29AGA Tank Blog

[ange062]

Earlier this year finally bit the bullet after years of wanting to setup my first reef tank. That tank has progressed well, and I officially have the bug now! My sister was planning to tear down her 29 FW before a move, so I figured it was a great opportunity for me to start a planted tank.

I got over to help her take it down, and it was literally green all the way through, even the water, and it looked like the filter had broken down sometime ages ago. I should have taken pics! Somehow, a sole tiger barb had managed to survive the abuse, so I got him into a bucket and dumped everything else.

A stop by my trusty LFS on the way home, and I decided to ditch just about everything but the stock tank. I picked up an Eheim 2017 to replace the Walmart hang-on junker and undergravel system in there. I also got a Coralife T5-HO 30" light with dual 31w bulbs in 10000k and 6700k combo. 3 Bags of RedSea Flora Base rounded out the purchase, and my LFS threw in some free plants to get things started.

After a thorough scrubbing, I got the tank, light, and filter setup, laid out the substrate and filled it up. Here is how it looked on Day1.


As a note, I still had the stock 10000k/actinic stock combo in, I was waiting for the 6700k on special order.

After surviving all of the abuse over the past years, once in a nice clean and well filtered tank the barb decided to jump on the 2nd night, I guess it was just too good for him to handle

Over the past several weeks, I have been adding livestock in chunks. I've got it pretty much finalized as of today with:

• 17 neon tetras
• 6 gold tetras
• 4 diamond tetras
• 2 large marbled angels
• 1 cory cat
• 1 albino bushy nose pleco
• 4 threadfin rainbows (2 male and 2 female)

I also added a few more plants today to bring my list to:

• banana plant
• cabomba
• dwarf hairgrass
• madagascar lace
• micro sword
• money wart
• ozelot sword
• water sprite

No CO2 yet, but will probably add a system soon. Will start with fertilization some time in the future also. The reef tank still takes up most of my time and aquarium budget, so the planted is only secondary

Here is an updated pic from today, ~3-wks after the initial setup. I am still learning about planted scapes, so I consider it a work in progress. Let me know what you think.


And a quick video:

[ange062]

Just a 1-mo update from my last post. Today I pruned everything after a water change. The lace had grown to nearly overtake the entire tank, so I cut off ~50% of the longest leaves at the bulb. They all measured 25", or about their theoretical max. The moneywort on the right had also grown about 6" across the surface, so I clipped about 8" off the top and replanted the red colored stems on the left side of the tank.

I decided I didn't like the hair grass and it wasn't growing well, so I pulled it out. Moved the red ocelots up closer to the front, and removed some loose cabomba. Pretty good growth overall, from both plants and fish.

FTS from after pruning:

[F22]

wow, thats a ton of growth, looks ill... I like it.

[ange062]

Originally Posted by F22

wow, thats a ton of growth, looks ill... I like it.

Thanks F22! I should have taken a "before pruning" picture, it was insane. I have been surprised with how much growth I am getting for 2.13w/gal of light and no CO2. I guess the fairly heavy fish load is keeping the plants happy and vice versa.

[joetaff]

good progress, watch out with that madagascar, they can take over a tank!

[ange062]

Thanks for the comments. The lace can definitely take over a tank, but it's beautiful and I'm happy to be able to grow one. I've been having to prune a lot, but keeping up with that and water changes has paid off in my book. Still easy to care for in comparison to my reef.

My latest FTS:

[10galfornow]

oh All Glass Aquariums, not Aqua Design Amano. tricky. i like it though.

[ange062]

Figured I would post an update since it's been a while. Here is from earlier today before a MAJOR pruning session!

[ange062]

Got a red ludwigia today, really like the color pop it adds to the tank.

[Rockhoe14er]

wow looks good. You've done great work on your 29 gallon.

[ange062]

Originally Posted by Rockhoe14er

wow looks good. You've done great work on your 29 gallon.

Thanks!

[ange062]

Flower from the amazon sword:

[2in10]

Beautiful tank, congrats on the flower, I just love it when we can get the plants to flower.

[ange062]

Thanks 2! Really happy with how the tank has come along so far, especially considering no CO2 or ferts!

The flower was a nice and unexpected surprise.

[ange062]

Quick update. The flower grew into a full new sword that I cut off and gave to a friend. everything else is growing well, including the red ludwigia. Overall, growth has slowed down a bit so I decided to start on fertilizers. I bought some Flourish tabs and placed in the substrate, and plan to do once weekly capfuls of Flourish Excel and see how the tank reacts and adjust accordingly.

Updated FTS: