New 29G Planted Tank!!!

[keithjfuller]

So, my tank is finally set up. I've had the water going for about 2 weeks now and the ammonia is down to .25 (almost there).

I'd like to thank everyone for their advice - I learned a TON. Without it, I probably would have screwed up everything.

I wrote a blog post with pictures (I attached a few pics, but there are more on my site), and you can read it here. Basically, I built a stand and canopy to match our office furniture. Nothing I saw available matched, and the nice stuff was EXPENSIVE. I built everything for under $200 - and it matches perfectly. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but I stained it white because I wanted to be able to see the wood grain. Here is what I've got:

Equipment

29 Gallon Glass
Fluval 306 (Fluval Biomax, Seachem Matrix, Seachem Purigen, & the foam that was included)
Aqueon Pro Heater 150
Finnex Ray II (24")
R2 Extreme LED Moonlight (AMAZING!!!)


Substrate & Details

Eco-Complete (2 x 20lb. bags)
Stoney River White Sand (about 7lbs.)
Natural Rocks (maybe granite)
Driftwood (soaked it for about 5 days)


Plants

Banana Plant (2)
Anubias (2)
Java Fern (4 regular & 1 split leaf)
Sunset Hygra
Ludwigia
Java Moss (still tied down)
Sword
Vals
Moss Ball
Hornwort (floating)
2 I'm not sure of (i'll figure it out)
Flourish Excel

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Wow great job on the tank and the stand! Everything looks really clean and nicely scaped as well. The Ray 2 really makes everything look visually crisp and bright.... I LIKE!

 

[Magicmarymac]

Beautiful!

I love everything about your tank, amazing, clear water, fantastic woodworking.

 

[gman42]

Looks awesome!!!

 

[Convict2161]

Love it! Looks real clean and natural. Love the stand also.

 

[keithjfuller]

Wow great job on the tank and the stand! Everything looks really clean and nicely scaped as well. The Ray 2 really makes everything look visually crisp and bright.... I LIKE!

Thanks. I'm already seeing growth from the plants (less than 2 weeks). The banana plants have both rooted, my hygra is getting longer, and i swear our ludwigia has grown (we planted it about 5 days ago!).

also, i can't stress the amazingness of the R2 moonlight. i was worried because its only 4 little lights, and the fixture is only about 5", but the small size gives off beautiful light. it's not too blue, but enough so you can see inside the tank. also, the small size gives the light a direction, so you can see shimmers (with surface movement) that are hypnotizing to look at.

we also found some baby shrimp in the tank last night. the bury themselves in the sand a bit, then come out when it's dark.

 

[keithjfuller]

Love it! Looks real clean and natural. Love the stand also.

thanks. building the stand was kind of a pain, because i live in a condo and i store my tools over at a friend's place about a 1/2 hour away. i had to take the tank one weekend, build for 11 straight hours then take everything home. then, the following weekend i brought the tank back there and spent about 7 hours building the canopy. then sanding everything on the porch and staining everything in my office was a pain in the backside. but, i'm glad i did it.

 

[keithjfuller]

so my next question is about fish. here is what i'm thinking:

- some colorful danois (about 4)
- about 7 harlequin rasboras (i already have 3 in my other tank that i'm moving)
- a german blue ram
- a dwarf gourami
- a few guppies (3ish)
- some sort of algae eater (maybe an otocinclus or two)
- small shrimps

what do you guys/gals think about that setup? problems? any alternatives that might be cool?

thanks.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

The ram and gourami will probably eat up the shrimp. If you want shrimp (and they're WAY cooler than those fish IMHO) then I'd stick to smaller fish schools. Ottos are perfect algae eaters but 4-5 are better than 2 because they love to school. Guppies are very messy in planted tanks where gravel vacuuming is not recommended. I'd avoid those, especially since this will be an office tank where having it look clean is ideal. Just giving a little heads up to avoid possible headaches.

Gotta agree with everybody else here: great woodwork on the stand! Love the hardscape also. That's one beautiful tank!

 

[Tetra1990]

What kind of shrimp? My bolivian rams are with ghost shrimp and leave them alone.

 

[keithjfuller]

The ram and gourami will probably eat up the shrimp. If you want shrimp (and they're WAY cooler than those fish IMHO) then I'd stick to smaller fish schools. Ottos are perfect algae eaters but 4-5 are better than 2 because they love to school. Guppies are very messy in planted tanks where gravel vacuuming is not recommended. I'd avoid those, especially since this will be an office tank where having it look clean is ideal. Just giving a little heads up to avoid possible headaches.

Gotta agree with everybody else here: great woodwork on the stand! Love the hardscape also. That's one beautiful tank!

Thanks for the feedback - that's why I'm asking for it. I really think that it's smart to take the collective wisdom of everyone here instead of finding out the hard way on my own.

So I'll give a little update:

I started getting diatoms (knew it would happen and it's not big deal)

My one semi-worry was that I was starting to get a tiny amount of green hair algae. Once again, I knew this would probably happen during the cycle. I've been good about cleaning it off. I simply get the siphon going and I rub it off while I'm siphoning it out. I've also made my light run for an hour and a half less. I'll see how it goes and adjust from there.

Today I added three cherry shrimp (I've always wanted some), two nerite snails (I love them), and I moved my one oto into the tank and I'm getting one or two more on Wednesday when my LFS gets them in.

I also think I'm going with a a honey gourami instead of the dwarf. I think that they are small enough to leave the shrimp alone. Also, there are TONS of small crevices for the shrimp to hide in, so I'm no too worried about the ram and the shrimp. If it ends up eating one or two I can live with it, but I'm hoping the shrimp are big enough to hold their own.

In terms of guppies, I only want a few because I think they are cool fish that just swim around everywhere and explore. I know they are mini poop machines, but my thought is that they will help fertilize the plants, but I will keep that info in mind.

It'll be another week or two before I start adding more fish, but for now I'm just trying to get the algae under control.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

What kind of shrimp? My bolivian rams are with ghost shrimp and leave them alone.

Each fish is individual but ghost shrimp are safer to keep with medium sized fish than than most. It's the small colorful non predatory shrimp that are usually eaten. Sometimes rams will get more aggressive as they grow or breed but ghost shrimp are considered feeders anyway so it's not like loosing expensive shrimp. Ghosts can actually eat baby fish. They really know how to turn the tables!

 

[Scottyhorse]

That tank looks amazing!!

 

[keithjfuller]

Each fish is individual but ghost shrimp are safer to keep with medium sized fish than than most. It's the small colorful non predatory shrimp that are usually eaten. Sometimes rams will get more aggressive as they grow or breed but ghost shrimp are considered feeders anyway so it's not like loosing expensive shrimp. Ghosts can actually eat baby fish. They really know how to turn the tables!

that's kind of my thought about the shrimp. i think they are awesome to look at, and i don't' want them to get eaten, but if some do then oh well - that's nature. they have been around for millions of years, so i think they have adapted well enough to know when to hide and when to go for a stroll.

if the little cherries are too easy of targets i think i'll end up putting in some ghost shrimp, which tend to be twice the size of the cherries.

ALSO: we added 4 harlequin rasboras yesterday, and if all goes well i'll be moving the three from my other tank in there to join them. i've also seen some fry swimming around in there. my guess is that they were in the java moss i got about a week ago, and i think they're guppies.

 

[jpchin]

just a head's up on the rams and shrimp. i had 2 german blue rams in my 45 gal tank. i bought 30 red shrimp. to make long story short after doing eveything exactly like the shrimp farm told me to do, my rams ate every single shrimp in about six hours! lesson learned. that was $30.00 worth of shrimp! never again.

 

[jpchin]

oh i forgot to say your aquarium is BEAUTIFUL!!