HANdS 29G High Tech Community

[l8nite]

Pictures
September 22nd, 2012:


December 2nd, 2012:


Specifications
29G Oceanic Systems Tank
Dimensions: 30.5" x 12.5" x 18.75"
Substrate: Flourite Black Sand
Lighting: Ray II 24" DS 24 Inches 7000k / 7000k, Also 20W T12 that I turn on when I remember. (4650 LUX ~65PAR @ substrate)
CO2: 5lb canister into .5 micron diffusion stone into filter intake.
Fertilizers: EI dosing KNO3, KH2PO4, K2SO4 and Plantex CSM+B (Macros 3x/week, Micros 2x/week)

Flora: Help me guess by clicking here

• Nymphaea pubescens
• Anubias spp.
• More.

Fauna:

• "Pongo" and "Perdita" Dalmation Mollys (Expecting!)
• "Sucker" Otocinclus
• 7x Neon Tetra
• 7x Fancy Guppies (3 tequila sunrise, 2 fancy red, 2 turquoise)
• 4x Ghost Shrimp
• "Burnout" - Tracked Nerite
• Malaysian Trumpet Snails (x1000000)
• Ramshorn Snails (x10 or so)
• Pond Snails (x1000)

The Acquisition Story
After starting the Betta tank journey (see here), I was excited about aquariums and so spent a ton of time talking about them

I was talking a coworker's ear off about the nitrogen cycle, et al., and as luck would have it, he asked if I wanted a 29G tank for FREE! Apparently, his wife's (very old) goldfish had passed away only a few days prior. They gave me a new tank with stand, gravel, some driftwood attached to slate, a lava rock, a few powerheads, undergravel filter, two HOB filters, a bunch of accessories, etc.

Needless to say, I was pretty excited about the whole thing. My wife wasn't quite so thrilled, but she is slowly coming around

When I went to pick it up, the first thing I noticed was that the tank was in pretty rough shape. There was thick dark green algae/sludge coating most of the tank walls, the gravel clouded the water pretty badly when it was disturbed, and it had a not-so-pleasant stale odor. My original plan had been to immediately stock the already-cycled tank and then work from there, but I wasn't happy with the condition, so as they say, the plan changed.

As soon as I got it home, I removed all the gravel and the undergravel filter from the tank and started rinsing those. While the gravel was rinsing, I brought the tank out front and pressure-washed the insides with the garden hose. Then, I started the tedious job of thoroughly scraping off all the algae from the insides (using a credit card was a nice trick I picked up from these forums somewhere).

Finally, I busted out an old toothbrush and gave all the filters/tubing/etc a good scrubbing. When I was done, it looked quite a lot nicer! I decided I was going to make this a high-tech planted tank. I'm currently in the process of attempting to not kill the plants I've put in.