I too am new to planted aquariums, though my one has been up and running for a couple months now.
I have just (tonight) fixed my 'scum on the surface' problem. I read a lot about special intakes which suck in the rubbish etc.... but all i did was get the output of my filter to hit the water surface which aggravates it a bit, and hence no scum can form.
I got a £300 CO2 kit! MUG is written on my forehead, i know, but its quality stuff. It came with all these nice class pieces....diffuser, bubble counter etc. But after about a week i put them in a drawer, as despite their nice look, they are not much use for a 360L aquarium....they dont diffuse the CO2 enough. Now i have a reactor to diffuse the CO2 into the outflow of my filter.... this is then spread out into my tank via a lengthened spray bar. I now have great circulation of CO2.
So to summarise.... i think a lot of the 'glass ware' is nice to look at in small tanks, and goes along with the aesthetics of a planted tank. But in larger tanks, they are not always practical!
