CG's 29 gallon, 10/16 Update

[CobraGuppy]

Hi all!

Tank specs:
Tank- 29 gallon tank
Filter- Rena xp3
lighting- a 55 watt ah supply bright kit w/ a 9325k 55 watt ge bulb (i love this color)
Substrate- Flourite black
C02- 2 2liter coke bottles with a mixture of 1 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp yeast
Ferts- Fish poo for now although i will get a rex grigg fert package when i get more money
Fish- 7 neons, 1 angel (soon to be traded in for more neons), and 1 albino bristle nose

On to the pics!

Old tank, 20 gallon long


E. tennelus i received


Making my lights: Its so cool since my dad got it to fit in my old hood and hid all the wire so that only the ballast is outside




When i first turned it on, it suprised me on how bright it was and my retinas were burning for a while...


Old fish i the 29 (the lighting is with the new lights btw)






Tank change The flourite was easy to wash, i only rinsed it like 5 times.


e. tennelus i had to work with, it was a constant battle with runners


My anubias That stick has like 7 different rhinezomes


My other one, when i bought it (6 months ago) it only had 5 leaves LOL


Heres my new fish tank, do you guys think its over stocked?


Real fish tank, some of the pics are when the water was blurry. Some pics has flash, some dont.








Right side


Left side


Heres some equip

I am really liking the layout right now. I can kinda see how i want to put the other plants. The Enchidorus tennelus is kinda brown though. Thats because it was living in a less than good tank for about a week (the 20 gallon pic) although some of it is already sending shoots.

Some plants i plan to get: Hygrophilia Corymbosa (back right corner), cabomba (back left corner), stargrass (middle), ludwigia repens, (left in the middle), and some other plants. I will probably buy this from the swap and shop forums

Any suggestions on what i can do to the tank and whatnot? I'll accept bad critism too

Thanks!

[chonhzilla]

looks good. plan to add any more plants?

[@marko@]

great start, do you plan on puting any background plants behind the anubias?

[CobraGuppy]

One of my neons just died for unknown reasons D:

Yeah, i am. Behind the anubias, i plan to have hygrophilia corymbosa.

Left hand corner will be cabomba, stargrass, rotala macranda (and maybe rotunfodolia *sp?*).

Im trying to think of other plants that are easy and tall.
any suggestions?

[@marko@]

age maybe?

asian ambulia (its an federal noxious weed, trust me there is a reason. it is a VERY easy plant).

[CobraGuppy]

It might be age, the neons are pretty big now, none under 1 inch. I got them when they were big too.

I might get asian ambulia instead of cabomba because it seems bushier. I wonder if there is a variety of ambulia that has a reddish tinge though, since the cabomba i was gonna get has a purplish tinge to it.

Does anyone know why my e tennelus is like melting? I hear people saying how easy it is to plant it buy mines is doing horrible >< Some of the plants are uprooting because the roots are rotting. Is this because they are in a new tank with different lighting and substrate? There are some that have rotted away their old roots and have like 5 new ones sprouting.

Maybe i should just wait?

thanks

[lauraleellbp]

It looks like you have them planted with some of the roots exposed- that should be buried, and only the crown of the plant should be at the surface of the substrate.

My new E. tenellus are losing most of their old leaves as well- I just try to trim the old ones and let the new growth come in nice and green. As long as you're getting some new growth I'd just give it time. They are swords and do need iron however; if you aren't dosing iron I'd add some root tabs for them?

[CobraGuppy]

hm, well they were buried but then the roots kind of rotted so the floated up.

Ill replant them though.

I am trying to convince my dad right now to let me buy the rex grigg fert package xD

[@marko@]

actually when you have CO2 the asian ambulia is much less bushy, but grow a lot healthier and has a yellowish tint.

[CobraGuppy]

oh lol.

Arg, there are a lot more of the e tennellus uprooting now. I saw one that had a runner going out but im not sure if it was there or not before i put it in the tank.

[@marko@]

try sprinkling some gravel over it, that might help. just grab a fist full, place the fist in the water and open it. itll cover some leaves but that wont really hurt the plant much, i do it every time i plant something like that (crypts, HM, etc).

[fishboy87]

Did you use any old water from your 20 that was already established because neon tetras appreciate established aquariums. If this is new water completely, you need to start generating some beneficial bacteria. I once got neons in my 29 right after I set the tank up and they all died within a month but I had a higher survival rate after about 3 months.

On a seperate note, I love the aquascape of your tank!

[CobraGuppy]

thanks!

Hm, well it is new water although i did dechlor is with prime (double dosed) and i am using the same filter that i was running on the 20 gallon on here.

I'll recheck my parameters though

[@marko@]

if its a filter with bioballs you should be fine; and if you transplanted the gravel, then you moved all the bacteria along with the fish.

[CobraGuppy]

yeah, all the media was transferred, although the gravel wasnt because i used new flourite.

Minor update
I traded in my angel and now have 4 new neons for a total of 10.

And, the e tennelus is ding better. It seems as if some are having more of a "spider" look with the leaves spread out instead of growing upwards. I hear this happens because there is enough light for it so that it doesnt have to reach for it.

Aquascape question.

Do you guys think that jungle vals would get good for the back right corner? It seems like a pretty easy plant to grow and i think the neons will have fun swimming in it more than dense bush of stuff.

Only problem is the outtake is right there so it might push the vals to the front of the glass. Then again, i could just move the output to the left side of the tank.