29 planted?

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reun

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Sep 7, 2008
Messages
76
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Hello! its been a while since I attempted to keep plants in my 29 gallon tank. the first time resulted in not knowing how to take care of them, the plants dying, and a infestation of junk snails that I am still dealing with.

but, I am thinking of trying it over again. the 29 gallon is empty exept for my corys, and i am thinking of cycling up my 10 gallon tank, tearing the 29 gallon down to get rid of junk snails and getting all new decor and substrate and filter media, starting from scratch basicaly.

now, my water conditions are 9Dh hardness, 7.8 PH, and 120ppm KH.

the tank gets indirect sunlight most of the day, with a patch of direct sun on half of the tank just before sunset.

I also am running two 14w full spectrum bulbs under the hood, putting out 854 lumens each. from what i have read, even though they have the advertised efficiency of a 60w bulb, by aquarium standards,as far as light output, their actual light output is a little low for my tank.

is it possible to get plants that will live in lower light and still be healthy? the type of plants i wanted was any type of small grass, i know java moss will grow almost anywhere, and i wanted a larger plant as well. my only preferance is some plant that fit those standards, are not terribly hard to find or care for. any ideas?

also, if i do plant and i keep my tank lights on after getting rid of the snails, what do i do for algae control? right now i only have a few corys and was planning on adding a school of ember tetras or something else very small...even so its only a 29 gallon, and the algae eaters i have seen (other than snails) all seem to get big or need to be in schools.

another question. what substrate to get? im sure this depends on the plant, but i am on a budget, and was wondering what i could use. would pool filter sand be too densly packed? i cant really use my old substrate. last time i took the tank apart i baked my rocks and substrate in the oven at 350 degrees for a couple hours to try and get rid of snails and eggs...it didnt work. so, any suggestions on all of this?
 
Your main options in a low light aquarium are going to be Java Moss, Java Fern, Anubias, and Crypts. There are several varieties of Java Fern, Anubias, and Cyrpts so you can get quite a variety of size and appearance.

Pool Filter Sand is actually one of the recommended substrates. You'll either need to stir it manually yourself occationally or get some Malaysian Trumpet Snails to stir it for you. As long as you don't over feed their numbers will stay reasonable.
 
ok, thank you! i gravel vac every week when i do the 30% water change. i take it that there are no grass looking plants that will survive in that lighting? basically, when i re-do the tank, im going to be using styrafoam to make a custom backing and some caves, i was thinking about making a couple places in the styrafoam "rock" where i was going to stash substrate and some grass type materials.

also, do any algae eaters come to mind with a small size and bio load? the only stockings i was planning on was my small school of corys and two cherry barbs, and then a school of very small tetras or other fish, like ember tetras.

also, when it comes to stiring the sand, what about the area where the plants are? does it need to be stirred as well?

p.s. with as many problems as i have had with these junk snails i REALLY dont want to deal with any type of snails again.
 
If the *only* reason you want to tear down your 29 gal is to get rid of the current snails you have, then there is no need to do that. Head to your LFS and get a Yo-Yo Loach. I had a 29 gal planted tank overrun with snails of all sorts (pond snails, MTS, you name it). I put one Yo-Yo Loach in there and within about two weeks there wasn't a living snail anywhere in the tank. They are absolutely voracious snail eaters, yet peaceful and great for a general community tank. (If you can't find Yo-Yo Loaches, then most other small loaches will do the same, as far as I know. I know people have reported success using a small Clown Loach for this purpose, though eventually a year or two down the road a Clown Loach will outgrow the size of your tank and you'll need to take it back or else give it away to someone with a larger tank).

Plus you have to realize, if you are putting in live plants, you ARE going to be putting in snails. That's just life...there are always snail eggs along for the ride on plants, and I'm not convinced any "pre-treatment" of the plants is 100% effective at removing them. Thus the attractiveness of the loach approach; it doesn't matter if there are "tag alongs" that come in on your plants, your loach will take care of them. (And by the way, don't worry about them starving--while they love snails, my experience is they will eat anything else you feed your tank as well, from flake food to sinking pellets to live bloodworms or brine shrimp. They are little eating machines!)

As for "grass," I don't think there is anything like that that will grow with 1 watt-per-gallon, which is the lighting you are going to have on that tank (28W over 29 gal). Low light tanks are less work than higher light tanks, but they are also more limited in what will grow. Even if you doubled your light over the tank you would struggle to grow any sort of grassy carpeting plant, at least that I'm aware of.

If you have low light over the tank, and some good, reasonably fast-growing low-light plants, then you shouldn't have a ton of problems with algae. Ironically, one of the best ways to control algae in a planted tank is by having snails to eat it (which I know you won't be very excited about!) Other options include otos--having a handful of them in your tank will help keep brown "algae" (actually diatoms) and some of the softer green algaes in check. Amano shrimp eat some varieties of algae and would be fine in a community tank as long as there weren't any particularly big fish in there. Some livebearers are surprisingly good at eating algae (actually most livebearers do... I have a pair of endler/guppy hybrids that are constantly eating algae off my plants, mollies and swordtails do the same, I would assume platys as well). I'm not sure what kind they are eating but they are definitely eating something. Specialty fish like American Flag Fish can do an awesome job of keeping algaes like the tougher BBA in check, and a lone (or pair) of flag fish typically do fine in a community tank (I had 3 in my 29 gal community tank without problems). They are really cool fish to boot.

Stirring sand means just disturbing the depths of it enough to prevent pockets of gasses from forming. It's typically only needed with sand substrates; gravel substrates allow enough water flow where it isn't usually a concern. If you don't have MTS to stir your sand, then all you need to do is periodically take some sort of poker (some ppl use a chopstick) to poke down into the sand and move it around a bit...you don't need to move it a ton and stir it up vigorously enough to disturb the plant roots, just sort of stick the chopstick in and jiggle it around a little. I know people with sand who simply do this as part of their regular water-changing routine every week or every other week.

Anyway, you definitely have options. Good luck! :silly:
 
thank you for all the info! i heard that loaches liked schools...would a yoyo loach be content to school with my corys? cause, thats really the only option...a full school of loaches WITH the corys would really crowd up the tank.

i will be re doing the tank anyway, because i want to try my hand at styrafoam carving, lol.

the question then is, if i should add a loach, and forget replacing my substrate, do i need to change it in any way? its very small, almost sand like, smooth bits of gravel ranging from 1mm to 3mm. i got it because i had read that the smoother fine substrate was better for the corys barbels. its about 1.5" deep...should i change anything? should i add a finer substrate or will it work ok?

i can get more powerfull bulbs if needed, according to some charts i have been looking at, i will be running about 5 lumens per square inch, which is almost in the "low light rating"...the output on these bulbs is a little better than standard tubes, so its the equivalent of running 1.5w per gallon and also it does get sunlight or at least window light throughout the day. but, if i cant find anything that will grow, i will find more powerfull bulbs (my cories will hate that).

thank you all for the help so far!
 
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