Journey of a 15 gallon planted tank

hi- this tank i just pieced together over the last 7 days.

i bought a 15 gallon tank (24"long x 12" wide x 12" high)at the lfs for $24
the light, twin tube oceanic 36 watt dual fluorescent strip and 2 glass hood plates i had from my 20 long.

then, i bought an aquaclear subersible heater and thermometer at another lfs for $17

the tank has 1 rangeri sword, 1 amazon sword, 1 anubias coffeelios
current residents are a syno cat and a 2" rainbow cichlid.

i saved up three months for a good filter and i thought i would go for the gold here. i bought an eheim 2222 canister at big als for $100 with free shipping and double points...

tank is being seeded by my sponge filter, so it should take no time at all before tank cycles!

im going to do diy co2 soon.
last pic is of the finished tank.
pics are not great, as im still learning this camera. ill show more pics soon of the tank...
thanks for reading!

true, however on the flip side despite its size the filter pumps about 132 gph per eheim. i guess-timate that it loses 15-20% due to water being forced through the media and sponges. so it comes out to like around 100-120 i suspect. either way, it seems ok, but the nice touch of these filters is i can actually regulate the flow.

diy co2 system complete and built.

i used the first pic as my reference build, taken from this article here:
http://www.qsl.net/w2wdx/aquaria/diyco2.html#5

however, i used a wegmans apple juice bottle instead of a 2 litre soda jar,as the former has a flat, broad base to rest on.
well, to summarise i used the following materials:

1. standard air line tubing i had hangin around
2. 1 wegmans apple jiuce bottle- $2
3. 1 mountain dew 16oz jar $1.25
4. 1 air line control valve- $1.49
5. 1 kordon fine bubble air stone- $1.49

for the mixture, i am using the following ( again, borrowed from the linked article and pasted here):

2 cups water
2 cups Sucrose (cane sugar)
¼ teaspoon Fleischmann's Active Dry Yeast
¼ cup tepid (ideally 104ºF) water

to disperse the co2, i am running the air stone into the housing of an old 5-15 whisper filter for now. the stone is wrapped in some filetr floss i have inside the filter. those whispers are wonderful, btw.

anyway, for the future, i am looking at glass bells, ladders, and powerheads to disperse the gas into the aqaurium better. pics are coming soon!

i forgot the pics! well, here they are for the above post!

here are the pics as promised.
note that i followed the above diagram exactly, whcih was taken from this article.
still no bubbles yet, but i know the yeast mixture is producing co2...im guessing the air stone might be bad. either way, i hope to fix this. thanks!