My First 29 Gallon Build

Hello everyone, Fairly new here but I'm working on a 29 gallon planted aquarium and this is what I got so far,

Tank - Aqueon 29 Gallon
Filter - Aquaclear 50 (Double foam + bio rings)
Heater - Aqueon 150W Pro submersible
Light - Finnex Fugeray Planted+ 30"
Backer - Foam Poster Board from Dollar Tree
Stand - Aquatic Fundamentals Black Upright Aquarium Stand
Substrate - 15.4LB Seachem Black Fluorite Sand(Bottom Layer), 20LB Caribsea Eco Complete Black(Upper Layer), 2 Cups of CaribSea Instant Aquarium Crystal River Gravel(Sand in-between rocks)
Wood Décor - Malaysian Wood
Rock Décor - Gray Slate Rocks by Ashland(From Michaels)

Plants - Crypt. Lutea, Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus, Java Fern, Java Fern Windelov, Banana Plant, Anubias Nana Petite, Vallisneria, Dwarf Aquarium Lily, Dwarf Sagittaria…… Kind of a lot of plants , at least I think so but I do kind of expect some of them to die since it is my first time doing a planted aquarium.

Planning on Dosing with Aquarium Coop easy green and using Easy Root Tabs.....

Still thinking of what fish to get but I think I'm leaning towards,

8 Cardinal Tetras
8 Harlequin Rasboras
6 False JuliI Cory Cat
1 Albino BushyNose Longfin Pleco
1 Bolivian Ram

Comments, suggestions, concerns, etc welcome

 

I can't wait to see that planted, it looks stunning already.

I like your choice in equipment and materials.

 

That is really cool. Is that sand in between the flat rocks?

 

That is really cool. Is that sand in between the flat rocks?

Sort of , it’s Caribsea instant aquarium crystal river
Gravel, it’s basically just really fine gravel but not sand

So I got some of my plants in today and this is the outcome so far, still waiting on my Vals, dwarf sag, and dwarf aquarium lily.

 

Started fishless cycle with ammonia and seachem stability last night , I have a 150w aqueon pro heater and I have it set at 84’ F, room temperature is about 74 and I have yet to see the red led light turn off on the heater.... thinking of returning heater and getting a 200w or even a 300w, are there any cons of having too big of a heater?

 

Watching this thread.

 

I got a thermometer and it’s only off by about 2’ from what the dial says on the heater so I just cranked up the heater to about 86’ per the dial on the heater and it’s been consistently 84’F on the thermometer.

My parameters today after dosing stability per the instructions for about 5 days, Thinking its time for more ammonia ? Possibly a water change?

 

So I did a 50% water changed and dosed prime / stability with the water change last night , going to check parameters tonight and if everything checks out I’m going to dose ammonia to 4.0 and check tomorrow to see what they are , if everything checks out I’ll do another WT and then start adding fish , probably cardinals

 

Your tank looks stunning. Hopefully you can keep everything intact with your water changes. It looks great!!

 

OH. MY. FREAKING. GOSH.

It's really stunning!!!!!

 

24hours after 50% water change and dosing Prime/Stability I am kind of confused with my parameters....probably only .25 ammonia but nitrites is about a 1.0 and nitrates is about 20 , figured it would be lower after such a big water change , nevertheless I dosed ammonia back up to 4.0 and I’ll monitor for the next couple of days while still adding stability per the instructions

I also added a dwarf aquarium lily , which I can’t seem to get the roots to stay under the substrate which I don’t think they have to be ? Can any confirm?

I also added 1 Vallisnera and 2 dwarf sags, which the dwarf sags are currently way longer than the Vallisnera so I’ll be cutting that back as soon as the roots are established, want them to stay short and sort of carpet out if possible . The banana plants roots also don’t seem to want to stay under the substrate .....

 

"Impressive" Scaping skills you have.

Oh, by the way "Welcome" to the Forum.

 

Checked parameters tonight after dosing to 4.0 ammonia last night and its at .5 24hours later, I'm going to check it again and let it hit 0 and probably do a water change tomorrow and check it again Tuesday and probably add fish Tuesday. This is getting exciting since this is the first planted tank and first tank I have ever "cycled" correctly.

 

So my tank has been cycled now and I’ll be adding fish soon and I had an idea of what I wanted but apparently my stocking list had temperature incompatibilities so I’m here asking for help.

Bolivian Ram - 1 72-79° F, KH 0-10, pH 6.5-7.5
Albino BushyNose Pleco - 1 74-79° F, KH 6-10, pH 6.5-7.4
False JuliI Cory Cat - 6 72-79° F, KH 2-12, pH 5.8-7.0
Cardinal Tetra - 6 73-81° F, KH 2-6, pH 5.5-7.5
Harlequin Rasbora - 6 72-77° F, KH 6-10, pH 6.0-6.5

This was my stocking list and I pulled all the parameters of LiveAquaria, from my understanding the cardinals are the odd fish out but I really want them. So I’m thinking what if I did a stocking list like this below.

German Blue Ram
Albino Sailfin bushy nose pleco
False JuliI Cory
Cardinal tetra
Green kubotaI Rasbora

 

Do you particularly prefer the cardinals over neons?

 

Do you particularly prefer the cardinals over neons?

Yes

 

Yes

I don't think you need to sub out the harlequin rasbora for kubotaI rasbora. I'm not sure why liveaquaria has them listed at slightly lower temps but they should be able to handle up to 82F. They come from warm climates like that of Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore. I also think kubotaI would be too small for your total stock, but that's just my opinion. I'm not sure if the rams might attempt to prey on them or not.

With the cardinal tetras in mind, what specific temperature range were you hoping to keep them in?

 

Based on the original stocking list is it possible ? And what temps would be recommended?

I don’t know why I just can’t switch out the harlequins with another fish and keep the temps at 79?

So I bought 6 cardinals today...… so its almost like that's the "centerpiece" fish now lol...… I have the heater set at 80'F. I am probably going to get 6 cory cats next, like in a week or 2 depending on how my parameters look. Those shouldn't have any issue with the 80'F right?

 

So I bought 6 cardinals today...… so its almost like that's the "centerpiece" fish now lol...… I have the heater set at 80'F. I am probably going to get 6 cory cats next, like in a week or 2 depending on how my parameters look. Those shouldn't have any issue with the 80'F right?

Depends on what kind of cory you're getting.

 

Depends on what kind of cory you're getting.

Whatever is compatible with cardinals and their required temperature

 

Whatever is compatible with cardinals and their required temperature

Most corys probably won't have a loong life in higher temps, they prefer slightly cooler end of the tropical spectrum. I believe Bronze, Albino, and Emerald corys would fare a bit better than others at 80F.

Would you consider KuhlI loaches? Or perhaps Dwarf Chain Loaches?

 

Most corys probably won't have a loong life in higher temps, they prefer slightly cooler end of the tropical spectrum. I believe Bronze, Albino, and Emerald corys would fare a bit better than others at 80F.

Would you consider KuhlI loaches? Or perhaps Dwarf Chain Loaches?

I don’t have a lid for my aquarium , don’t really want to get one since I’m doing a planted aquarium and don’t want the lid that I would need to keep loaches in obstructing the light

 

Anyone know what kind of algae this is ? And what to do to get rid of it ? Would like to try to stay away from chemical solutions

 

Anyone know what kind of algae this is ? And what to do to get rid of it ? Would like to try to stay away from chemical solutions

I'd say cut your light down by a bit if you can. I got some hair algae showing up but having set my timer back an hour the algae isn't spreading

 

Amano shrimp go crazy for the hair algae, always a staple in my tanks. Agree with cutting back the light. I also had my timer shut off mid day for about two hours as the tank still got ambient room lighting and that helped a lot too.

 

Added 6 cardinal tetras last Wednesday.

Added an albino long fin Bristlenose pleco, 6 Amano Shrimp and 1 assassin snail today, didn’t think the bioload of the pleco/snail/shrimp would really effect the parameters too much, if anything they’d probably help , at least that’s what I thought when I added them today even after just adding the cardinals last Wednesday.

 

The pleco can be poop machines. But it should be okay, just keep an eye on your parameters to make sure there isn't any considerable spikes.

 

Well , I had my first Amano commit suicide today... now I’m debating about a lid , I really didn’t want to have to add a lid to any of my tanks since I hear light transfer through a glass lid reduces the effectiveness of the light :/

I guess I’m going to end up adding a glass lid, I’ve thought about it and the pros are outweighing the cons I’ve come up with so far...

Pros
-No more suicides
-Able to get bigger selection of fish that I wanted but couldn’t “KuhlI loaches , hatchetfish etc”
-Less evaporation

Cons
- Looks depending on person
- Lower light effectiveness, which imo everything is growing pretty fast and I haven’t started fertilizing yet

 

Added a aqueon versa glass lid to my build , light dispersion doesn’t seem to be a problem, and as you can see from the pics the shrimp and pleco is doin work, I think my snail population is a bit more than 1 assassin snail can handle though.... might do the vegetable on a stick trick just to try and get the majority of them out and let the assassin do his work.

Also I’ve seen 2 shrimp molts floating at the bottom, I’ve read this could be a good or bad thing depending on water quality.

 

Your tank looks amazing!

 

I don’t like the java fern windlov I have on the rocks underneath the filter, wish it would grow faster . Also the banana plant will not stay rooted for the life of it since I’m seriously considering just throwing it out -.- and the crypts I have in there don’t seem to be growing as fast as I would like them to, I might try adding in some ferts soon(would this effect water parameters?) I also want to add some more background plants in the back right corner

 

Thinking its time to add some more fish, I was thinking KuhlI loaches now that I have a lid or stick with the corycats, but I'm just wondering if either of those species will mess with the shrimp , fighting for food or just plain fighting?

 

I added an electric blue ram , pics will come later once he’s acclimated

 

I love the grey slate rocks! Were they fairly inexpensive?

 

I love the grey slate rocks! Were they fairly inexpensive?

I saw a video on YouTube of them being used and I had to have them , the info is in the OP , I think they were like $3 for about 10-15 pieces from michaels

 

I found them on the Michaels website as "Gray Slate Rocks by Ashland" for $3.19. Out of Stock online and not available at any of the stores in my area

 

I found them on the Michaels website as "Gray Slate Rocks by Ashland" for $3.19. Out of Stock online and not available at any of the stores in my area

They are on the canadian Michaels site as well, so I'm hoping they will have them at my local store! it looks like Ashland has a nice selection of polished rocks too.

 

I added an electric blue ram , pics will come later once he’s acclimated

 

Freaking dwarf aquarium lily and Pogostemon Stellatus "Octopus" really took off after adding easy green liquid fert

 

Are you sure this is your first 29g? I would probably enter in a scape contest if I were you, you have a gift