Thank you all for the nice words!
The CO2 reactor arrived today so I'm ready to go. The only thing I don't have is the CustomFlo kit for the intakes and outtakes, but I can proceed without that for now. I may just paint the XP2 gear black and let it go at that.
Karackle, thanks for the mention of the stand color! It is actually one of those Sedona stands by Perfecto. I went back and forth on getting it for over 6 months, but I finally decided I would give it a try. What brought me to get this particular stand is it was the only one I could find that fit a 29g and had a matching canopy!
https://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/2035/product.web
It's not going to win any awards for quality or looks, but it's definitely a nice looking stand. I really like the overall look when the canopy is on. I don't like the canopy design, but it works.
I'll get a full shot of the stand and canopy later. I tried to find a real life picture of it all over the place, but couldn't find it. So I want to be sure to put one online for others.
The stand does not have a rim to cover the bottom black rim of the tank, but they gave a square piece of wood that you put over the tank to hide the trim. If you look closely, you can see I don't have it centered yet. I'll do that just before I start adding water.
Here's a picture of the stand with the canopy:
http://www.elmersaquarium.com/image_...0Red%20Oak.jpg