# 29g Community Tank - A Newbies Journal



## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

*Introduction*

So I've had the itch to setup an aquarium lately and finally got around to doing it. On a bit of impulse my wife and I picked up a 29 gallon aquarium and stand. While I kept several aquariums when I was younger I really consider this my first "real" aquarium. Real in that I'm doing more than just filling a tank with water and putting fish in that I think look cool. Back when I was younger the internet was still a new and crazy fad, so being able to research things like cycling tanks and fish compatibility generally had to be learned via those book things and _helpful_ pet shop employees - obviously I didn't learn much. I thought it would be cool to keep a log/journal of sorts online as I stumble my way through this new hobby. Hopefully by doing this I can pick up some helpful input as well maybe provide a guide of what _not_ to do as I screw things up.


*Getting Up to Speed*

At this point I've had the aquarium running for about two-three weeks. So I'll get everybody up to speed on where I'm at.




So initially I started out with some basic gravel and polished stones. The tank at this stage had the basic hood/light that came with the aquarium, running a 17w T8 if I remember correctly. I replaced the filter with an Aquaclear 50 after reading around some. Pretty quickly though I decide that I wanted to do a planted tank. I decided that I really wanted several anubias' in the tank, primarily the nana variety. I also wanted to work in some java moss as well as a couple of cryptocorynes and maybe some kind of carpeting foreground plants. So off I went searching for plants and other decorations...



We struck gold by finding some really nice rocks and a piece of drift wood by a local river. We paid for it though...our little adventure took place in below freezing temperatures in 4-6in of snow. Luckily the shore was pretty clear of snow and ice so we were able to pick out things easily, getting them back up to the car was the fun part. I had very little luck with the plants, however. I was only able to find some java moss and a cryp, which I pretty sure is cryptocoryne wendtii brown. I also decided that I didn't really like the gravel and switched it out for some nice light sand. I had zero luck finding anubias, which honestly was main plant I was after. I did find some at Petco but was unable to determine the variety (I only wanted the nana or "dwarf" variety for now). So I called every local pet/fish store as well as several nurseries in the area to no avail. I did find one that said they would try to order it, and call me if it came in.

Shortly after adding the plants we added in some cory cats, nerite snails, and malaysian trumpet snails. I want to note that at this point I knew that the tank needed to be cycled before adding in a large amount of fish, but I was unaware that this could be done without adding fishing (and potentially harming them). A local fish store said that cories would do fine for cycling the tank... If I'd done my homework a little better I would have started with a fishless cycle, but unfortunately these guys are going to have to take one for the team.



Lucky day! I just happened to stop into the fish store that I spoke to about ordering the anubias var. nana and they got them in! They didn't call me, but...meh. They only got three in and I cleaned them out, I had to pay way more than I expected ($10 a plant) but was honestly just so happy to find them I didn't care. I guess that's not too bad considering my alternative was to roll the dice on getting some online, paying an ungodly amount of shipping, and still paying $10 or more per plant and risk getting a dead one. On impulse I added in some dwarf sag, but after reading that it will most likely grow taller than I'd like because of my lower lighting I plan on replacing it with some micro sword soon. I also picked up a few stashes of anacharis to keep in the tank to help during the cycling period, I don't expect to keep this once the cycling is complete.

I also upgraded the aquarium lights. I removed the single T8 fixture and replaced it with a 2 bulb T5 fixture giving me 48watts. This gives me 1.66 watts per gallon, which is still on the low light side. I really don't want to invest more than what I did on lighting so this will have to do. While I don't plan on using a C02 system I will be using Seachem's Flourish Excel, I've read good things about it. 

I made a few adjustments to the Aquaclear filter after reading a couple of guides on tweaking filters like this. You may notice that I added a layer of filtering to the intake on the Aquaclear. I took the black filter pad (some sort of black mesh, not the carbon pack or anything) from the crummy filter that came with the aquarium and cut a portion and zip tied it to the bottom of the intake, this seems to help keep the larger crap from finding its way into the filter. It's zip-tied tight enough to stay in place, but can be removed easily for cleaning. I also removed the carbon pack from the Aquaclear and replaced it with another bacteria sponge thing.



My plan is to create a bed of the anubias on a flat rock. The rock is hidden behind the front rocks so I was able to get away with securing the anubias in a less than pretty way until they take hold with their roots. Rather than tying them down with fishing line, as I did with the java moss, I weighted them down with two fishing weights attached two the ends of a tiny strand of fishing line. I figured this would make it easy to remove the weights without having to lift out the whole rock, it also allowed me to position (and reposition) the plants easily. Worst case the roots get tangled in with the weights and I just clip the line and remove them. Rather than using lead fishing weights I used some sort of "eco-friendly" weights. No sure if this will make a difference or not but at like 10c more I'm not exactly breaking the bank. I plan to watch the weights to make sure they don't rust.



Since I don't plan on keeping the anacharis once the tank is cycled I secured it in a similar, temporary fashion. I just tied the bunch up with fishing line (not too tight) and attached a weight to the other end of the line and hung it on the back of the aquarium. This keeps the bunch from floating all over the place (like into my filter or something) and also allows me to easily remove them when the tank is done cycling.

So that's pretty much where I'm at now. The tank seems to be in the nitrite portion of the cycling process as the ammonia levels have dropped to around 0.25ppm. I'm doing frequent, small, water changes to keep the nitrite levels manageable to help ease the stress on the cories. So far they seem to be doing fairly well. They've had a bit of color loss, but are swimming actively and eat regularly.


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## shadetreeme (Oct 11, 2010)

Looking GREAT !!!!! 
What fish are you gonna put in there once the cycle is done??


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

I'd like to make the "focus fish" 2-3 opaline gourami (1 male and 1-2 females). I'll probably put in a couple of otos as well. Right now I'm kinda up in the air on a specific type, but I'd also like to add some sort of schooling fish, probably around 6. I'm kinda leaning towards cherry barbs or black neon tetras. It's my understanding that the gourami can be temperamental towards other fish so I need to find something that can hold it's own in the tank. I plan on adding the gourami last as I've read that this can ease their aggression towards the other fish, as they tend to focus on the new comers to the tank. This load will put me right at my limit (maybe just a touch above) for the tank, but I plan on being pretty diligent with the water changes so I think I'll be OK.


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## Grimmjow (Jul 22, 2009)

Mmm I dunno if Id put those gourami in a 29, I have a few in my 46 gallon and they look too big for it. And Ive seem them get pretty aggressive, not all the time but Ive seen it and I think limiting that space will only make it worse.


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

Grimmjow said:


> Mmm I dunno if Id put those gourami in a 29, I have a few in my 46 gallon and they look too big for it. And Ive seem them get pretty aggressive, not all the time but Ive seen it and I think limiting that space will only make it worse.


I may only add one/two, and might keep them all females, I still have quite a while before I worry about adding them so I plenty of time to research it. Right now I'm using AqAdvisor.com to do quick checks on compatibility and such, of course I understand it's not scripture and should be checked against other resources, but it hasn't thrown any red flags up due to the tank size and gourami. I may end up looking into the dwarf gourami though, just so I don't have to worry about the tank being too small.


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

*UPDATE: Water Parameters*

So, using my trusty API test kit, I noticed something a little odd while testing the water parameters in the tank today. So far my ammonia has been dropping while my nitrite levels are rising. I only tested for nitrate once, about a week ago. It is my understanding that I won't really begin to see nitrate until the nitrite levels begin to lower, and that this won't happen for some time as the nitrite->nitrate portion of the cycling process takes the longest.

Anyway, my testing today showed ammonia at 0.25ppm, nitrite at 5ppm (possibly higher as the test only shows a max of 5), and nitrate at 10-20ppm (hard to tell as the colors on the test are almost identical). So I'm really curious as to why I'm seeing such significant nitrate levels while my nitrite is still so high. I probably just missed something and this is normal, but thought I would check. I should also note that this is very likely a result of my error, as the nitrate test is the most _involved_. This is only my second time testing for nitrate so I probably goofed up somewhere.

Regardless I went ahead and did about a 15-20% water change and added in some Seachem Prime. I'll test again tomorrow to see where the nitrate is at.


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## cmc29 (Jan 10, 2010)

Ferret said:


> So, using my trusty API test kit, I noticed something a little odd while testing the water parameters in the tank today. So far my ammonia has been dropping while my nitrite levels are rising. I only tested for nitrate once, about a week ago. It is my understanding that I won't really begin to see nitrate until the nitrite levels begin to lower, and that this won't happen for some time as the nitrite->nitrate portion of the cycling process takes the longest.
> 
> Anyway, my testing today showed ammonia at 0.25ppm, nitrite at 5ppm (possibly higher as the test only shows a max of 5), and nitrate at 10-20ppm (hard to tell as the colors on the test are almost identical). So I'm really curious as to why I'm seeing such significant nitrate levels while my nitrite is still so high. I probably just missed something and this is normal, but thought I would check. I should also note that this is very likely a result of my error, as the nitrate test is the most _involved_. This is only my second time testing for nitrate so I probably goofed up somewhere.
> 
> Regardless I went ahead and did about a 15-20% water change and added in some Seachem Prime. I'll test again tomorrow to see where the nitrate is at.


 
make sure you really shake that nitrate test #2 really really really well, sometimes it'll give you a false reading.
nice looking setup
i've used that same aquaclear on a 29 gallon planted before. i had to make sure to keep my water level high to reduce surface water agitation.


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

Agree, the tank is coming along nicely.


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

*UPDATE: Wisteria*



I stopped by my LFS on the way home from class to check out the plants. I picked up some water wisteria to replace the floating anacharis, I think I like the look of it a bit more and may keep it after the cycling is done...not sure. I usually see wisteria planted but read that it can be floated as well, anybody had good luck keeping it like this? I moved it over to the left side to provide some shade for the anubias, probably not needed at only 1.66 watts per gallon but meh. I also had a hitchhiker that came along with the wisteria.




I'm not sure what this is, and would love some input. I went ahead and added it to the tank as I've been toying with the idea of keeping some floating plants like this. I tried duckweed but found it to be too annoying due to it's smaller size. This looks to be about the right size and I think it would be cool if it took off in the aquarium. No luck on the micro sword, but Petco usually stocks it and they're supposed to get a new shipment of plants in this week so I'll keep checking.


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## cmc29 (Jan 10, 2010)

i think the wisteria looks good floated, i kept some in my 29 and tried to anchor it underneath where the aquaclear filter dumped the water back into the tank. I didn't leave it there for more than a month or so, so im not sure for long term results. 

on a side note: what part of arkansas are you from?, you may have better options for plants than petco or petsmart.


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

If that's not duckweed maybe it's frogbit??


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

cmc29 said:


> i think the wisteria looks good floated, i kept some in my 29 and tried to anchor it underneath where the aquaclear filter dumped the water back into the tank. I didn't leave it there for more than a month or so, so im not sure for long term results.
> 
> on a side note: what part of arkansas are you from?, you may have better options for plants than petco or petsmart.


That's where I put this batch, under the filter. I moved it to the right side (where the anacharis was) though as I wasn't sure how it would handle being agitated by the water. I live in Fort Smith, there are several pet stores around here that stock aquatic plants, the catch is that they all pretty much order from the same distributor (some place in Oklahoma). There's a newer place in Van Buren that stocks with more variety (it's where I picked up the anubias) but I don't make it out there as often since it's about a 15-20min drive. Petco is just down the road a bit and they tend to have a decent enough stock of the more common plant varieties, I usually go there as a last resort as I prefer to support the local fish store(s).




aunt kymmie said:


> If that's not duckweed maybe it's frogbit??


It seems a bit small against the frogbit I've seen, but that's only been in videos. It's also seems to have a sort of a soft felt layer to it. I remember seeing a picture that looked really similar before but I can't for the life of me remember where.


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

*UPDATE: Water Parameters*



Tested the water this morning, and there's that damn nitrate again. Ammonia was .25ppm, nitrite +5ppm, and nitrate still in the 10-20ppm range. Thinking that there might be something coming from the tap I tested my water straight from the tap, 0 nitrate.

EDIT: I wanted to note that the only additives in the tank are Seachem Prime (after water changes) and Seachem Flourish Excel (a cap full every other day).


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

*UPDATE: Brown Algae*



I noticed that there appears to be some brown algae growing in the tank. Most noticeably on the front rock, and on the back glass of the aquarium. A quick search returned the common causes of brown algae to be: 


> Excess silicates & nitrates
> Inadequate light
> Low oxygen levels


The first one rings true and could be explained by the sudden nitrate readings I've been having. I doubt that the lighting is inadequate, while 1.66 watts per gallon isn't very high I don't think it's "inadequate". I currently have the lights running for 10 hours on a timer, and the tank also receives a small amount of very indirect sunlight from a sliding door (with blinds) on the other side of the room. I'm not really sure on the last one...I would think oxygen levels would be ok, I mean there's already a good deal of plants in the aquarium.

How should I handle this? Should I break out the algae brush and go to town, or should I leave it and let it grow up for the otos I plan to add?


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## shadetreeme (Oct 11, 2010)

I would clean it off the glass for sure, and probably the rocks too, Unless you like the way it looks. Some like the natural look it brings to rocks. I personally wanted the stuff out of mt tank asap. 
I just cleaned the glass with my magnet, removed the rocks and cleaned them with a brush and tank water. Brown algae is pretty easy.
Don't forget the water changes after the cleaning.


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

*UPDATE: Water Change*

Went ahead and did a 50% water change today, I'll test the water tomorrow once everything has settled. I'll leave the algae for now, I'll probably take the algae on the glass of tomorrow when I do a 10-15% water change.


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

*UPDATE: Spray Paint, Moss, and a Big Rock*



Not much to update with... The readings today showed ammonia at .25ppm (it looked very close to 0), nitrite at 2ppm, and nitrate at 5ppm. I spray painted the intake tube for my filter a few days ago, I've been letting it sit. I used Krylon Fusion as I've read it's aquarium safe since it's rendered inert once it dries. It really helps hide the filter intake with the black background. The java moss has really taken off with the new lights and the Flourish Excel, I may trim it down a little soon. I'm sure it's taken hold by now so whenever I get time I'll remove the fishing lines holding it down.




I've also setup a small 5.5 gallon tank, our second. The first is our hospital/quarantine tank. I plan on using this one to breed ramshorn snails eventually as we plan to keep two figure eight puffers in our 27 gallon hex that's also cycling. I just set it up last night so the water is still pretty cloudy from the sand, I should've done the upside down bottle trick to put it in.


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

*UPDATE: Culprit Identified*

Turns on the floating hitchhiker is actually a juvenile water lettuce, looks like it's used in ponds... Meh I'll leave it in there and see what happens, the filter will probably eat it though.


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## coolcucumber (Jan 16, 2011)

The tanks look amazing. i love the 5.5g with the rock 


Can you pick rocks up from the ground at rivers? And driftwood? I wondered about it, but i go the safe way and buy it. but, how do you make sure its safe?


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

coolcucumber said:


> Can you pick rocks up from the ground at rivers? And driftwood? I wondered about it, but i go the safe way and buy it. but, how do you make sure its safe?


I guess I just kinda rolled the dice. The temperature was well below freezing for several days so hopefully that helped some, and we thoroughly rinsed them off with once we got home with hot tap water. I do water tests almost daily and haven't noticed anything funky with the water chemistry, guessing I'm alright.


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

That algae looks like brown diatoms to me, which is very common in newly set up tanks. I wouldn't even worry about it, it'll go away on its own. That's what happened with it in all my tanks when they were newly set up.


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## Pufferfish22 (Feb 6, 2011)

I've also setup a small 5.5 gallon tank, our second. The first is our hospital/quarantine tank. I plan on using this one to breed ramshorn snails eventually as we plan to keep two figure eight puffers in our 27 gallon hex that's also cycling. I just set it up last night so the water is still pretty cloudy from the sand, I should've done the upside down bottle trick to put it in.

Just a thought, if you're going to keep snails for puffs I'd go with ramshorns and common pond snails, as ramshorns take ages to reproduce, far slower than those little puffs will need, and pond snails are like rabbits! I've got puffs and the pond snails are definately better. Fab fish, great fun to watch and really curious to, good luck they're fab fish :-D


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

I'll may not bother breeding the pond snails as the owner of my LFS is pretty cool and said I can just come in with a bag can go hunting through his plants for any I want. He gets them as hitchhikers all the time.


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

*UPDATE: Ich and New Plants*

So had a bit of a setback...one of the cory cats seems to have ich. So I've started treatment by slowly raising the temp. to 86-87F and adding a minimal amount of salt (about 1/5 dosage for now) as cory cats are sensitive to salt. I've also removed my anubias as I've read that they're sensitive to heat and I'm afraid the high temps will kill them, or at least hurt them. To help cut down on the ich population I added a micron filter attachment to the new powerhead I got, I read that this will help some. I also did a see remodeling on the tank, right before I noticed the ich, I removed the log and added some more rocks. I wanted to open things up and give more room for the fish to swim. The log was too large for the aquarium I think...

On the bright side of things my plant order from Dustinsfishtanks came in today. I missed the original delivery yesterday and got to the post office too late to pick it up. Seriously...I got there at 4:33 and they closed at 4:30...eff me right? I got there early this morning to pick it up. When the postal dude handed me the box the bottom was wet and water was slowly dripping out. I just knew I'd open the package to find a bunch of dead, dry, plants but thankfully they were ok. The order was mostly more anubias var. nana with some other plants in as fluff (Dustin has a $40 minimum order). I got a java fern for the puffer tank, and some more dwarf sag for the little 5.5g snail tank.

So right now my fish are slow roasting in the main tank (which I'm checking hourly), the anubias is chilling out in my quarantine tank, and that's about it for now.


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/5495042146/

Anubias floating in the quarantine tank.


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

Quick update, I've finished my heat treatment for the ich. I had the temperature running at 89° F for 10 days. I understand this is very high for cory cats, but I monitored them closely (just about hourly) for the first few days and they really didn't show any signs of stress. Yesterday was the last day of the treatment so I lowered the temp (slowly) back down to the normal 78° F(ish). 

I added in the anubias (will have pictures up eventually), and moved some rocks around a little. Shortly after the remodeling I noticed one of the cory cats was covered in white specs. He had showed little of no signs of this until I noticed it after moving things around so I'm assuming it's just sand. He was covered when I first noticed, but now he just has a few specks. This is almost exactly what happened with the other cory cat, leading me to believe it might have all been a scare over some sand.

Is it possible the little guy could go from no signs to covered in a matter of hours after having spent 10 days at 89° F? I've read about some strains of ich that can still reproduce in 86° F+ temps but he wouldn't have just started showing signs all of a sudden right? Anybody else have white sand with the darker cory cats, is it common for it to tag along on them for a while?


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## Kaysha (Mar 16, 2011)

*Cycling 29 gallon tank any ideas or usefull info im missing*

so ive been having a heck of a time trying to get my water right. last week i dumped all my water and started over. now im using reverse osmosis water (its soffened) so im using thease piramid mineral things, i also added "nutrafin cycle" to help get my tank cycling. i took a sample of my water to the fish store and my ammonia was at 6ppm. now i am a water change freak, perhaps i do them too often or too big i try to stick to 10 to 20 % only when the levels get high but now my ammonia seems to be going down and my nitrites going up. i guess i forgot to mention its a 29 gallon tank with a bunch of fake plants and hiding places i currently have 2 plecos and a dwarf groumi in there. i know the plecos will get too big but by the time they begin to get big ill have a huge tank so im not to concerned about that. right now they are only about 2 inches. but anyways how high should i let my nitrites get before i do water changes and should i add anything else to my water? i bough chemicals before when my water was bad. i think that may have been one of the problems. also my water has high alkaline... i just dont get that at all. so any help would be great im missing something. i have nitraban not sure even when to use this, i will probably end up throwing it away because im scared of it (i had 3 fish die, and im blaming it on too high of buffers in the water) maybe thats stupid... i dont know. any imput would help, im fairly new and want to do this right. im also thinking about putting together a 10 gallon for a hospital tank


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

Kaysha said:


> but anyways how high should i let my nitrites get before i do water changes and should i add anything else to my water? i bough chemicals before when my water was bad.


I think generally around 25ppm is alright for Nitrate, it's not nearly as toxic as nitrite or ammonia. I'm also pretty sure that adding chemicals isn't recommended most of the time. Seachem's Prime is pretty much all I use (save for Flourish Comprehensive/Excel for plants). Prime dechlorinates the water and all that jazz, but also helps by detoxifying nitrate and nitrite. Take all of that with a grain of salt, however, I'm still new myself. As a rule of thumb just stick to weekly water changes and you'll probably be safe.


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

*UPDATE: Ich Scare Over*

So I kept noticing that the one cory cat would get white specs all over him...despite the ich treatment. I found, that the spots would come and go, and never seemed to stay very long. This lead me to wonder if it was sand, as my sand is just about white. So I came up with a way to test this... I decided to move all of my cory cats into a new 20g long tank that I've setup, this tank has different sand. I figured this would be a way to see if it was actually ich, or just the sand from the other aquarium. So a week after being in the new tank, no white spots...

I've also monitored the other fish in the tank (two otos) since the scare first came about, and not once have they shown any signs of the ich. So it was all a big scare...yay. The tank looks completely different from the last time I posted a photo, I'll have new pictures up soon.


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## LasColinasCichlids (Jan 4, 2011)

I read this entire thread, and LOVE the idea of a thread to document your aquatic journey!!!

Your pictures are amazing, and your tanks are beautifully done!!! I cant wait for it to be all done with the cycle and stocking to see how they all look!!!

I am a little late, but welcome to TFK!


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

LasColinasCichlids said:


> I read this entire thread, and LOVE the idea of a thread to document your aquatic journey!!!
> 
> Your pictures are amazing, and your tanks are beautifully done!!! I cant wait for it to be all done with the cycle and stocking to see how they all look!!!
> 
> I am a little late, but welcome to TFK!


Thanks! I forgot to note it in the last thread, the tank is cycled now. 0 nitrite and 0 ammonia readings for the last two weeks. I'll try to get an update with photos tomorrow.


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## rnsheehan21 (Mar 6, 2011)

Great thread! Great insight! It was fun to read your progress, I'v been setting up my own 29Gal recently and should be finished stocking at the end of the week. Then on to my 55 gal!


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

Thanks for all of the kind words everybody, here are some updated pics. With the ich scare over, and the tank fully cycled I added in some really interesting fish. I was just looking around at my LFS and discovered that they had just recently received some celestial pearl danios. They are still very young, but are growing up quickly. I asked, and the owner said he was pretty sure they were captive bred, but judging from how skiddish they are they may be wild caught. I would have preferred captive bred, but I do plan on breeding this guys, so hopefully that will even out my karma if they are wild caught. 

I took all 13 home, although the girl at fish store only charged me for 12 (she's awesome). The 13th fish had an unlucky run in with the breeding net container they were housed in when she removed them. It was floating upside down on the ride home, we didn't expect him to make it so we aptly named it "Flusher". When we got it in the tank it righted itself and swam well enough, but it had a large red mark on its side (fish equivalent of a bruise maybe?). Flusher is doing fine now, and save for a very small mark on his side is almost indistinguishable from the rest of the school.

As I said previously, I've relocated the cory cats into a 20g long that I'm doing, and it's been running with some filter media from the cycled tank. It's also very, very, heavily planted (I'm going for kind of a wisteria jungle thing), so it shouldn't have any problem handling the cats. Obviously with the CPDs in the 29g I won't be adding any gouramis, instead I'll pretty much make it a species tank, save for a few otos. I'll add an opaline gourami to my 20g probably.


































Apologies for the blurry pics, catching a shot of the CPDs is like trying to shoot lightning.

I plan to carpet the foreground with HC, I have it ordered from SweetAquatics...but it looks like that was a mistake.


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## LasColinasCichlids (Jan 4, 2011)

I would love to have CPD myself, but they are too costly and hard to find here. The tank looks amazing!! Cant wait to see your 20 gallon forest!!!


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

LasColinasCichlids said:


> I would love to have CPD myself, but they are too costly and hard to find here. The tank looks amazing!! Cant wait to see your 20 gallon forest!!!


Yeah when they told me they had CPDs I said "What for like $12 a fish?". Nope...had them for $3.99 each, I told them I would take them all without even blinking an eye, and like I said they threw the 13th one in for free. I got a heck of a deal, I was psyched. The girl that works there is awesome, she's always cutting me a deal, it's a real shame she's shipping off to the Air Force in a week or so.


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## LasColinasCichlids (Jan 4, 2011)

Ferret said:


> Yeah when they told me they had CPDs I said "What for like $12 a fish?". Nope...had them for $3.99 each, I told them I would take them all without even blinking an eye, and like I said they threw the 13th one in for free. I got a heck of a deal, I was psyched. The girl that works there is awesome, she's always cutting me a deal, it's a real shame she's shipping off to the Air Force in a week or so.


WOW! That IS a great price!!! I havent seen them for less than $7-8!!!


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

The CPD's are doing great. I've added some more anubias to the tank, and my dwarf baby tears are settling in well. I removed an amazon sword I had in the tank and replaced it with a tiger lily bulb. The bulb is already growing wild, can't wait for it to gain some height. I'm dealing with a green algae problem, I've held off on dosing fertilizers for now. Hopefully once the baby tears take off and start to spread and cover the foreground they'll take care of the algae by soaking up the excess nutrients causing it. It's already looking better since I've stopped dosing fertilizers. The dwarf baby tears seem to be taking to the tank, they've lost a good chunk of leaves but I believe that's normal as they adjust to the tank. I'm already seeing some new growth from them, and their color is much better than when they arrived.

I haven't got any photos of the main tank, but I did take some of the wisteria jungle I've been setting up. I've moved the cory cats to this tank as well as some cherry barbs. I also recently added a female opaline gourami. I was concerned that the barbs would nip her fins but they show little interest in it.


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## LasColinasCichlids (Jan 4, 2011)

Beautiful, just beautiful!! And what a great looking gourami!!

For the algae issue, have you looked into getting a group of oto cats? Or a snail?


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

LasColinasCichlids said:


> Beautiful, just beautiful!! And what a great looking gourami!!
> 
> For the algae issue, have you looked into getting a group of oto cats? Or a snail?


Sorry for the late response. Yes, I have pretty solid little cleanup crew. I have about 4 nerite snails, 2 otos, a small army of cherry shrimp, and a nearly unseen legion of malaysian trumpet snails. Thankfully, however, the green algae is all gone, I should have a pic up in a minute or two.


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## Ferret (Feb 22, 2011)

Here's a shot of the whole tank, apologies for the crummy angle, I had to angle it a bit to counter a light behind me. Note that these shots were taken shortly after a water change so the tank is full of bubbles.










Here's a closeup of the dwarf baby tears, the patches have thinned out some as the loose pieces have separated and floated away, but I 'm seeing quite a bit of new growth as they start to spread out. I'm not sure if they're pearling in this photo, or those are just air bubbles caught in the plants from the water changes.










You can also see the weird stringy stuff... I'm not quite sure what it is, but I believe it's the gunk that collects on the surface of the water when nothing is breaking the surface. When I added the canister filter I noticed the surface of the water would get kind of funky. I read up and found that it was because nothing was breaking the surface. So to counter this I added a 4" inch stone that would come on at night. I figured this would help break the surface and oxygenate the water (which I may have needed anyway since I'm dosing the tank with Excel). 

Anyhoo I found an issue with the check valve in the line to the airstone and saw that it wasn't working, hence nothing was breaking the surface nightly so the surface was extra filmy. When I broke the surface of the water all this whitish gunk would spread across the tank, and it would catch on some of the plants and look like the stringy stuff on the baby tears in that photo. So I fixed the issue and now the surface of the water seems fine. I'm guessing, however, that this gunk may just be some left over from when it built up.










I'm seeing something different on my anubias though. It's a dark green (maybe black?) short hair-like algae. You can kind of see it on the tip of the leaf in that shot. I would love some input on what this might be, and how to take care of it.


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## LasColinasCichlids (Jan 4, 2011)

I love the tears!! SOO cute!!! I want some now! lol

As far as the film at the top, I use HOB filters so I dont have to deal with it, but I know with CPD a canister is ideal as they dont like heavy currents. Airstone sounds like a good fix for the issue.

As far as the stuff on the tears, its probably just debris, and random build up of food and what not. 

As for the stuff on the tip of the plant leaf, I cant say for certain what it is...but if it is algae or even a biofilm or debris...have you considered a clean up crew? Snail, shrimp, oto? Otos will also eat biofilm. If you want a definate answer on what it is...find Byron, he will know. 

The tank still looks amazing! Congrats!!

And your avatar pic, is that a julii cory?


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