teacherthomas

The Flo Pipes arrived. The quality is pretty good and the glass is thick. Not up to ADA standards in finish or packaging (the arrived wrapped in bubble wrap and a box of newspaper) but for the price of 45 dollars a set it is hard to expect that.

Customer service is great, and communications fast so I would recommend them (www.AQMagic.com / sales@aqmagic.com)
Pictures of my actual pipes are shown below.

Trying tofigure out how to suspend the T5 lights. Can't seem to find a metal worker here who can bend pipes so I can do it the ADA style, though still looking.

zQ.

This flo pipe IMO look much Uglier than the ADA's.

teacherthomas

ZQ. Understandable, but when you pay 85 dollars per part for ADA and 20 dollars per part for Flo, can you really expect them to look the same?

The main purpose of both the Flo pipes and the ADA pipes is that they do not stand out in the tank, thus they are made from glass. If they were being viewed as a stand-alone art piece, ofcourse the ADA are much better, as you get what you pay for. But once they are in the tank, they will "disappear" into the scape, and you shouldn't really see them, unless you never clean them! Right?

That is why I always wondered why people paid so much for ADA stating that the pipes were so beautiful, but when you look at an ADA tank, do you really see the pipes? Do you focus on them? If so then it defeats the whole purpose of having ADA pipes in the first place, just save the money and keep the green Eheim Pipes. Then youcan really see all the equipment.

MARIMOBALL

Im also considering the FLO pipes for my 60P, I cant bring myself to pay more than the price of the tank for lily pipes even thow I can afford them. Post pics when the pipes are intalled.

andrew__

good thread, it's always nice to hear about affordable alternatives to ADA stuff. If that soil you're testing works like ADA soil but isn't around $2/lb... it should be a hit for sure

teacherthomas

The Soil is called Soil Pro Professional Grade Substrate. It will be produced by a company in Taiwan I have been helping test products. It has not bee released yet as we were just working on the packaging. It shoudl be coming out soon. The price will be a lot cheaper then ADA and the soil will buffer the PH to about 6.8.

zQ.

Ah,another soil from taiwan.I've heard of this one and Magic Soil,anyone 've used magic soil ?

teacherthomas

zQ. - I don't think it is possible that you have heard of it was just officially named the other day and are working on the packaging now. It has not been sold and even product samples for companies are not out yet.

I have heard of magic soil though I have never used it before.

However there are many soil companies out of taiwan and many different names which are quite similiar.

zQ.

no no ! i've really heard about it ! In an chinese forum or somekind,but can't remember the URL.

teacherthomas

really. If true, please let me know if you find the forum again, as I was the one who named it and I named it 2 days ago.