New tank and Plant help needed

[Sharmon]

I have a 29 gallon freshwater tank.
That has been setup for less than a month. I have an Aqueon QuietFlow 30 filter.
The first thing I did was to put the pea gravel in. Then filled the tank & added Prime to start the cycle. After a week of running just the filter I had the water tested.The water was perfect I was ready for fish and plants. I also have 6 Guppies the females are pregnant. With only 2 plants the fry will have no where to hide how do I protect them? (My grand daughter will be heartbroken if I lose the babies)
I didn't think about planting or decorating with the water in. I have a Java Fern and Amazon sword. My Java fern is growing plantlets and the Amazon sword is producing runners. How do I harvest the plantlets? How big do the plantlets have to be until I can plant them they already have some roots.
How much water can I remove safely without needing to prime again so I can decorate and make a safe place for the fry? I also want to add more substrate.
If I remove most of the water and save it will I have to prime again?
I'm sorry for the booklet.

 

[DutchMuch]

Plantlets of java fern with eventually fall off. amazon sword you can trim off, but I would let them grow good sized first May I ask what your "perfect" water parameters.
Why would you want to remove the water? If you have Any water from one established aquaria and are transferring it over to another tank, its either cycled or will be.

 

[Sharmon]

I don't know what Petco's "perfect" was. She just said it was perfect for fish and plants.
I know one thing for sure I'm not doing this correctly.I forgot testing equipment, siphon, net etc. I have live plants for the first time so I'm a newbie there as well.
I want to remove water so I can add more substrate and to put more decorations in. I want to place the plantlets around the tank to save money.
The top of my tank is 4 1/2 feet from the ground. I didn't think about table height either. It's a re-purposed sewing table.

 

[DutchMuch]

petcos perfect is about or around this
ammonia: 20ppm
Nitrates: 1ppm
Nitrite: 10000ppm
First I want to say go get your own test kit equipment, API master test kit is good
Also don't try to save money at the beginning, go big or go home buy as many plants as your tank can have. then over time trim and remove trim and remove, after that, trim and replant.

 

[Sharmon]

I am on social security so saving money is a must. I'm learning, I've made mistakes. I'm trying new things. I've had tanks before but always the kits and fake decorations.

 

[DutchMuch]

I am on social security so saving money is a must. I'm learning, I've made mistakes. I'm trying new things. I've had tanks before but always the kits and fake decorations.

If your REALLY trying to get your moneys worth for plants, while saving some big bucks (cheesy)
Go to The Planted Tank forum and go to there Buy/Sale and buy some stuff from there. Great quality to, I recommend the user named Soup12 or something Soup something lol

 

[nirbhao]

Whew! If you think that's a booklet, look forward to reading volumes.

1. Yes, get the API master test kit. Strips are less accurate and more expensive per test than liquid, and buying the whole thing at one time is less expensive than buying individual tests.
2. It's not just Petco. Pretty much any pet or fish store employee does not have time to test the water with liquid, and the strips are really not as accurate -- especially if you use them incorrectly. Specifically, read pH and hardness immediately but wait five minutes on the nitrogens.
3. Read up on cycling a tank. Letting your filter run is great, but without an ammonia source, the nitrifying bacteria won't develop.
4. Prime isn't the place to skimp. Using Prime is the one thing I've done right since the beginning. You want to use it as directed with each water change. You will want to change about a third of the water every week.
5. Let the Java fern plantlets fall off on their own, and don't plant them. If you bury the rhizomes, they will rot. In fact, it's possible you're seeing a lot of plantlets because they main plant is dying.
6. Why do you want more substrate?
7. I disagree with Dutch about "go big or go home" with plants. I started by going, every Friday, to Petco and checking out the plants in tubes. I would take them to the counter and ask to have them for cheap or free. The clerks don't want to restock damaged mechanise, so they'll usually give a discount. I generally paid $1 or $2 per tube regardless of size and had about 50% success rate.
8. You're going to have more fry than you can deal with really soon. After a couple of months, you will be relieved to watch them get eaten. Big fish eat the little fish. If you don't believe me, get a Penn-Plax net (not box) and put the fry in there for a couple of weeks. When they are bigger than the adults' mouths, they can fend for themselves.
9. Your filter has cartridges, and the instructions say to replace them every few weeks. LIES. I have the 10 with the LED. It started blinking after two weeks. I realized I could purchase an AquaClear 20 (an all around better filter) every three months for the price of cartridges. I bought a packet of Fluval BioMax and some Purigen, placed quilting batting against the blue grate, and then put the packets behind it. You can also search DIY Aqueon cartridge.
10. Welcome to the forum!

 

[DutchMuch]

reason I said go big or go home, is (well in aquascapes, im into plants more than fish) for a large reason I learned from Jason on the barrreport and other members such as strungout, etc good friends and nice people.
When you start a aquascape or planted tank, you want to get as many plants as you can (what I meant, weather cheap or expensive I didn't say) and plant those to take down high nitrate levels and this is during cycling. this will also effect dramatically the ammonia levels and nitrites. After the plants grow out more some will die off, where I said trim and pull trim and pull, then afterwards trim and replant over the coarse of weeks or months, depends on growth rate.
Also forgot to add that another nice place to get plants (good quality comes for a price) is from GreenMachineonline.com

 

[nirbhao]

I'll agree with the "go big" part, but even having one live plant is beneficial to both the tank and the fish.

 

[Sharmon]

@ Dutch I am experimenting with live plants I never had them before so staying small was prudent and no I'm not going home.
I understand now I didn't start this the correct way.
I used Prime from the very beginning. I need more gravel because I didn't use enough the first time.
I don't think I planted them correctly either. If they fail I will try again later on.
With just 2 plants in a corner in the back of the tank it just doesn't look nice. If I save the plantlets I can raise them out of this tank and put them back when they grow at least that's my thinking. The fish are healthy and happy.

 

[Sharmon]

The reason for wanting to take the water out is to do all the decorating/planting at once. I also need to trim off some of the dying leaves.
My 20 pounds of gravel wasn't enough to cover the roots of plants.
Do I just put it on top of what I have or mix it in? It's going to be the same color.

For a newbie to live plants which spread the quickest and yet be easy to maintain?
At some point I will add Cory Cats, Platies & or Mollies.

 

[toolman]

Do not buy more fish, your tank is NOT cycled. Quoting you "ran the filter for a week", that's not cycling. As nirbhao said read up on the nitrogen cycle, if using bacteria additives (prime has no bacteria all it does is remove heavy metals, chlorine and detoxifies ammonia & nitrites) it still takes minimum 2 1/2- 3 weeks for a tank to cycle.

 

[flchamp89]

20 lbs of gravel is not enough imo.
There are alot of online vendors that sell packages cheap (planted aquarium central). Imo you get good bang for your buck. If you dont buy from orher members id recommend that.

Stem plants will always give ya good bang. I think I have 40 bucks in plants in my tank. And I gave alot away. Just gotta hunt around some.

Obviously money is a factor. Aquatic arts sells some big plants (real big)that can be split up.

 

[Sharmon]

I ran the filter a week with noting but the filter before having it tested. Then I had the water tested. Since the store said the water was fine for plants and fish I bought the Amazon Sword, Java Fern and 6 Guppies.
I'm also testing if I can go without a heater. water is staying at 70 degrees with the house a/c on. Yes I know that's a bit cool.
This is a beginning setup I knew I would have to make changes to it as I learned more.
It's been 2 weeks with fish and plants in it.
I wasn't buying more fish right now it's on the "down the road" list.
Like everything else it has a learning curve.
One thing I need more than anything else is water testing supplies.

 

[flchamp89]

Is bobs pet store still on ridge rd? Used be pretty good.

 

[toolman]

Definitely get something to test water, I've done fish in cycle but need to watch conditions carefully.

 

[Sharmon]

I use Petco. They know me there I buy 100 pounds of dog food, treats & toys there a month & all my daughters rabbit needs. Now I expanded into fish.
This is the tank I using to learn with. It's mostly doing well I just need to tweak it some.

 

[Sharmon]

Yes FL Bob is still there.

 

[flchamp89]

Yes FL Bob is still there.

Was expensive but pretty good place 15 yrs ago

 

[nirbhao]

We all make mistakes in the beginning. Learning is the way to avoid mistakes! I'm glad you're hear asking questions.