29 gallon planted tank

[New_b0401]

Hello I am planning on setting up a 29 gallon planted tank that can grow pretty much anything. I am new so feel free to say if something won't work because I don't have it all figured out quite yet. Keep in mind I am still in school so this might be a pretty slow process as I will have to wait for money to come in before buying anything to high tech\pricy. Anyway I need advice on lighting and substrate. I am planning on using an already cycled 45-65 gallon sponge filter and obviously I will have a heater. I will use root tabs and dose daily of CO2 I have been dosing flourish the recommended dose on my 10 gallon. 10 gallon just has sand would that work as an ok substrate I've used it in my multi tank and still have plenty left. Trying to make this a nice tank without spending an arm and a leg only thing I don't want to skip out on is my lighting.

Plants:
Spiralis
Amazon sword(not looking so hot maybe because of low light?)
Anubus nana
Moss ball
Duckweed
DH (pending)
Guppy grass (pending)
Creeping jenny (pending)
Red root floater (pending)

Any plant suggestions or tips are GREATLY appreciated

Fish:
1 pair of GBR
1 pair of gouramis
10 cardinal tetras
4 swordtails (1 male 3 female)
BN pleco?
Maybe some small cory cats and some fancy guppies or another school not sure yet still thinking about it so this is just a rough guess.
Also two zebra snails will probably end up with pond and ram snails when I move my plants from the 10 its my breeding tank for them.

Filter suggestions? I'd like to use my sponge.
Lighting?
Substrate?
Other plants?
Advice on my stocking list?
Advice on ferts and supplements?
Any other advice would be great!

Also I have really hard water pH of 8.2 out of the tap.... Has anyone used a pH corrector chemical or have any advice on how to lower it? I do frequent water changes and would prefer not to have to buy water when I want to do a water change on this tank thanks

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[clarkm]

Lighting I would for sure look at the finnex planted plus on amazon. I got it 6 months ago and my plants love the color spectrum and the moonlight feature is sweet. Great price for the light.

Sand will work for substrate just be sure to use good root tabs. I use eco complete in my tank. It's a great substrate just a bit expensive.

I have dwarf sag in my tank that I really like. It spreads across the substrate. I also have really hard water with a ph of 8.2-8.4 and I never do anything different. A steady ph is more important that anything. Don't try to adjust it at all. Mine has been setup a total of 3 years with this last year as a planted tank and the hard water has never hurt anything.


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[clarkm]

Also look into metricide 14 as a carbon source if u won't have co2 gas. It's a lot cheaper than excell and twice the strength. I dose 30 ml of it daily in my tank.


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[New_b0401]

Lighting I would for sure look at the finnex planted plus on amazon. I got it 6 months ago and my plants love the color spectrum and the moonlight feature is sweet. Great price for the light.

Sand will work for substrate just be sure to use good root tabs. I use eco complete in my tank. It's a great substrate just a bit expensive.

I have dwarf sag in my tank that I really like. It spreads across the substrate. I also have really hard water with a ph of 8.2-8.4 and I never do anything different. A steady ph is more important that anything. Don't try to adjust it at all. Mine has been setup a total of 3 years with this last year as a planted tank and the hard water has never hurt anything. View attachment 243994


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Thanks I'll look into the light! Any suggestions on root tabs? I'm more worried about the ph lever for my GBRS since they are so sensitive to water conditions....

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[New_b0401]

Ok thanks! Love your tank by the way I'm a HUGE angel fan haha

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[clarkm]

Ok I am not sure on the ph for gbrs as I have not had experience with them but I have heard they are sensitive. I have never tried to change my waters ph so can't help you there.

Look up mebbids diy root tab thread here on the forum. It's what I use and I am seeing great results from them. It's oscomote + plant food for land plants put into pill gel capsules and inserted into substrate. Much cheaper than ones you can buy and work better. That thread explains it all.

Thanks I love angels just wish I had started with more than two as these two hate each other and fight a lot and I have heard more of them can lower aggression.


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[New_b0401]

Ok I am not sure on the ph for gbrs as I have not had experience with them but I have heard they are sensitive. I have never tried to change my waters ph so can't help you there.

Look up mebbids diy root tab thread here on the forum. It's what I use and I am seeing great results from them. It's oscomote + plant food for land plants put into pill gel capsules and inserted into substrate. Much cheaper than ones you can buy and work better. That thread explains it all.

Thanks I love angels just wish I had started with more than two as these two hate each other and fight a lot and I have heard more of them can lower aggression.


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Ok thanks I'll take a look and yes they can be pretty aggressive do you have any sort of schooling fish I added danios and it cut down on aggression gives the angels something to distract them they've never showed aggression towards the danios its almost like something else to watch other then fight sometimes the two school together now

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[New_b0401]

Looked up some reviews on the finnex planted plus and almost all suggested having two of those lights on a 29 gallon bc of its depth any other opinions on that and if so is there a way to get one light that would be under the price of two finnex $200 that would work?

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[clarkm]

I don't really agree with that, necessarily. It depends on what type of plants you are wanting. I have a tall tank at 20 inches. It's 58 gallons and I only use one planted plus and everything is growing great and spreading with minimal algae growth. and I have been using it 6 months now. If I added another one I would most definately need pressurized co2 gas.


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[clarkm]

I'm sure you could get a t5ho bulb fixture for way less that would give u all the light u need. Just have To change bulbs every 8 months or so as they lose power over time. Also led lights are cheaper to run on electricity bill.


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[New_b0401]

Ok great thanks! I was hoping that would be the case 2 seemed like a lot. And I'm only looking at mostly low maybe a couple medium light plants although I would love baby tears and dwarf hair grass and those are considered high light do you think I'd be ok?

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[clarkm]

Both of those plants as far as I know are considered high light / co2 needy plants so might be difficult. I tried dwarf hair grass and had no luck. I could never get it to root and it was constantly floating so I got rid of it.

I am using dwarf sagataria and star repens as "carpet plants". The sagataria is spreading like crazy now after 4 months and the star repens has only been planted two weeks but I am seeing little growth so far.


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[New_b0401]

Both of those plants as far as I know are considered high light / co2 needy plants so might be difficult. I tried dwarf hair grass and had no luck. I could never get it to root and it was constantly floating so I got rid of it.

I am using dwarf sagataria and star repens as "carpet plants". The sagataria is spreading like crazy now after 4 months and the star repens has only been planted two weeks but I am seeing little growth so far. View attachment 244022View attachment 244023


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Ok cool! I really am in need of a carpet plant... I do love the look of star repens never heard of dwarf sagataria I'll have to do some research on both

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[New_b0401]

Plant identification please?

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[New_b0401]

Picture of plant I was speaking of in my previous post

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[azmodan]

I run a Finnex Planted+ on my 29g and am pretty happy with it for what it does (solid medium light). Anything stronger and you'd probably want pressurized CO2 or a very, very high dosage of glutaraldehyde. Since you're going the non-pressurized CO2 route as already mentioned you should look into getting some Metricide (generic sold form of glutaraldehyde) and begin dousing it at a pretty high amount once you begin planting. I would start by not running the light more than 6 hours a day. For ferts I'd look into something like PPS-Pro, which utilizes a full regiment of necessary ferts that you can mix yourself. It sounds complicated but it's actually very simple and the dry ferts you can buy all packaged off of sites like Green Leaf Aquariums (GLA) and overall they're significantly cheaper than buying bottled ferts from brands like Seachem. You'll just need a cheap digital food scale to measure out the exact amounts (~$10 on Amazon). Substrate just depends on your budget. Sand, EcoComplete, ADA Aquasoil...

I would not recommend HC or DHG in a tank without pressurized CO2, especially as a beginner. Other carpeting plants you could look that you could look into are dwarf sag (which is a good foreground plant but can grow 5-7 inches tall sometimes), staur repens, ranalisma rostrata (similar to dwarf sag visually but only grows 1-2 inches tall), and micrantherum 'monte carlo'. I have the ranalisma rostrata and monte carlo doing well in my 29g but I've never tried them without pressurized CO2 too.

Oh and regarding your PH -- just leave it, it's fine. Stable is always better than fluctuating.

 

[New_b0401]

I run a Finnex Planted+ on my 29g and am pretty happy with it for what it does (solid medium light). Anything stronger and you'd probably want pressurized CO2 or a very, very high dosage of glutaraldehyde. Since you're going the non-pressurized CO2 route as already mentioned you should look into getting some Metricide (generic sold form of glutaraldehyde) and begin dousing it at a pretty high amount once you begin planting. I would start by not running the light more than 6 hours a day. For ferts I'd look into something like PPS-Pro, which utilizes a full regiment of necessary ferts that you can mix yourself. It sounds complicated but it's actually very simple and the dry ferts you can buy all packaged off of sites like Green Leaf Aquariums (GLA) and overall they're significantly cheaper than buying bottled ferts from brands like Seachem. You'll just need a cheap digital food scale to measure out the exact amounts (~$10 on Amazon). Substrate just depends on your budget. Sand, EcoComplete, ADA Aquasoil...

I would not recommend HC or DHG in a tank without pressurized CO2, especially as a beginner. Other carpeting plants you could look that you could look into are dwarf sag (which is a good foreground plant but can grow 5-7 inches tall sometimes), staur repens, ranalisma rostrata (similar to dwarf sag visually but only grows 1-2 inches tall), and micrantherum 'monte carlo'. I have the ranalisma rostrata and monte carlo doing well in my 29g but I've never tried them without pressurized CO2 too.

Ok thank you for all the info would a DIY CO2 system be the same as a pressurized one? I was debating trying it out on my 10 gallon any experience with a DIY version? Also can you give me any info on a good pressurized CO2 system and how much one would roughly cost and a little bit about them and how they work I will of course do my research but I find myself finding things that sometimes contradict each other and then I just end up being more confused.

Also any help identifying the plant above?

Do you have any pictures of your 29 I would love to see it!


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[azmodan]

The plant looks like it could be a vallisneria.

Sadly I don't have any experience with DIY CO2 but hopefully Fresh2o will chime in about that. The pressurized CO2 rig I run right now is an Aquatek paintball set up. The price broke down something like this:

CO2 regulator (also came with tubing and bubble counter) - $80
CO2 tank - $20 (actually I bought two but only one at a time is needed)
Drop checker - $10
Diffuser - $3
Tank fill - $3.50 at Sports Authority
Timer - $5

On my 29g my 24oz tank lasts around 3 months before needing a refill. Overall it was pretty easy to set up and I'm pleased with the results. If you're still new to planted tanks I might recommend getting a feel for successfully growing and maintaining lower light plants in low-tech set ups, that way you can get familiar with lighting, ferts, glut, substrates, etc. Much easier to work yourself up from there IMO. But either way we can help you a lot here!

 

[New_b0401]

The plant looks like it could be a vallisneria.

Sadly I don't have any experience with DIY CO2 but hopefully Fresh2o will chime in about that. The pressurized CO2 rig I run right now is an Aquatek paintball set up. The price broke down something like this:

CO2 regulator (also came with tubing and bubble counter) - $80
CO2 tank - $20 (actually I bought two but only one at a time is needed)
Drop checker - $10
Diffuser - $3
Tank fill - $3.50 at Sports Authority
Timer - $5

On my 29g my 24oz tank lasts around 3 months before needing a refill. Overall it was pretty easy to set up and I'm pleased with the results. If you're still new to planted tanks I might recommend getting a feel for successfully growing and maintaining lower light plants in low-tech set ups, that way you can get familiar with lighting, ferts, glut, substrates, etc. Much easier to work yourself up from there IMO. But either way we can help you a lot here!

Ok thanks love the break down on prices. I will definitely build my way up I don't want to get over whelmed and would rather learn from my mistakes now before investing a lot. All this stuff is kinda confusing a lot of information its great but still trying to figure it all out haha (;

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[azmodan]

Yup just take it slow and ask lots of questions before buying stuff!