AllFishNoBrakes

Hey @Maeve! While I’m no expert, I do have a few years experience with 13 tanks in my care for all of those years. Here’s my thoughts: -29 gallon tanks are personally my favorite size. They’re large enough to do a plethora of things with, but small enough to not be a huge hassle. I think it’s a great place to start! -Substrate: I’ve never used eco complete. I’m more of a gravel and root tab kind of guy. Your plan sounds good though to get where you want to go. Personally, root tabs work for me, so I’ve never felt the need to purchase both gravel and eco complete. I’d rather just purchase gravel and use root tabs where I need them. -Fertilizer: Easy Green is awesome and I think it’s worth the “investment”. Some plants feed mostly from the roots, and some feed more from the water column. You’ll want to provide nutrients, even with hard water. I personally have super soft water, but even if my water was hard I would want to provide any and all nutrients the plants want and need. -Cycling: You don’t need to “cycle” the tank before adding plants. Plants should have some beneficial bacteria on them that will actually help you cycle your tank. However, you will absolutely want your tank cycled, and even better seasoned, before adding fish. Personally, I would get your hardscape how you want it, plant your tank, fill with water, and then enjoy it for a month or two before adding any fish. And obviously test your water to ensure it’s safe for fish before you add any. Cory had a great analogy on the Christmas livestream when it comes to cycled vs a seasoned tank. A “cycled” tank is like a house you just moved into and everything you own is still in boxes. A seasoned tank is like once your house becomes a home; everything is out of the boxes, everything is in its place, and it’s a much more comfortable place to be. You can sleep the night in both places, but a well-established home is what you’re going for. -Plants: Agreed with @lefty o that some things will thrive in your water and other things not so much. Even with my 13 tanks that are all basically set up the same, get the same maintenance/water changes/lighting/etc things differ between the tanks. Some tanks grow one plant great, but clippings will not survive in the tank next to it. I would suggest the same thing @lefty o did; try some things and see if they work before you burn a couple hundred bucks hoping they work. -Fish: Dealers choice on what makes you happy. I love Cory’s, Guppies should do well in your hard water and will absolutely reproduce so you’ll need a plan to move the offspring to new homes. CPD’s and Neon’s could definitely be fun! Centerpiece is totally up to you. Hopefully this all helps! Welcome to the forum and holler at us when you have questions or need help! There’s a bunch of rad people here with a lot of experience and we all just want to help others succeed.

@Winstons_estate Same here. I do use an ACO test strip every once in a while (like every 6 months) and I’m just like, “yup, still lower pH, soft water, with low to no buffer” and I keep it moving. I too focus on consistency rather than chasing numbers and changing things all the time.

While we don’t want ammonia in the water, during a cycle you absolutely need the ammonia to colonize the bacteria. Once the bacteria is established, they’ll immediately convert ammonia. It’s a necessary evil while the tank builds bacteria and stabilizes. If it were me, I would water change 50% when the ammonia got to .5ppm.

I would try to quarantine them in the same tank. If there were any issues you could always set up another.

Tank looks nice! My only piece of advice would be to wait until that tank gets covered in algae before getting your shrimp. My shrimp only tank was a 20L as well. I set it up, and then let it get pretty gross before adding my shrimp. I believe having lots of algae for them to graze on as well as getting my shrimp from someone locally really helped me out and I had no issues whatsoever. Best of luck with your shrimp tank!

Have you already medicated him/quarantined with meds when you first got him? As much as I respect @nabokovfan87 and what they do to help everyone, I’m not sure I would agree that it’s pineconing/dropsy. If you really think it’s constipation, I would consider fasting for a couple days and then trying a feeding or two of peas.

I have my 29g Pea Puffer tank. I’ll do my best to answer your questions and remember this is just my personal experience. 1. Any and all plants that do well in your water. 2. I love Spiderwood and have it in all of my tanks. Pea Puffer tank is no exception. 3. Dealers choice on the gravel. I used the leftover gravel and sand I had. Wish my tank was all gravel as it’s my favorite, but I didn’t want to buy more when I had enough of 2 different things to suffice. 4. I think they’re necessary. Can we survive on only cheeseburgers? Probably. Is it the best for us? No. A varied diet is always best. Snails are great for puffers. -I feed snails when I have too many. Both pond and Ramshorn snails. I’ve been purposely building up snails and look forward to feeding them more often. It’s realistic, just takes time. 5. I don’t have any worm cultures, but if I did I would absolutely be feeding them to the Pea Puffers. Bloodworms and snails are what mine get. 6. Can they? Sure! Will they? You’ll have to see if your will. One of the best parts of Pea Puffers is that they don’t have ever-growing beaks/teeth that need to be constantly ground down like other puffers. 7. Good luck with a clean up crew. Maybe Amano shrimp? Maybe larger snails? I kept mine successfully with neo shrimp for a long time, but after a whole the neo population stagnated and started to decline as the shrimplets were all being hunted. My Pea Puffer tank has made me focus more on a balance and the occasional manual algae scrub as shrimp will survive but not thrive and snails are food. 8. I keep 6 in a 29 no problem. I often think about getting up to 10 or 12 just to see, but then I get hesitant to break something that was working perfectly. Just my 2 cents and what I’ve done/what has worked for me. If you have any questions send me a message!

Let that shrimp tank get gross with algae, and then add the shrimp.

I’ve used a tumbler to hatch Cory eggs, so that’s the only experience I have to offer. Gently rocking back and forth is what I go for. Maybe I’m wrong for this specific species, but that is what has worked for me. Maybe try low and slow this time, and if you don’t get the results you’re looking for you could increase the flow on the next attempt?

My uncle worked for Hach for the majority of his career before retiring. Their equipment is definitely above the hobbyists level, but maybe that’s what you need with what you intend to pull off

Tank looks great! Kribs are wonderful parents, and with that the number of fish you have can get out of control quickly. Kribs were my first non-livebearers and I learned some valuable lessons with those guys. Also, welcome to the forum! To tag specific people, so they get a notification, simply use the @ and then type a name, and tap the correct name in the list. Mine would be @AllFishNoBrakes

@NanotankBank Ya, I believe the heater is necessary in this one for the CPD’s and because it’s by a window. In my actual shrimp only tank there is no heater in there. If you’re doing shrimp only I would say no heater is just fine. No gravel vac, just water change.

Here’s my little 6 gallon Walstad cube. Crazy jungle After a trim. Just a heater and a light. Dirted substrate capped with gravel. No filter, no fertilizer, no air pump, and a 20% water change every week. This tank pearls more than tanks I have with c02. Shrimp, snails, and a couple CPD’s. Just over a year old at this point.

Agreed that I get more store credit than I would cash. And then anything I want to buy (fish, plants, hard scape, foods, equipment) is essentially free. Works out nicely for me. I try to get 25-30% of what they’re going to sell them for. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t. Today I traded 55 Angelfish at $1.50/fish when I know they’re gonna sell them for $8-10. But I’d rather them take the fish than me be stuck with them. For things I know they sell for more, I ask for more. It all works out and funds my hobby for free, basically. Also, you have to work on the relationship with the store and the crew. I used to shoot off an email and hope they’d take my fish. Now, I know they like what I produce, and I know the manager is going to be like, “we want all of them. Bring them in whenever we’re open”, but it took time to get to that place with them.

@nabokovfan87 For sure. They’re incredible lights, don’t get me wrong. If I had a custom tank that was deep and I wanted to invest I’d for sure go with Kessils. The shimmer on them is excellent, they’re obviously top notch, and from an aesthetic standpoint the lights themselves are beautiful. I just don’t think that the average person NEEDS them, especially at the price point they are.

Nice! Can’t wait to watch this mature! What did you stock it with? I’ve never played with African Cichlids as my water is the exact opposite of what they want, lol. Looks like maybe Frontosa? I assume some kind of Shellies with the escargot shells? Some kind of jewel cichlid in that last pic? Sorry, total newb to the African Cichlid game.

Kessils are dope, definitely top of the line to the best of my knowledge. They’re just not needed for most people in my opinion. Maybe in your case where you’re having to penetrate so deep, but I gave you a suggestion in our message that may make sense.

@BettaFishCO Aquarium lights are much different than grow lights. I too had to adjust my brain for my aquariums 😏. I’ll send you a message!

They opened up some other countries, but then were having issues and shut it down, unfortunately.

Looks so good! All black everything!

55 Angels went off to the LFS today. So thankful my local shop is cool and willing to work with me. When the dude was adding my credit to my account he said, “most people have a tough time making this profitable, but you seem to be doing alright”. Always feels good. That same guy also offered me a job last time I dropped fish off, and today he commented on my Blink 182 hoodie I was wearing: Maybe I’ll run into him at the show. That’d be fun! I have the bags, the rubber bands, the specimen container, and Fritz Complete. 2 drops of complete in each bag. Figure if any ammonia were to develop I’d rather have it locked up than not. Also used an air pump to fill up the bags, but idk if I’ll continue to do that moving forward. Just felt more like an extra step, but you never know unless you try. These guys definitely have the Panda gene/coloring, but with some yellow. All blacks looked dope this round. The guy on the right is awesome. Marbled pattern. The guy in the left looks like a false Altum. Jealous of whoever ends up with this guy! Another 80 bucks in store credit and the grow out tank is ready for the next round. Didn’t come home with anything today, just letting that credit stack up for when I need it.

@bettaballistic They’re Dwarf Water Lettuce. I enjoy them too! The roots get crazy

Here she is! I took this pic on Wednesday after a water change. Amazon sword in the back, Amazon sword in the front right. The crypt in the middle front grows well, then melts off, then comes back. The Java Fern mess on the left needs to be taken out but I just haven’t done it yet. This tank also runs c02

-7°C = 20°F. 20°F sounds like a dream right now! That’s just a cool winter day where I’m from. -14F or -25C where I’m at at right now. Just glad it didn’t reach -50°F with wind chill like it was predicted. I like the cold, but that’s a whole new level right there!

Luckily I took some time off from work and didn’t leave the house all day. All good where I’m at. Thanks for the kind words!