and grow well.

Red sea flora base is a great substrate from previous experience, just remember it can turn to mush after a couple of years, but this is no real problem. If you do not have enough, dont be scared to mix it with gravel as it will change almost nothing and keep the dollars for your fish.

One thing i do recommend is if you plan on having softer water fish, put some wood in early as it takes a while for the tannins to fade. Apart from that you sound well on track and i wish you the best of luck.
Adam,

Hey Adam,

Thanks a lot for your reply. I already bought that filter a week ago and according to the guy it was the biggest one he had but just like you mentioned too much filtering doesnt do harm so I'll get another smaller one as well. Now Im struggling to find sturdy wooden stand to hold all that weight probably around 550 kg (1200 lbs). My wife recently bought a solid looking built dresser and Im planning on having it modified with a professional carpenter and whatever he could do to make it stronger.

Hope to hear from you again,
Sepehr

Haha sounds fantastic, Our living room coffee table was in fact converted into an aquarium stand, the family would not let me put another plain old stand in so we had it converted. They just put a few metal/wood reinforcements and also made sure the legs were sturdy. It's a great idea and so far we havent had any troubles

I see, well that filter should be fine for the moment and you may find you do not need extra filtration, i only bought a second filter for our 4ft because the flow just wasn't enough and there was a heap of mess every week. The tank was customized to be an extra 6 inches deep at 2.5ft haha so you can imagine it was a bit of a stretch and hassle to get down there.

Good luck with your pursuits, would love to see some pictures when your in the mood!!
Adam,