lighting ?

[TaTeR ToT]

i do however have a 300gph powerhead with a square attatchment that spreads the flow of the water out very nicley.
and a small little 125gph powerhead.
both of these are just for added current.

[cichlid1409]

IMO (plant guys correct me if im wrong) but extra current is not something you want in a planted tank.

[Somefishguy]

You will defiantly not want surface agitation once you get pressurized co2, as you will only be degassing the system.

You may want something on a timer at night after the lights go off to get more O2 into the tank if you have a heavly planted tank so your fish does not get out competed for O2 during the night by your plants.

Other than that limit the surface agitation as much as possible

[Complexity]

i will just run the 10k lights for now then un til i can get my hands on a nice co2 system, i know already that i want a 20lb co2 tank, less frequent fillings, ive read/heard that milwaki makes some of the best regulators, and i am guessing that i would want a nice electronic solenoid, aswell as an ada glass diffusser, and a small powerhead to push the co2 through the tank?
am i close?

for substrate i have been looking, and i think that either flora base, caribsea eco-complete, or red sea flora max is what i will go with.

20lbs cylinder will be fine.

I can't say that Milwaukee makes some of the "best" regulators. They are to regulators what Coralife is to lighting. Very commonly used, good pricing, not a bad product, but definitely not the best. If you want the best, start looking at Victor and the like. Having said that, Milwaukee will serve your needs.

Instead of a glass diffuser, I would recommend making a rex-style reactor. Put it inline with your canister filter. Very easy to make, cheap, and pretty much standard for many planted tank enthusiasts.

http://www.rexgrigg.com/diy-reactor.htm

No powerhead. Get two powerful canister filters. Eheim is the best, Rena is my favorite. I have an Eheim Pro II 2128 and a Rena XP4 on my 75g.

i have had good success with eco-complete black in my old 10g planted tank.

Eco-complete will grow whatever you want. But if I had to do it all over again, I'd invest in aquasoil. It just looks better, as well as being an excellent substrate.

IMO (plant guys correct me if im wrong) but extra current is not something you want in a planted tank.

You are correct for the most part. The concern with pushing water around with planted tanks is surface agitation. Surface agitation outgasses the CO2 which you don't want. However, water movement under the surface isn't a problem as long as it's not blowing your plants around too much.

[Complexity]

You may want something on a timer at night after the lights go off to get more O2 into the tank if you have a heavly planted tank so your fish does not get out competed for O2 during the night by your plants.

There are two ways people tend to handle this:

1. Put your regulator on a timer. When lights go out, the regulator is shut off. It comes back on about an hour before lights go on.

2. Get a pH controller. This is my preference and recommendation. Not only does it maintain a steady level of CO2, but it prevents the deadly end of tank CO2 dump problem.

[kwc1974]

IMO (plant guys correct me if im wrong) but extra current is not something you want in a planted tank.

To a point, you want enough current to get rid of dead spots, but not so much as to whip the plants around too much.