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snoz0r's 29 gallon - Updated 6/11/10 - PIC HEAVY

20K views 78 replies 21 participants last post by  snoz0r 
#1 · (Edited)
So this will be my first and a half, yes half attempt at doing a planted tank. My first was in New Jersey before I moved here to Indiana. My old tank there was a 20 gallon high that had just started to get going before I moved and had to tear it down. So, i'll call that my half attempt because I didn't get to see any real progress. Then I had flourite with some diy co2 and a hob filter. So here we go with the new one.

Also, I've started a blog dedicated to the story of this tank AND the hobby as a whole, still a work in progress as I get it caught up, but it's there and running, please visit!
High Tech Aquaria

Current: (New camera cables are lost, had to revert to old camera. So colors and quality are crap.)


Specs:

Filtration/Flow:
-Eheim ECCO 2234 with Eheim SubstratPro
-SunSun HW-302 with some SubstratPro and Polyfil
-Hydor Koralia Nano

Lighting: Current USA Nova Extreme T5 HO 48w (10,000k + Plant Bulb), Coralife NO Double Strip 36w T5 (10,000k + 6700k)
Heating: Hydor ETH 201 Inline
Substrate: 1 1/2 9 Liter Bags of ADA AS Amazonia I
Co2: Pressurized co2, 10# tank, Milwaukee MA957, Reg Grigg style reactor.

Flora:


Bacopa

Eleocharis acicularis (Dwarf Hairgrass)
Microsorium pteropus (Java Fern)
Alternanthera reineckii 'rosaefolia
Echinodorus 'vesuvius' (Echinodorus Angustifolia)
Cabomba (Unkown species yet)

Fauna:

1 Otocinclus
2 Corydoras Trilineatus
1 Corydoras Panda
30-50 Red Cherry Shrimp

-----------------


Anyway, on to the story. I bought the tank and stand nearly 3 months ago, so it's taken me a little while to round up the funds to get all the equipment going. All plants with the exception of the Sword and Bacopa were bought from Aquariumplants.com. They came very well protected and looked great. Will probably order from them again. The ADA AS pretty much killed me on cost, but I needed something to bring down my tap water parameters somewhat so I bit the bullet.

5-02-09: The aquasoil was added into the tank and filled

5-03-09: After a waterchange and a trip to my LFS the sword and Bacopa were added

5-06-09: My lights arrived via SnS (thanks to chris127) and plants ordered from Aquariumplants.com

5-08-09: Plants arrived and planted, Ludwigia won't stay down! Hairgrass is a PITA to take apart.

5-12-09: Purigen and 2 oto's added on the 10th, branch boiled and placed back in tank. Still cloudy, but i'm attributing that to bacterial bloom mostly.

5-17-09: Purigen taken out to recharge, it was nearly black so tannins are back. Sword is dying off.. is this acclimation die off or something else?

5-21-09: Purigen added back, so was more polyfil and SubstratPro. Found out i set up the filter wrong. Woops! Much clearer now.

5-28-09: Root tab under sword about a week ago, dry ferts ordered today as well as a shipment of 10 yellow shrimp. Tried to tie the Anubias to the driftwood as per suggestion, no matter what I did it didn't look right, on the other hand it has flowered.

6-07-09: Battling BGA at the moment, 3 day blackout, squirted with H202 and full strength dose of EM.

6-18-09: I've added a few plants: Alternanthera reineckii 'rosaefolia, Echinodorus 'vesuvius' (Echinodorus Angustifolia ), Blyxa Japonica. I've also gotten rid of the Yellow shrimp I had, replaced with cherry shrimp. Amazon sword removed a couple weeks ago. The bigger it got the more and more I hated it.

6-24-09: More cherry shrimp on the way, tank is finally truly clear. Result for the most part a very good.

9-24-09: Long time since I updated. All shrimp are gone, they died due to unknown causes. Been attempting to breed Kribensis, received a proven breeding pair via Will @ http://www.georgiacichlids.com (Gacichlids on Aquabid). Great guy to buy from, sent a great pair plus 2 extra juveniles. Been battling hair and BBA algaes, hair algae seems to be under control, BBA is yet to be determined. Pictures of inhabitants to come soon.

9-27-09: I hacked that crap out of the plants and did a little bit of a rescape, wanted to get rid of as much algae as possible, and I wanted a little bit of a different look

11-11-09: hair algae out of control, gsa rampant.. totally lost.. what the hell am i doing wrong.. pictures of kribs on page 3

12-24-09: 2 more cory's purchased as well as 3 dwarf neon rainbows, on 12-4-09 a male and female Apisto's were purchased

12-31-09: 4 panda cory's purchased, bloodfin tetra's are probably on their way out as they're their the odd group in the tank.

1-30-10: Cabomba was added on the 25th, don't know the species yet.. waiting for it to grow out a bit. Kribensis FINALLY spawned, good lord that took forever.

4-05-10: Don't know what happened these past couple months. My female Krib out of the pair suddenly died over night one night about 3 weeks ago, along with some neons and other things. Not exactly sure what happened at all, gassed them maybe from an EOTD? Honestly no idea. Did a major trim, cut out the biggest Alternanthera reineckii, it was big and bushy at the top, but the bottom had lost all leaves and the aerial roots were driving me absolutely nuts. Cut down a bunch of the Bacopa as well, so there's a huge empty spot in the middle of the tank. Honestly i'd like to redo the whole tank, other than the dwarf hairgrass, but the money just isn't there for new plants. Everything else has been good. Bought a new Current USA T5 HO fixture, as one of the Coralife's went dead on me. Sooo, that's what it is, i'll try and keep it updated more often. Should note, the Krib pair did have a second batch of babies, but NONE of them made it, not sure what happened there either. Bought 2 new females and a male, they're still young however. Hoping for a pair up, if not.. maybe I'll move to some other Dwarf Cichlid for breeding, which is something I truly enjoy, but again.. money issue, so we'll see.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

5-09-09 FTS



5-09-09 Left Side Shot


5-12-09 FTS (Getting better on clarity, thank you purigen)


5-12-09 Left Side Shot


5-17-09 FTS


5-17-09 Side


5-21-09 FTS


5-21-09 Side


5-21-09 L. Repens Aerial Root Growth


5-28-09 FTS


5-28-09 Side


6-23-09 FTS - Clarity


7-29-09 FTS - Growth


9-24-09


9-27-09 - 2 Days after major trim and rescape


11-02-09 - Minor trim done


11-11-09 - Hair Algae =(


1-7-10 - Reineckki Melt, due to accidental overdose of peroxide? (i think) Trim was done about a week ago as well, looks like crap =(


1-19-10 - Major trim, waiting to grow in


1-30-10 -


4-01-10


4-05-10 - Chopped out most of the Alternanthera, it was bare on the bottom, aerial roots everywhere, couldn't stand it any longer. Looks like crap now, but it'll grow back.


6-11-10 - Tank has gone through a move.. a massive die off of inhabitants and lack of Co2 for a week and a half. Things weren't looking well. Co2 has been filled.. and upgraded to a 10 lb tank for ease. All inhabitants are gone except an Oto, Albino Bristle Nose and 3 cory's. Added have been a total of 50 or so cherry shrimp, although at most I've only been able to count 24, so who knows how many are truly there.


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, i'm open to suggestions, criticism and ideas or any other feedback of any kind. So have at it and let loose and tell me what to do or what you think :). Thanks.
 
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#3 ·
It's AS I, I did have a really really nice branch in there. I believe it was Oak that I had found. I de-barked it myself and baked it. I soaked it for 72 hours outside and put it in the tank but it still floated, so it sat in the tank from 5-02 until yesterday when I planted the hairgrass. It still floats and it was covered in white whispy slime...? I'm not really sure what the deal with that was so I took it out. I'd love to have it back in but dealing with it floating sucks, anytime I change water or have to re-plant a stem it floats to the top and disturbs the AS causing more cloudiness. Not to mention the rediculous amount of tannins it was leaching into the water, it was like staring and mud soup.
 
#5 ·
Ok, i'll try that. I have dosed excel a few times but it didn't really seem to have effect on it. I'm waiting for a few more dollars to come in, because the oto's are next on my list to get so it's good to know that'll they'll take care of it. I was thinking 3 or 4 of them, to many, not enough? Also, should I be worried about the JetDry in the dishwasher lol..?
 
#11 ·
Thats not a bad idea actually. I had forgotten you could do that with anubias. The driftwood is quite thin however, where do you think a good spot might be?

On another note, does anyone think the sword is too big for the tank. I did cut two bigger leaves out of it last night because they were dying but i cant decide if the plant itself is taking up too much room or not. Any opinions?
 
#12 ·
tried tying the anubias, it looked horrible took out the other pot of hairgrass.. ordered dry ferts, yellow shrimp and shirakura shrimp food today

pics updated and for some off topic pics, here are some i got of a robin the other day who's made a nest and had babies in one of the windows here at the house, enjoy!

Flew up to the window with this huge grub


Feeding the babies! Talk about up close and personal.
 
#14 ·
Wow! Awesome shot of the mom feeding the baby!

About the tank.....is that a power head in there? The only reason I ask is because I've just gotten my 29G set up as well and I didn't realize I would need flow like that? But tank looks good so far!
Yes, that's a power head. A Hydor Koralia Nano to be exact. I guess whether or not you need it depends on your filter. I'm running an Eheim ECCO 2234, I felt that it didn't provide enough flow so I spent the extra money on the nano, although sometimes i'm not sure whether or not I should have spent a few extra and gotten the Koralia 1.
 
#16 ·
it's good man =P all done cycling as far as i can tell, just bought a Co2 cylinder today, regulator is being bid on ebay, bubble counter, drop checker, check valve and perma seal is on order...

oh and yellow shrimp should be here tomorrow or the next =D
 
#20 ·
Yes I got my yellows on wednesday 6-03-09, thanks about the pics I thought the robin was pretty cool too!

Updated news: Bought and received the rest of parts for pressurized co2, it's been set up as of 6-05-09, however I've had to shut it off. I had gotten some BGA on the substrate so i'm currently doing a 3 day black out, squirted some H202 on the few patches that I could see and added a full strength dose of Erythromicin, i've only enough money for a 3 days dose, so hopefully in conjunction with the H202 and blackout that will take care of it *prays*. I can't afford to lose this tank to BGA, i'm tapped out on funds so it's this or my tank dies. I'm assuming that the cause could be low nitrates, as when I tested the tank before I did the black out it was at 5 ppm. Problem is, I was in the middle of a 50% water change and trim when I found the BGA so i'm assuming it was probably at about 10 ppm or so, we'll see.
 
#22 ·
So far so good, no algae that i've seen since. Ripped the amazon sword out of the tank, it was spreading out to much, blocking flow and the bigger it got the more and more I hated it. So my tank is looking very very bare right now. Did get some L. Aromatica here on the SnS so that should be here soon to help fill everything in. I'd really like to get ahold of some blyxa and/or Downoi as well. Some erio's would be really cool if I could find em cheap.
 
#23 ·
great tank.

I wanted to get your thoughts on the Hydor Nano. You said earlier that you think you should have went with the Stage 1 instead? Why do you say that? Does the nano not move enough water around in a 29G? Im debating on either the nano or Stage 1 for my 29G but dont want it too strong to where it blows my tall plants down. Does the nano affect your plants at all?
 
#26 ·
Trimming your hairgrass will encourage it to send out runners, that will poke up from the substrate within just a couple days.

Some folks suggest that regular trimming is greatly beneficial to overall hairgrass health, although I have had small clumps that do okay when left alone.
 
#28 ·
I'm trim it often, about every other waterchange or so. It has been sending out runners, just not enough to my liking.

clwatkins: i originally wanted to do HM, but I chose HG over the fact that I didn't have pressurized co2 at the time, so I was worried it was a worthless cause. Overall, even though I have pressurized now, i'm happy with the HG. My shrimp love picking through it, it's like a mini forest for them :)
 
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