28 Gallon bow front FW build

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BfishLpond78

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So I decided to buy my GF a tank...just an excuse for me to get another one. After the first one, I will try and do things correctly this time. Obviously starting with a fishless cycle, gonna take some seeded media from my 55 gal to get it up and going. I bought the marine sand, just plain sand no BB included hoping it will work out, its really fine grade, like sugar. So if you have any tips or experience with this please I welcome any suggestions, i really like the look of the sand IMO. I rinsed it out the best i could for about 30 mins. I got my bottle of pure ammo no scents or anything. Does anyone know how much to put in per gallon to get it up to 4ppm? I mean have an API test kit, but I left it at home.

Right now its just a standard kit tank, penguin bio-wheel, regular light fixture and aqueon heater. Gonna let the tank settle so i can turn on the filter later and start cycling.

I have attached a picture. Only inhabitants now is sand a sweet looking bowl fish...i know you're jealous :D
 

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Lol I know what you mean I convinced my wife into getting a 10 gallon for her and she gets to pick out the fish and decor for it.

I like the look of sand too my next one will be sand bed instead of gravel and live plants.

Where did you get that bowl fish it looks cool I think I might want one can you breed those or not lol
 
Nice, I really want to get one of these tanks!

Are you going to do live plants?
 
The bowl fish are a hard species to breed, they require a specific type of cheerio to get it reproduce...haha. I really like the look of the sand as well, i really wanted the black sand, but the GF likes the white. I'll do the black in my 55 when I have to move in a few months.

I just picked it up at PetCo for 100 bucks, I really couldn't beat it. Filter, heater, tank, I looked on CL for awhile but I really wanted a BowFront. I think down the road I will start fooling around with plants, and it will probably be in this tank, because getting started in plants can be expensive, if you do good lights, CO2, ferts and all that jazz and knowing me I will go all out and get everything...lol. For now i'm just going to take my time and hopefully be able to sway the GF into a natural scape instead of something tacky...
 
All depends on the kinds of plants you want... I have a planted 10g I use as a quarantine and all it gets is 10 hours of light, granted it's got a fluorite substrate but there's both varieties of anacharis, some crypts, apon. crispus, some anubias, java moss, green hygro and wisteria growing fast and green. I stopped dosing it with Flourish a couple weeks ago and I haven't noticed a difference.

The cuttings from that tank are mostly what populated my 56g back when I first set it up. It is possible to spend a ton on plant setups... but I've purposefully avoided doing that :brows:
 
I honestly just want some flame or java moss to carpet a piece of driftwood, maybe some dwarf hair grass and some moss balls...lol. Nothing crazy, but knowing how I am, i'm going to eventually have CO2 and all the crazy stuff. I become a mad scientist sometimes.
 
Flame moss is awesome... I've had zero luck finding it locally. Even Java is hard to come by in my area at times for whatever reason :ermm:
 
Yea, i hear alot of people go on Ebay and get it from across the pond. When im all settled in at my new house i'll prolly spring for something interesting.
 
Another question, concerning using the sand, it's been settling for about 2 hours now? should I wait till morning to turn on the filter so i can start cycling? Will the dust particles ruin my filter?
 
The tank is now clear and i have just added my first batch of pure ammo, gonna wait 30mins and test where I am at. Gonna follow the almost complete guide to fishless cycling and get it up to 4ppm. I will let you know when I do so I can get feedback.
 
The tank is now clear and i have just added my first batch of pure ammo, gonna wait 30mins and test where I am at. Gonna follow the almost complete guide to fishless cycling and get it up to 4ppm. I will let you know when I do so I can get feedback.
I will let it seat for the night and turn the filter after the dust settle a little more.
Answering to your first question, developed a excel sheet to calculate how much ammonia to add.
For your tank, a 28 Gallon, with pure ammonia at 10% concentration (which is the common for sale, like ACE store) you will require to add 4.2 mililitres of your ammonia to reach 4ppm.

But because the sand level, I think that you have in your tank like 25 to 26 G of water, so 4.0 ml of water should make it.

Good luck
 
Update on the build, my G/F finally decided on a theme for the tank. She was looking for a somewhat natural look. She was actually working on a beach or alice in wonderland theme...I was actually kinda curious as to the wonderland look. But she decided on a more peaceful or Zen theme.

Ammo is dosed at 4ppm, nitrItes and nitrAtes are currently zero, to be expected in the beginning of the cycle. Going to bringing over some of my gravel and filter media for her to help with the seeding process. I just wanted her to learn the patients of having the aquarium stabilize itself.

So far she wants to do some Cory Cats, Pictus Cats, Pleco, and a dwarf frog, she has a crazy obsession with those. I'm gonna get her some MTS to help with cultivating the sand to avoid any gas buildups (how many MTS for a 28gal with 30lbs of sand do you think?)

I have a nice branched piece of Malaysian Driftwood that currently being boiled and soaked. I'm hoping down the road when i attempt planted to get some mosses to grow on it to maybe have it look like a tree. I wont have a picture till later but I'll be sure to post it.
 
Update on the build, my G/F finally decided on a theme for the tank. She was looking for a somewhat natural look. She was actually working on a beach or alice in wonderland theme...I was actually kinda curious as to the wonderland look. But she decided on a more peaceful or Zen theme.

Ammo is dosed at 4ppm, nitrItes and nitrAtes are currently zero, to be expected in the beginning of the cycle. Going to bringing over some of my gravel and filter media for her to help with the seeding process. I just wanted her to learn the patients of having the aquarium stabilize itself.

So far she wants to do some Cory Cats, Pictus Cats, Pleco, and a dwarf frog, she has a crazy obsession with those. I'm gonna get her some MTS to help with cultivating the sand to avoid any gas buildups (how many MTS for a 28gal with 30lbs of sand do you think?)

I have a nice branched piece of Malaysian Driftwood that currently being boiled and soaked. I'm hoping down the road when i attempt planted to get some mosses to grow on it to maybe have it look like a tree. I wont have a picture till later but I'll be sure to post it.

IME, start with 2 MTS and it won't be long before you have plenty of them lol.
 
I'm interested to see how this turns out. My kids have the same tank and we're currently getting close to finishing the fishless cycle.
 
Im trying to post a picture of the new decorations, and all it is giving me as an option is to insert a URL...when i first posted it asked me to attach a link...how do i do this?
 
Ok so here is the finished product with my gf tank, all cycled and ready to go. I am a little jealous of the piece of driftwood she has cause i think it would look awesome with some flame or xmas moss attached to it, just like a real tree. Right now it has one spotted cory cat and pictus catfish. She wants some Dwarf Frogs, would they be ok in there?
 

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BfishLpond78 said:
Ok so here is the finished product with my gf tank, all cycled and ready to go. I am a little jealous of the piece of driftwood she has cause i think it would look awesome with some flame or xmas moss attached to it, just like a real tree. Right now it has one spotted cory cat and pictus catfish. She wants some Dwarf Frogs, would they be ok in there?

Great looking tank!

I agree that some xmass, or mini xmass moss would look great on the DW.

Can't say about the frogs.
 
Well either way, i'm going to need some more active swimming fish. Can anyone recommend something fun for in there. It's for the g/f so she's not picky.

Mini Xmas Moss...i am now curious, where do you find this stuff?
 
Well either way, i'm going to need some more active swimming fish. Can anyone recommend something fun for in there. It's for the g/f so she's not picky.

Mini Xmas Moss...i am now curious, where do you find this stuff?

There's glofish, or a Tetra of some sort for shoaling fish, but I don't know what would go with what you have. Hopefully others will have better recommendations.

Here's the mini Xmass moss: aqua forest aquarium

I have it in my Betta community tank trying to get it to grow up the built in 3D background. It's gonna take a while I'm guessing lol. I put some on DW in my daughters tank too.
 
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