Tank Build Stacked 29 Gallons

I started the bottom tank first, designed it to take my son's mollies. My daughter has decided she wants to add a school of dwarf corydoras and emerald dwarf rasboras. Not sure how accepting the greedy mollies will be.

Top tank was initially intended for German Blue Rams. However, my water is way too hard for them. We're talking liquid rock, and I'm not wanting to buy an RO system. So I'm thinking celestial pearl danios, some corydoras, and some other feature fish.

 

Ignore the carding fabric. It's an inter-tank climbing deterrent for an almost grown kitten. He thinks the tanks are awesome, especially the mollies. They don't care about him. They think he's part of the feeding routine. He routinely watches the fish, batting at the side.

 

I love this. I'm a saltwater guy and had a setup just like this but the tanks were drilled and the bottom tank was my filtration. Seeing this was a good reminder of an amazing setup. Best of luck with the tanks. They look awesome

 

To be fair, this picture was taken last week. I've added plants to the top tank, changed a couple of plants. My ammonia finally dropped to close to zero (not perfectly bright yellow, but not nearly green enough for .25 in the top tank. Thursday had it at .5 ammonia and .25 nitrite in the top and bottom. Did a partial water change on the bottom since I did a fish-in cycle with the mollies. Bottom tank is struggling to keep up with the mollies but I also discovered the kids feeding the little beggars. After a lengthy discussion of the nitrogen cycle and how they would survive on one feeding a day, they stopped feeding the fish.

Adding fish soon to both tanks, once I'm confident both are fully cycled. No nitrates detected in either tank, but the dropout of the nitrites and the heavy planting in both gives me hope. pH is too high, 8.0. Tap water is 7.6 to 7.8. Not sure what to do about it other than water changes, but I don't want to mess with the cycle. The tanks are about 2 weeks apart, but I stole filter media from my son's tank at the same time. At first I was trying to avoid his little pond snails. Now he has Pea puffers, and I can't keep enough snails for them.

Background for top tank and glass lids should arrive next week. Right now they have plastic lids with glass panels from the non-functional fluorescent lights. (Good excuse to upgrade to LED - Koval 78 LED on top, but bottom tank may need more light, it was a National Geographic LED on sale at PetSmart)

 

Where did you get that stand?

 

I bought it used, locally, but I have seen them online at Over the Edge. They also make replacement frames. It's a bit of a hassle moving anything in the bottom tank. I have to siphon water in for water changes. My daughter can move plants and decor easily, but she has scrawny 11 year old arms. Overall I'm happy with the design.

 

I did put plastic furniture pads under the legs so the weight wouldn't damage the carpet underneath.

 

so pretty. I have a soft spot for mollies and similar fish.

 

I do like the mollies. They aren't shy and like to nibble fingers.

 

So the bottom tank is fully cycled, top tank hasn't shown nitrates yet, but has been hovering at .25 to .5 ammonia. There's clearly some bacteria, as the mopanI wood is covered in a bacterial slime. I did boil it for a few hours, but sometimes that's just how they are. Should die off after a while. I have some shrimp in the tank (I know, I know, but they needed to be moved from another tank) and when I suck leftover sinking pellets, I suck slime off the wood.

Here are pictures of my finished setups (for now!) and the slimed wood.

 

Forgive my possible ignorance, but maybe the live plants are sucking up any available nitrates before the test can pick them up? Especially if shrimp are the only things producing ammonia?

Also WHAT!! is that plant in the top middle? The one with the skinny stem and the big round leaves, kind of lime green color. I'm in love with it.

 

I love that plant too. It's Brazilian Pennywort (Hydrocotyle leucocephala).
And yes, it's heavily planted, so it's possible that the plants are doing their jobs.

 

My pennywort has tiny leaves

I boiled my driftwood in a turkey deep fryer which worked for 99% of it but the ends that sick out are still a little fuzzy . Ugh.

 

I was expecting small leaves on the pennywort. But I'm not going to complain! I added my panda corydoras. One died within the first day. I don't know if I rushed the drip acclimation, or if they really don't adapt to the liquid rock that is my water. The two left are happy as clams, but now I need to find a source for more pandas. They aren't typically stocked by the stores in driving distance, and are prohibitively expensive to ship.

 

Now that I'm mostly settled, here what I've got. Top has about 17 Celestial Pearl Danios, 6 panda corydoras, some Amano or bamboo shrimp, cherry shrimp, and a couple tiger nerite snails.

Bottom has mollies, Pygmy corydoras, Nerite and black devil snails, and a too-small school of emerald dwarf rasboras that tend to stay hidden. I'd move them to a better tank but I don't think I could find or catch them.

 

The picture backgrounds look great on these tanks. Normally people preach solid colors but I think you made the right move here.

 

Thank you, I was going for neutral. The top one is a custom background that I chose because it was primarily solid but fit with the theme.