29 gallon planted upgrade

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Nortzy21

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Mar 13, 2014
Messages
153
Location
Cleveland, OH
So I set up a 20g planted awhile back and upgraded to a 29 gallon just a few months ago. I wasn't running CO2 and simply had a fluorescent bulb (very low tech). However, today marks the start of a new journey. I just upgraded my lighting to LEDs and am setting up a DIY CO2 system this weekend.

Here's a pic of the tank from a few months ago with the old fluorescent lighting
IMG_4115.jpg

Here's a shot from today with the new LEDs (I'm also still keeping the zoo med flora sun up to add a little more red and blue wavelengths)
IMG_4149.jpg

I'm running a 30 inch Finnex 24/7 planted+ LED fixture
IMG_4151.jpg

And here's a look at some of the stuff being used to construct the DIY CO2 system
IMG_4150.jpg

Although my tank isn't quite a high tech, I'm hoping these new improvements will help the plants take off. Please excuse the aquascape right now. I'm planning on getting more driftwood and maybe some rocks. If anyone can tell in the pic, I could use some advice on whether to place some of my plants (fore, mid or background). Obviously, I'm really not digging the random placement of plants right now[emoji23]. Keep in mind, I'm a high schooler supporting this tank off a minimum wage job (which btw is at a pet store), so the equipment is not the most high tech. But, I give this tank lots of love and am hoping it will take off soon. I HIGHLY APPRECIATE any advice or criticism!

Tank on,
Sam
 
Looks good! I like the drift wood! I wouldn't add anymore wood as you want that piece to be your focus point. A few rocks here and there would be fine :)

In my opinion (just a suggestion) the baby years should be back right to grow out and hide that heater.
I'd place the Amazon swords to the back left (one in the back corner the other slightly off center to the back left side.

That crypt on the front right I would split up into small plants (you can do this by separating off the main stem, should be a spot where a few join into a single stem and then into the main stem) and place them around the base of the drift wood on the front right side.

Move the Anubias on the rock (with the rock) to off center. Maybe between the DW and side glass to the front right.

The little grass (is it bylxa japonica?) I'm guessing will spread so I'd use it to carpet from mid to right side or as a boarder to start a carpet from the left to right side (if you plan to have a carpet like HC Cuba or Monte Carlo)

The crypt over the back right I would put through the center of the DW move it slightly forward from where it currently is.

That's just my personal preference/opinion. It's completely up to you and what is most pleasing for you to look at :) biggest advice I can give you is avoid symmetry and make your focus point off center slightly.

A few more mid ground plants to the left side would make a lot of difference aswell. Maybe some S repens or pogostemon helfari? I know your tight for cash so I'd take it slow with buying lots of plants and make sure you learn how to make your current plants thrive. This will avoid wasting a lot of money if things go a little down hill ;)
 
Looks good! I like the drift wood! I wouldn't add anymore wood as you want that piece to be your focus point. A few rocks here and there would be fine :)

In my opinion (just a suggestion) the baby years should be back right to grow out and hide that heater.
I'd place the Amazon swords to the back left (one in the back corner the other slightly off center to the back left side.

That crypt on the front right I would split up into small plants (you can do this by separating off the main stem, should be a spot where a few join into a single stem and then into the main stem) and place them around the base of the drift wood on the front right side.

Move the Anubias on the rock (with the rock) to off center. Maybe between the DW and side glass to the front right.

The little grass (is it bylxa japonica?) I'm guessing will spread so I'd use it to carpet from mid to right side or as a boarder to start a carpet from the left to right side (if you plan to have a carpet like HC Cuba or Monte Carlo)

The crypt over the back right I would put through the center of the DW move it slightly forward from where it currently is.

That's just my personal preference/opinion. It's completely up to you and what is most pleasing for you to look at :) biggest advice I can give you is avoid symmetry and make your focus point off center slightly.

A few more mid ground plants to the left side would make a lot of difference aswell. Maybe some S repens or pogostemon helfari? I know your tight for cash so I'd take it slow with buying lots of plants and make sure you learn how to make your current plants thrive. This will avoid wasting a lot of money if things go a little down hill ;)
Man spot on....
 
Looks good! I like the drift wood! I wouldn't add anymore wood as you want that piece to be your focus point. A few rocks here and there would be fine :)

In my opinion (just a suggestion) the baby years should be back right to grow out and hide that heater.
I'd place the Amazon swords to the back left (one in the back corner the other slightly off center to the back left side.

That crypt on the front right I would split up into small plants (you can do this by separating off the main stem, should be a spot where a few join into a single stem and then into the main stem) and place them around the base of the drift wood on the front right side.

Move the Anubias on the rock (with the rock) to off center. Maybe between the DW and side glass to the front right.

The little grass (is it bylxa japonica?) I'm guessing will spread so I'd use it to carpet from mid to right side or as a boarder to start a carpet from the left to right side (if you plan to have a carpet like HC Cuba or Monte Carlo)

The crypt over the back right I would put through the center of the DW move it slightly forward from where it currently is.

That's just my personal preference/opinion. It's completely up to you and what is most pleasing for you to look at :) biggest advice I can give you is avoid symmetry and make your focus point off center slightly.

A few more mid ground plants to the left side would make a lot of difference aswell. Maybe some S repens or pogostemon helfari? I know your tight for cash so I'd take it slow with buying lots of plants and make sure you learn how to make your current plants thrive. This will avoid wasting a lot of money if things go a little down hill ;)



Wow! Thanks for the input! Where do you recommend buying or finding rocks? I have a turtle tank with some rocks I got out of a local creek and they haven't done anything bad to either the fish or turtle in that tank. I know it's not safe to collect rocks from outside but I'm from Ohio and live right on Lake Erie so I wouldn't mind grabbing a few from my local beach. Like you said, I think I'll make a few small rock "islands" on both the right and left and plant around them. I think putting the baby tears in front of the heater is a great idea. One plant that I would love is Val grass. Do you have any experience with that? I'd love to create a nice grass "forest" in the back left to hide the filter intakes and auto top off units. Also what are some not too demanding carpet plants that would do well. I want something that is more leafy or like a clover instead of that small grass I have (which btw I have no idea what it is). And as you suggested I should probably hold off on more wood although I like the look of thinner more branchy drift wood. With that being said, do you have any recommendations for fertilizer or anything? I'm currently dosing seachem flourish weekly and that combined with my new LEDs and DIY CO2 will hopefully lead to some substantial plant growth. I know that without good lighting, CO2 is worthless so I'm hoping that I will have a nice balance bewteeen light, CO2 and nutrients. I fear falling into an algae bloom so I'll have to find that happy medium. Let me know how it sounds!
 
Wow! Thanks for the input! Where do you recommend buying or finding rocks? I have a turtle tank with some rocks I got out of a local creek and they haven't done anything bad to either the fish or turtle in that tank. I know it's not safe to collect rocks from outside but I'm from Ohio and live right on Lake Erie so I wouldn't mind grabbing a few from my local beach. Like you said, I think I'll make a few small rock "islands" on both the right and left and plant around them. I think putting the baby tears in front of the heater is a great idea. One plant that I would love is Val grass. Do you have any experience with that? I'd love to create a nice grass "forest" in the back left to hide the filter intakes and auto top off units. Also what are some not too demanding carpet plants that would do well. I want something that is more leafy or like a clover instead of that small grass I have (which btw I have no idea what it is). And as you suggested I should probably hold off on more wood although I like the look of thinner more branchy drift wood. With that being said, do you have any recommendations for fertilizer or anything? I'm currently dosing seachem flourish weekly and that combined with my new LEDs and DIY CO2 will hopefully lead to some substantial plant growth. I know that without good lighting, CO2 is worthless so I'm hoping that I will have a nice balance bewteeen light, CO2 and nutrients. I fear falling into an algae bloom so I'll have to find that happy medium. Let me know how it sounds!



I think Monte Carlo is easier to carpet than HC Cuba and I'm pretty sure that glosso is the easiest of all carpet plants.

Easiest way to grow glosso is from seeds emersed under a light or in a window sil. (A desk lamp works fine to grow it. You want to keep the humidity high and spray it with water every morning. Once it's grown out id pull it up in squares and attach it to stainless or plastic mesh and bury it slightly in the substrate in your tank (use fishing line to tie to the mesh)

As for rocks, you can grab rocks from anywhere outside and they are perfectly safe if you treat them properly. I pour boiled water over them (using a kettle) and then scrub them down with either a wire brush or an old tooth brush. Give them another rinse with boiling water and leave them in the sun to dry out. Then they are safe.

In the way of ferts I'd be dosing flourish to recommended on the bottle. Also I'd get a bottle of seachem trace and dose to half recommended dosage. You'll need to dose flourish more than once a week once you get the co2 up and running as your nutrient uptake will increase by a lot.
 
Got the DIY CO2 up and running well. Now all I've gotta do is wait for results and find the right balance of light and ferts based on how much CO2 I can get to consistently be produced.

Here's a pic of the system...I added a heat bulb below my stand to increase yeast activity and hopefully produce more co2
IMG_4202.jpg

Here's the bubble counter bottle (getting one big bubble about once every 4-5 seconds)
IMG_4201.jpg

Here's a decent shot of the heavily planted side of the tank
IMG_4204.jpg
 
Plants are looking good! Glad to hear the co2 is going well. If you want it to produce more co2 you can get a heat belt (like they use for beer kegs) and wrap them with it. Should speed up the process :)

You can also use bicarb soda and citric acid. 400ml of water to 200g of citric acid in 1 bottle and 200ml to 200g of bicarb in the other side. Squeeze the citric side to start the generation :)
 
Plants are looking good! Glad to hear the co2 is going well. If you want it to produce more co2 you can get a heat belt (like they use for beer kegs) and wrap them with it. Should speed up the process :)

You can also use bicarb soda and citric acid. 400ml of water to 200g of citric acid in 1 bottle and 200ml to 200g of bicarb in the other side. Squeeze the citric side to start the generation :)



Ya I've heard about the Citric acid option. My only worry is where to get citric acid and how much it costs. Since yeast is so cheap, I don't want to be spending more money in the long run for citric acid. And by bicarb you mean baking soda obviously?
 
Ya I've heard about the Citric acid option. My only worry is where to get citric acid and how much it costs. Since yeast is so cheap, I don't want to be spending more money in the long run for citric acid. And by bicarb you mean baking soda obviously?



Yea you can get it at the supermarket but it is more expensive than yeast. Yea baking soda ;)

Looks like your underway tho so you should be fine. As for putting the hose into the intake you can drill a hole in the side of the intake tube and push the co2 line through it
 
Plants are looking good! Glad to hear the co2 is going well. If you want it to produce more co2 you can get a heat belt (like they use for beer kegs) and wrap them with it. Should speed up the process :)

You can also use bicarb soda and citric acid. 400ml of water to 200g of citric acid in 1 bottle and 200ml to 200g of bicarb in the other side. Squeeze the citric side to start the generation :)



Another random question. I eventually want to get some cherry shrimp settled in to this tank once the plants grow in more. Do you have much experience with them? Last time I got some they didn't do well in my 20 high and died after a few weeks. I have a 10 gallon sitting around I might turn into a shrimp tank so I could mess around with them in that. Maybe get a small sponge filter and another finnex 24/7 to grow some plants. I know they like to feed off moss and need a well established, clean tank. I do have a small powerhead in my current tank that might be too powerful for them and I would prefer not to remove it because it helps distribute CO2 throughout the tank. If you prefer any other type of shrimp like grass or amano let me know!
 
Another random question. I eventually want to get some cherry shrimp settled in to this tank once the plants grow in more. Do you have much experience with them? Last time I got some they didn't do well in my 20 high and died after a few weeks. I have a 10 gallon sitting around I might turn into a shrimp tank so I could mess around with them in that. Maybe get a small sponge filter and another finnex 24/7 to grow some plants. I know they like to feed off moss and need a well established, clean tank. I do have a small powerhead in my current tank that might be too powerful for them and I would prefer not to remove it because it helps distribute CO2 throughout the tank. If you prefer any other type of shrimp like grass or amano let me know!



I don't have any experience with shrimp to be honest but I know they don't like metals in the water. Copper is extremely toxic to them so you need to make sure the water you use has very little to no copper :)
 
I don't have any experience with shrimp to be honest but I know they don't like metals in the water. Copper is extremely toxic to them so you need to make sure the water you use has very little to no copper :)



Another thing I'm worried about is fluctuating pH levels considering I have the diy CO2 system running 24/7. As of now, it's producing a bubble once every 2.5 seconds and the a bubble is being chipped up by the filter even faster ( I can hear the impeller crunch every time a bubble is sucked up[emoji16]) I will try to keep a close eye on the pH but hopefully it doesn't go back and forth between two extremes at night and day every 24 hours. Btw, the heat bulb pointed at the yeast mixture bottles has significantly increased CO2 production in a matter of hours.
 
Just tested and according to my pH test kit I'm sitting at about 7.6 which is good since it will only go down as more CO2 is dissolved. My tap water must be slightly basic
 
Just tested and according to my pH test kit I'm sitting at about 7.6 which is good since it will only go down as more CO2 is dissolved. My tap water must be slightly basic



Don't worry about the swings to much. I don't think yeast co2 will be enough to gas your fish and ph swings are normal with co2
 
Did a 50% water change a few days ago and rescaped the tank using Bert2oo1's suggestions....and it's looking great! Just need to let the plants go in a little more and cover up some of the equipment in the back. Diy CO2 is running well. I need to change out one of the bottles out today.

Here's an FTS
IMG_4234.jpg

Here's some random shots
IMG_4236.jpg

IMG_4237.jpg
 
Looking good! Looks like you have abit of algae around but once your tank gets used to the ferts and co2 levels it should fade out.

Your running a finnex arnt you? I'd dim your lighting down abit. No need for high lighting with the plants you currently have. Mid range will be much better/ keep the algae to a minimum
 
Looking good! Looks like you have abit of algae around but once your tank gets used to the ferts and co2 levels it should fade out.

Your running a finnex arnt you? I'd dim your lighting down abit. No need for high lighting with the plants you currently have. Mid range will be much better/ keep the algae to a minimum



Yes I'm running a finnex 24/7. It's on 24/7 mode currently which I like since I can view the tank all day. In this mode, the lights are at their strongest for 9 hours a day so maybe I should just turn them normal on/off mode for 8 hours or so? Let me know what you think.
 
Yes I'm running a finnex 24/7. It's on 24/7 mode currently which I like since I can view the tank all day. In this mode, the lights are at their strongest for 9 hours a day so maybe I should just turn them normal on/off mode for 8 hours or so? Let me know what you think.



Yea you've got majority slow growers in the tank at the moment so I'd dim it to 80%. You can keep the photo at 9 hours if you like :) it's more the light strength that will give u the issues rather than the length. Unless leaving them on for over 10 hours at full strength

Edit: once you get more plant mass and some fast growing stems etc you can probs run it on 24/7.

Just remember lighting is the last thing you to play with. Once everything is balanced then you can blast it with light :)
 
Yea you've got majority slow growers in the tank at the moment so I'd dim it to 80%. You can keep the photo at 9 hours if you like :) it's more the light strength that will give u the issues rather than the length. Unless leaving them on for over 10 hours at full strength

Edit: once you get more plant mass and some fast growing stems etc you can probs run it on 24/7.

Just remember lighting is the last thing you to play with. Once everything is balanced then you can blast it with light :)



Ok I removed the fluorescent bulb and I just want to test out 24/7 mode for a week or so and see how the plants respond. The CO2 is running nicely and I ordered some flourish trace to dose along with normal flourish. The lighting coupled with nutrients and CO2 will hopefully balance out but if not I'll just reduce the lighting even more.
 
Update

Plants are starting to take off, especially the baby tears. My lighting level still might be too strong for the crypts and swords even after I turned it down to 70%. I also still have a bit of algae bug hopefully that will dissipate as plant mass increase. The diy CO2 is working like a charm and the fish are happy.

FTS
IMG_4267.jpg

Baby tears
IMG_4268.jpg

And the my cat checking out the CO2 setup [emoji16]
IMG_4269.jpg
 
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