New 29 Gallon Tank

[JollieMollie]

Hello all,

I am a big animal lover, and have read about lots of pets and how to take care of them. I had this 29 gallon tank set up when I was little but we had some problems, mom got tired of having to do most of the care for my fish (i was widdle), and etc etc so we sold the fish and took down the tank. I'm setting it up again and just thought I'd poke in and get some comments. First, a description of what I've done:



The tank is in my room, on a very sturdy night stand. Underground filter, with a pump that draws the water up, mixes it with outside air, poofs it back into the water creating a subtle current and aireation. I had the option also of doing underground filter with a bubble stone and a tube and it's hard to explain but that method would also involve charcoal. But don't tell me to do that instead 'cause I already have water in the tank and it'd be harder to change now but I could. Okay. So.

Put in water. Just tap water, since I was going to run the filter for awhile before putting fish in, so I know the nasties would evaporate out. We do have hard water, I got a little testing kit and it tells me my water is "hard", and the buffering capacity is smack in the middle of "ideal". No numbers unfortunately, and none of this nitrate/nitrite/ammonia fun jazz. So, filled it up, have several inches of gravel in it, some rocks and such, and a log that my dad made and we used for many many years before; I think it was drift wood taht he drilled fun holes into, but I was too young to remember. Anyway, I know it's safe, it's just... very floaty right now. So it's pinned down with a rock 'til it behaves. Question One: How long should it take for the wood to become waterlogged? I also bought a heater since mine wouldn't work anymore, TopFin brand submersable heater, got one labled for this tank size. It has adjustable heat. Question Two: What is a good temp? fish species discussed later in this post.


Next I bought two little lily bulbs from Wal-Mart, guaranteed 'live' plants, if it doesn't sprout in 30 days you get your money back, etc etc. Just thought it'd be fun. Well, those are floaty too, and also pinned down (as lightly as possible!) with rocks or a giant seashell. Question Three: Any success with those little buggers, how long 'til they at least sit down properly, do you think they'll sprout?


Next I bought two tall spikey green and white somethings which if I was a good little aquariast I would have remembered the name of. They are a few inches short of the entire hight of my tank, quite tall. I put those in, and they've been in about three days. Today I bought moneywort (wow, pretty plant) and red... ludwigia? (also quite lovely), one of each, and planted those. Question Four: Good plants? Bad plants? Grow fast or slow?

I also bought a small red betta (his name is Tinle). I was going to wait on fish until I had cycled the tank more (the water is more than two weeks old, the plants fairly new) but since I have had great sucess with bettas in tap water + get rid of bad stuff drops before (read: more than four year life span, in vase, healthy throughout) I figured he would be fine and would help cycle my water. I want to cycle as naturally as possible, just slowly adding plants and then a few fish.

I'm getting out of order. I also bought "Plant food", I believe it's CO2 or somesuch? to help my plants, and put that in when I planted tall spikies. Today I bought "Cycle" (on sale for a dollar per tiny bottle, bought two) which claims it quickly matures tanks and is also great as a weekly jazz. I put in the weekly upkeep dosage after putting in Tinle, mostly because I forgot to double it since it's the first time like it said. Question Five: Does this stuff do any good? Should I buy more and make it a regular (maybe monthly) thing? I prefer not to... should I put in the other half of the dose? Will it react with my plant food and blow up while I'm asleep?


Oh. Yes. And... no, I just forgot. Never mind, I'll come back to it. So, other than general comments on what I just said which I would welcome, here's some info about future plans with more questions:


I would like to do mostly guppies. Get two pairs, wild type male (no one sells wild females, probably 'cause they're so plain), two pretty females (maybe one that's already pregnant just 'cause that's so exiting, but maybe not so I'll have a better idea of what fry I'll get), and a red male. Let them breed, don't go wild protecting the fry but have lots of availible hiding spots, plus it's a large tank, see if I end up with a nice little colony. Also wanting a plec (I know, I know, they get huge... they never did for us before and we didn't have problems with them. Plus I have a 29 gallon tank. So am I okay?), maybe a cory to keep my gravel tidy (oh yeah. I have gravel substrate, forgot to say that) (we've had great sucess with a cory before too btw, he was seven I think when we sold the tank, had him since the beginning), maybe a couple ghost shrimp, african clawed frog. I saw some gorgeous koi swordtails in PetsMart that I fell in love wiht but they're gone now. I'd like some neons but I really want to leave room for my guppy population to grow.



SO. Sorry I'm so rambly! Here's some more general questions:


- How long do you think it will take to cycle my tank naturally in the fasion? Mostly, with the addition of a few new plants, and counting the plant food and Cycle I'm using, how long should I wait until I put in some other fish? I'm guessing about another two weeks or so, but I don't know.

- Any good suggestions on ground cover? I haven't seen any in pet stores but I'd really like some. Also, if you have a well matured aquarium, with ground cover and lots of plants, do you still vacuum the bottom? do the plants take care of it and you just do water changes? I'd love to have a nice stale eco system going on without the addition of chemicals and jazz and little maintenence, espeically since...

- I am in college, may transfer after this summer, and will eventually get married and move to a new house. Thoughts on moving aquariums around without having to start over? I'd hate to re-do everything after I spend so much effort (and mulah!) on getting a nice mature aquarium set up.




I think that's all for now. Let me know if you have any random suggestions too, as well as answers to any of my questions. Like I said, I've read a lot, but I know more about types of fish than I do about water quality and that sort of thing since that isn't so interesting to read :wink:. Hence why I'm here!






Oh, and Tinle loves having a huge tank to himself after a mini blue deli cup! He has explored the entire thing multiple times. I was afraid he'd stick around the top, but he utilizes the whole thing. Yay! I'm calling him the magical flake eating betta since I've never been able to get a betta to eat flake before but he at really well when I tried crumbling a tiny amount of flake for him. He's small, and has a small bump near his tail... I'm worried he's super skinny since he ate so readily and that bump might be his hipbones, so to speak, poking out. I'll doctor him up in no time, I love to spoil fishies on freeze dried and frozen goodies as well as betta food and some flake since he'll take it.



EDIT: Just remembered. The water turned a touch brown after a few days. I believe it was due to the lily bulbs and maybe the log. Now it's mostly gone away (I think it's because I finally got some real plants in there) but it has a touch of yellowybrown in it. Suggestions as to what will take it away, or do you think it'll go in time as the cycling continues and we get more plants going?

 

[Tessla]

Sounds like a nice little setup!

Just in case you didn't know, you won't want to keep a male betta with guppies so make sure he gets his own bowl/tank when the guppies go in!

Hard water shouldn't be an issue with the fish you want to keep, though you may want to look at your local water reports and find out what they're using in there. If they're using chlorine, you can get away with aging the water, but if they're using chloramines, you'll want to get a water conditioner (Prime is one, I use Kordon's products, there are a ton that do exactly the same thing.) You'll probably want to get a water conditioner anyways since they also deal with heavy metals and can provide a stress coat for new arrivals. Bettas are much more tolerant than the other fish you plan to keep. The brown/yellow color is probably from tannins in the wood and is perfectly safe, it will eventually all leech out and you'll have clear water after several water changes.

Do you have a thermometer in the tank? Don't trust the settings on the heater, you'll probably have to fiddle with it a bit to get it right. 70-75F should be a good temp for your fish, no higher than 80.

If your test kit is dip strips, you'll want to go out and get yourself a good liquid test kit, API does an excellent kit. Make sure it tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH, everything else is optional. I wouldn't get any more Cycle to add to your tank once your current supply is gone, not sure how effective it will be but it can't hurt anything. It just won't be needed at all once your tank is properly cycled.

The tall spikey green and white somethings sound an awful lot like a non-aquatic plant, the others are fine though. The bulbs are likely aponogetons, I've got one that's been doing well for about a year now. I haven't tried any ground cover plants yet as they tend to be very demanding and my loaches would likely root them up. If you're looking for more plants, anacharis, cryptocorynes, swords, java fern, java moss and anubias are all nice and hardy without being very demanding, you could attach java moss, java fern and anubias to your driftwood as well. They shouldn't really need much in the way of plant food unless you have a very well lit aquarium. The planted forum here is great for info on plants.

All the fish you have listed sound fine for your tank, if you get swordtails get a male and two or three females, and keep cories in groups of five or more. Be wary of the african clawed frog, the african dwarf frog is fine but make sure you can tell the difference between the two: clawed eats fish. Ghost shrimp are fine, they make great little scavengers. You can also get algae eating shrimp, amanos and cherry shrimp are the most common. Add your fish a few at a time spread out over a few months to let your filter adjust. It sounds like you're getting a lot of equipment and plants from big chain stores, I'd suggest that you find a store specializing in fish in your area to purchase your fish from when you're ready to start stocking. You'll be able to find more variety and probably get healthier fish that are properly labeled (most chain stores are awful though I have seen a few that are decent.)

Hope that answers most of your questions!

 

[Breeze7050]

Alright, I will try to answer all your questions here...

First of, you should be running a fishless cylce - read the stickies in the beginner section. Seeing as you do have one fish in there, you should be doing daily water changes to keep the ammonia down. That being said, you will also need to get a better quality test kit. people really like the API MAster Test Kit - this will give you the readings you NEED - ammonia, nitrate, nitrite. Without these readings, you won't know if your tank has cycled or not!
Im not a big plant person, so take Tessia's advice on that one or head to the planted section of the forum!! I know nothing about Walmart's plants or bulbs - although these could be for garden ponds and not aquariums ??
Driftwood can take a long time to sink! Having it weighted down will help to get it water logged. The brown water is the tannins releasing from the driftwood - perfectly normal and should clear up with water changes. Some people boil their driftwood to keep this from happening... its up to you! Just make sure the rock is secured - don't want it falling on your fish!!
A good tropical tank should be between about 75-78 degrees. Depending on the fish you have in there - you will have to do your research on that one! I keep mine between 77-78, heaters can be touchy, so you may have to play around with it for awhile! Make sure you have a good thermometer in there to tell you the temp!
Im not quite sure what water conditioner you have bought, but you need a dechlorinator such as Aquasafe. This needs to be added at EACH and every water change - not just once in awhile. More info on the bottle would help us. Tap water is not always super safe, which is why this is added - removes chlorine and other ickies from your water. This does not however, cycle your tank. Could you take a picture of the bottle so we know if it will work for you?
on to your fish ideas! Guppies reproduce like mad... do you have somewhere for all the fry (babies) will your pet stores or friends take them?? They can take over a tank in no time! I suggest all males so you don't have constant reproducing. if you do decide to go with both, make sure there are 3 females to every 1 male... for obvious reasons (the ladies need a break!) and you cannot/shouldn't keep them with a betta. Bettas can be very mean little suckers!!
Corries are GREAT! But, they need to be in groups - 1 by it self would be very lonely. I would get a shoal of 6 - peppered or bronze are the most commonly available in the US. As for a plec, do you research, not all plecs get huge! A bristlenose will fit in your tank perfectly. They only get about 6'' another small plec is the rubberlip or pitbull - also stays small. If you are worried about algae think about a shoal of ottos. But, these are very sensitive and should only be added to a very mature (6+ months old) tank. Do research on the fish you like and be patient... this is the best advice!!! Be sure to get a dwarf frog - if you get a clawed frog, it can and will eat your guppies once full grown!!!
Plants DO NOT take over your vacuuming duty. Once your tank is mature you will still need to do once weekly waterchanges and vacuuming. This gets up all the old/uneaten food and feces. NO fish or shrimp or anything will get that up for you - you gotta put some work into it.
Im not sure you need to worry about moving a tank just yet - lets focus on getting it up and running and healthy!! There are plenty of ways to move aquariums and they really aren't that hard. The topic is brought up several times on the website. But, let's cross that bridge when it comes! HTH!! Keep the questions coming as that's some of your best research, but make sure to do some research on your own!!

 

[Jozlyn]

Ok, big long posts! So here goes....

This is just my opinion and other's may differ but ..... undergravel filters are not all that flash, you're better off with an internal or external filter. With undergravel filters you'll have to do major surgery on your tank about once a year to get rid of all the muck that will accumulate under the gravel. External/internal filters remove a little and the gravel vac most of the rest. But the nature of undergravel filters means that they draw the muck down to the bottom (under the gravel) where it just sits and festers. You'll probably need to pull your tank completely down once each year to clean all the muck out from under the gravel.

Use some plant anchors (lead ties) to hold your plants and log down, you sort of wrap them around the plant and push them into the gravel (mainly so you can't see them) much safer for your eventual fish than having something balanced on top of them. Your plants wont stay down untill they've developed plenty of roots, so the plant anchors come in very handy.

Java moss is a great ground cover and almost impossible to kill.

You will never know if your tank has cycled properly untill you get a test kit! Do the water tests and post the results and someone will tell you if you're tank has finished cycling.

Always use water conditioner as it not only removes chlorine but also the fish deadly chloramine.

You're going to have to do some sort of weekly/fortnightly maintenance no matter how you set your tank up! So make sure you're going to be up to that before you get any fish.

Good luck with your new hobby and don't forget to research, research, research before you buy any fish.

 

[JollieMollie]

I just got a pair of guppies and a pair of cherry barbs and an african /dwarf/ frog (!). My tank now has those plus the male betta. I watched them closely for probably twenty minutes and the betta showed no signs of aggression. It's like I figured it would be; the tank is so huge and population so small, there is no need for aggression. Plus pet shop guppies don't have huge fins! (-: So everyone is settling in nicely. I didn't add any chemicals or test the water, I guess I'm sort of old fashioned that way and prefer to just break it in naturally and slowly. When I was watching them, I was also watching closely to see if they showed any signs of stress from the water, but they were all just fine and are still fine now (over night). So yay!



Question: Since I have a thirty gallon tank with only five fish plus a tiny frog, how can I effectively get food to the frog? Is there a pellet he would work on? It's just that with so few fish it's hard to give them enough food that they'll see it and eat, without overfeeding them and polluting the tank. But especially with the frog, since as I understand it I should get some more frozen bloodworms or at least freeze dried brine shrimp. But how do I get it down to him so it's not wasted and he eats it? Suggestions are appreciated!



Also I'm curious, has anyone had luck breeding cherry barbs? I'm hoping that I can have my tank be a place that is just nice and natural and fish will breed more or less like they might in nature; I'm not going to get any seperate tanks. I do have a couple breeding traps; one is net, one is the plastic with V insert style. I'm most likely going to use the netted box style for guppy fry. Seems like barbs breed on the bottom sides of plants? I researched it before but I forgot already! Is it hard to breed them, is it hard to preserve the eggs or the fry? Tips would be great. (-: I'm cool with the guppies, I've done this lots before. Other than that, no clue.



Oh, one more question. Kirbinses.... love them, they are tame chiclids that still have their awesome breeding habits and all. However... would they eat my little fish, either my as of yet small cherry male, or my half-grown fry? I know they're not relaly nippers in general as long as they have a place to be (I have a huge seashell in there that I think would be perfect for their breeding cave) but I wasn't sure. Thanks alll!

 

[JollieMollie]

::bump:: My cherries aren't getting much food.... when I put in betta bites, some will sink, and the male has eaten a few (with lots of chewing!). I have freeze dried brine shrimp but it floats, and they don't usually see any flakes that fall. I don't want to have to put them in a smaller tank or something just to feed them. Any ideas?

I'm also thinking of adding about three more but I'm undecided. Would it be good for the pair to have, say anouther pair, or two more females and a male?


Thanks (-: