Equipment

Now we need to set up the tank equipment. This will include filter, heater, CO2 and lights. You will want to make sure you have a multi-plug higher than your tank as you should have a drip loop for electronic appliances in water.

CO2
I'm not rich enough to get proper CO2 yet so I have a Seachem Bio System from Hartlands. This is basically a sealed bottle with a clip, a silicone tube, a diffuser power-head, and bottles of yeast and sugar. The yeast reacts with the sugar in warm water to produce CO2 which is sucked through the pipe and diffused by the power-head. This system is not actually sufficient for my 270l tank, but I will be using easy plants so hopefully it will work out. CO2 is poisonous to fish, but there won't be enough of it in my tank to worry them. I will run the power-head 24/7, but if you have a proper system you will have to turn it off at night using a timer or a tank sensor. When I can afford it, I will definitely be trying out a proper pressurized CO2 system.

Filter
I would suggest going for an internal filter or an external cannister filter, the reason being that you don't want to disturb the surface of your aquarium. You need to keep as much CO2 in the water as possible. Sam's Aquarium sells a wide range of filters at good prices. Make sure you get one that can handle the volume of water you have in your tank. I chose an Eheim cannister filter. If I had the extra cash I would probably have gone for a Fluval. Hopefully your manual-reading skills will get you through setting up your filter. I also bought a surface skimmer attachment for my filter which can improve the look of your tank.

Lights
The cheapest and easiest lighting that is still very effective is T5 fluorescent. I bought Sylvania Grolux tubes specifically designed for growing plants from The Lamphouse and found an affordable 2-bulb Odyssea light fitting which clips over my tank at Sam's Aquarium. When buying a tube, make sure that its colour profile is mainly in the red and blue range. Many people hang their light fitting from the roof, but if I tried that where my tank is the ceiling would come down. You could put in more lights, but more lighting means that everything in your tank will grow faster, including algae. If this is your first tank, you should start with low lighting and get all the other factors right, otherwise things could get out of control.

Heater
I bought a fairly expensive Eheim heater because of some scary stories I've heard about cheap heaters breaking in various ways, but there's not much to this piece of equipment. Set it to the temperature you want (probably about 25 degrees celsius) and plug it in. You will also need a thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature. Stick it to the inside of your tank at an angle of about 45 degrees.

Thats about it for equipment. Next is to fill up the tank and put some plants in it!

Hardscape

Right, we still have a glass box, only now it has bits of sand and rock in it. Not terribly exciting. But now we come to the first section which will actually look good - the hardscape. The hardscape is the material that will give your aquascape shape (along with your substrate). It usually consists of various kinds of rock or wood.

The first thing that you absolutely have to have is a patient audience with the ability to balance on the edge of a really thin board. This is Friendly Cat.

The easiest wood to get seems to be Mopane wood. There are a few pieces in most aquarium shops, but I found that Pet Adventure has by far the biggest selection. I'm sure that I must have thoroughly annoyed them by shifting the entire heap of driftwood out from under the shelves to get at the best pieces.

The easiest rock to find in Cape Town seems to be sandstone, which you can pick up all over the place. Just be sure you're permitted to take it away.

Try to get several pieces of hardscape, because you want to be able to set up different combinations and arrangements until you find one that you like. Usually either wood OR rock is used - it is very hard to create a good design with both. I started out hoping to do an iwagumi tank, but I didn't really "feel" my arrangements. Possibly my substrate should have been much deeper for this type of design, or perhaps I just need more practice. In an iwagumi tank you always have an odd number of rocks and you always use the same type of rock throughout the design.

Next I tried out the driftwood, with much more satisfactory results. The general idea is inspired by the mound design in Nature Aquarium, where the aquascape builds up towards the center of the tank. I chose driftwood with thin ends to point outwards and heavier sections to weigh down the base. Ideally, you should soak the wood for a few weeks before using it. If you don't, the water will be yellow for a long time due to the tannins in the wood. This does no harm to your tank, and I actually don't mind this look. It reminds of the water in streams such as those found in Kirstenbosch. The other reason to soak your wood is that if you don't, you will inevitably get some "floaters" which will actually seem sentient in their single-minded determination to destroy you carefully planned design. I was in too much of a hurry to do this, so I just plonked the wood in and weighed it down with a bag of flat smooth stones which I got from Atlantic Pebbles. Luckily I had only one really persistent floater.

When your design is done, you might feel that this looks pretty good all by itself. However, it has the potential to look much better once it is planted. Hopefully I won't regret proceeding....