My 29 gallon planted tank (my first aquarium)

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thequestion

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jul 9, 2018
Messages
20
Hello everyone, first post!

I just started my tank a little over a month and a half ago and have been knee deep in the hobby since. Learning something new every day.

Here is what I have:

29 gallon aqua culture starter kit. ($80 on jet dot com) thought it was a good deal??

Cascade 500 canister filter

Glass inflow and outflow

I removed the top rim and added the beamswork 6500k 30"

Plants:

Background: Italian Val "Vallisneria Spiralis"

Mid to back: Ludwigia Peruensis

Mid: Anubias Nana

Mid to foreground: Bananna Plant, four leaf clover & Dwarf Lily

Fish:

2 panda corys
2 Juli corys
3 Otto cats
14 Neon Tetra

I would love to hear any suggestions or questions. [emoji846]

Videos of some of the process:
https://youtu.be/tGRwryxcsac
https://youtu.be/ASyw10jHgzU


Thanks! IMG_20180707_235827.jpeg1531022935318.jpeg1531022952902.jpeg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Any reason why you removed the rim? Looks to be a standard tank w/ black rim and therefore it needs to be there for structural reasons. I wouldn't trust it without the rim.
 
It was done for esthetic reasons and it's not really a factor to weaken the tank in sizes such as mine.
 
Your tank looks good btw.

Should start to fill in nicely.

Are you fertilizing at all for the plants?
 
Also using flourish excel about 3 times a week or about every other day.
 
Thanks! I'm using seachem's flourish once a week.

What is the pH of the tank?

Flourish should really be dosed at smaller amounts once a day, or every other day. The physical properties of various nutrients (mainly Fe) will precipitate out and become plant NON-AVAILABLE relatively quickly. This is all pH dependent.
 
Okay that's good.

I would split up the flourish doses to 3-4 times a week instead of 1.

Also, Flourish comp is only good for micro nutrients.

No N, P or K (macro nutrients)
 
Got it...do you recommend anything for the macro nutrients?

cheapest and easiest way would be using dry ferts and either weighing them out or use measuring spoons.

Actually, Thrive is a good all in one product and easy to use...

Generally for a planted tank you'll want to boost nitrates up 10-20ppm plus whatever the fish produce. I boost my tank up to 40ppm NO3.

You'll want an equal amount of potassium as nitrate. so a 1:1 ratio.

For PO4 you'll want a 10:1 ratio of NO3:pO4.

Check out rotalabutterfly.com and play with the nutrient calculator.

For NO3 and K use KNO3
For PO4 and K use KH2PO4
For K and some S use K2SO4

Punch those into the rotalabutterfly calculator and it will spit out how much to reach a target, how much to use via a dosing schedule etc.

Or buy some Thrive and follow the bottle lol .....
 
Awesome! I will try out thrive at the start then possibly go down the more detailed path as I get the hang of things. Thanks for taking the time.
 
My only comment is about your cory cats. You can't mix and match species, they like to be in a big school of the same species. If you prefer the pandas for example, get some more of them to make your guys happy and a bigger school just looks better. I'd recommend 6 at least but the more the merrier. Tank looks nice it's coming along well, though!
 
My only comment is about your cory cats. You can't mix and match species, they like to be in a big school of the same species. If you prefer the pandas for example, get some more of them to make your guys happy and a bigger school just looks better. I'd recommend 6 at least but the more the merrier. Tank looks nice it's coming along well, though!
Thanks! Yea it wasn't the plan to do that however the fish store made it seem like it wasn't a big deal at the time when I expressed concern about them needing to be in a school. I will say they do swim together often and are very active together.
 
Yeah Cories prefer 4/6 per species min. A mixed species school is fine but 4/6 of each species. My herd is 30+ in a 75g soon to be 100g & is Greens Palateus & 3 Stripe
 
So adding 2 more each in my 29 gallon shouldn't be a problem. Not against it.
 
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