29 Gallon-first planted tank

[DebSills]

This is my first attempt at a planted tank and my first tank in a long time (~15 years) I know it doesn't look like it, but there are currently 18 Embers and 18 CPDs in the tank...the CPDs just went in today, so everyone was a little skittish when I took the picture...everyone seems a little more comfortable and are all exploring the tank now - it was kind of funny, when the CPDs first went in, they mixed in with the Embers and started schooling with them

For my plants, I have one unidentified crypt, rotala, an Amazon sword, crypt wendtii, crypt lucens, anubias cofeefolia, water sprite and I am pretty sure my dwarf lilly finally started to sprout, so pretty psyched about that!!

let me know what you think

[Fish Folk]

Wonderful! I love 29 gal tanks for showing off good fish. Love the Eheim heater brand. I like to place mine horizontally in the back so that when I water change, I don’t accidentally lower the water under the heater and risk cracking the glass.

As for plants, a lot depends on the quality of your lighting in relation to fertilization and your plant choices.

Our Water Sprite tended to get brown algae down low, and grew “leggy” — eating the light at the top, but struggling down low. Our Rotalla Indica did great… better and better as it approached the light. Amazon Swords all did fantastic, especially with a single root tab buried beneath each one at least once per month.

I’ve found that slightly cooler water can help certain plants thrive. Running at 85° for breeding Rams and keeping Discus + Cardinal Teras really stressed certain plants.

Here’s a shot of my Warm 29 gal…

Here’s a look at my Cold 29 gal…

 

You might find that a small pump or HOB can increase flow for your tank. Depending on your goals, it’s an idea to keep in mind. 

Edited July 17, 2021 by Fish Folk

[DebSills]

Yeah, I haven't fully decided on the Water Sprite, I just needed something for that side of the tank and wanted some height that gave the fish somewhere to hide if they wanted - they love the rotala so grabbed the Water Sprite and I'll just see how it goes...I like the different texture it gives the tank...at least so far...

I've got a Fluval 207 canister on there (you can see the intake and return next to the heater on the right) so, its almost got too much flow, but the littles don't seem to mind - the embers regularly like to swim the current and then "let go" and ride the wave...kind of funny to watch 🙂 

[DebSills]

UPDATE:

Well...I am currently fighting a possible columnaris outbreak in this tank - some white patches on two of the embers (looks like the color just faded out, not fuzzy or raised), but, so far no losses (knock on wood...fingers crossed)

my rotala is starting to get some good growth and some decent red (ish) color too 🙂 my chain sword has also sent out its first runner (ok, its two leaves, but I honestly didn't think it was going to make it, so kind of happy) my three crypts are starting to flourish as well 👍

I have also upgraded my light, so I am hoping that with the light better dialed in (Fluval Sky) it will help with some algae control - I am hoping to get some amano shrimp after I figure out exactly what is going on with my fish, but hopefully at some point 🙂 

Lastly, I have the last "set" of tankmates currently in my quarantine tank...6 pygmy cories (cutest things ever!!) and a "flamingo" honey gourami...never heard of a "flamingo" variant, but I'm thinking he/she (can't tell) will have more red maybe, like a sunset or similar? pretty excited - they are currently swimming around in their blue water apparently not phased by the quarantine trio I administered earlier - the store I finally found this last group was an hour away, but well worth the drive!

[DebSills]

New UPDATE:

Well...not sure if we had columnaris or what, but I have had no losses (I still have one or two embers who refuse to be orange, but at this point, I don't want to medicate them if I don't know what is "wrong" they eat and act just like everyone else, so...)

I have added some PSO (tall from LFS, smaller from ACO) and some floating plants (my water sprite is now floating as well because I wanted to plant the Pogo instead) My chain sword runner is now almost as big as the "mother" plant and has since sent out two more tiny baby runners. My floating plants (red root and frogbit) seem to be doing well, and love the look of the red roots as well!

I am fighting some algae issues, but it seems to be getting better. I'm going to wait a few more weeks and if it is still causing issues, I may pick up a few Amano shrimp to help me keep it at bay. I have added the last batch of fish, and they are all loving it - my honey gourami even likes to pick at the algae a little 🙂 I don't mind the green on the wood, I just don't like the hair type stuff. I actually allowed two bladder snails who hitch-hiked their way into my QT to move into the display and they are actually making a bit of a difference, so if the snail population gets a little much, I'll get a trap, or hubs said we can get an assassin snail 🙄 for now though, they can continue to be helpful so I'll leave them...and they were free 🙂 

Final fish stock (barring adding amano shrimp): 18 Ember Tetras, 18 CPDs, 6 Pygmy Corys, 3 Otos, 1 Honey Gourami and two (for now) bladder snails

Plant list: Red root floaters, frog bit, water sprite, PSO, Anubias coffeefolia, Crypt Lutea, Chain Sword, Crypt Wendtii Bronze, Amazon Sword, Rotala, Anubias Nana narrow leaf, and one mystery crypt from my brother in law

[PineSong]

I think it looks great. I wish I could feel as positively about bladder snail stowaways. I'm holding my breath waiting for snailpocalypse after finding one in my tank this week.

[DebSills]

On 8/14/2021 at 12:01 AM, PineSong said:

I think it looks great. I wish I could feel as positively about bladder snail stowaways. I'm holding my breath waiting for snailpocalypse after finding one in my tank this week.

I'm at least trying to think positively anyways...they did eat some pretty gross algae that had grown on my heater bracket in the QT, so I'm hoping that they'll be useful in here and once they outlive their usefulness out they come 🙂 I'm still debating on just getting amano shrimp now and taking the snails out 😐 my LFS is having a buy 2 get 1 free on anything in the store this weekend, so...maybe three amano is the better idea than a possible snailpocalypse 😉 

[DebSills]

@PineSong Positive thinking lost the war...lol I found eggs in my water sprite and decided I did not want the bladder snails anymore...eggs (what I found anyway) and snails are now gone 🙂 

[PineSong]

I feel bad for saying so, but I don't want to decrease feeding my tank to reduce snail populations because I enjoy feeding my fish ((hangs head in shame)). Watching Cory throw mega handfuls of fish food in the tubs in his fishroom is eye-candy to me, lol.

I do make them skip one meal a couple of times per week to encourage them to clean up the tank, I don't want to have to cut back more.

My betta appears to be stalking something non-stop in the substrate, and I have never had shrimp in this tank so I am hoping what he is after is baby snails and he will get them before they grow large enough for me to have to make decisions about. 

[Guppysnail]

Beautiful start up! Very awesome.  If you place your heater at an angle or horizontally as @Fish Folk said it will do a better job and last longer. Straight up and down the heat sensor kicks off and on repeatedly as heat rises instead of flowing away from the sensor for more even distribution.  You are going to adore your CPD I have a bunch they are so incredibly much fun. Please keep us posted on the progress. I would love to see this grown in. 😀

Edited August 14, 2021 by Guppysnail

[DebSills]

Still fighting some algae issues as you can see below, but I have figured out the issue (high Phosphate, and my light was too high)...I am getting control slowly and the Easy Carbon is helping to kill what is in there enough for the shrimp, otos and nerites to eat it. I'm not too concerned with the stuff on the rocks or driftwood (I actually kind of like it), but trying to get rid of the stuff on the leaves...the new growth is coming in and not getting any algae on it as it grows, so I'm slowly trying to trim off the worst of the algae covered leaves to allow new leaves to come in stronger...it will be a slow process, but I'm up to the challenge...frankly, its not really hurting anything and the tank is running really smoothly, so I'm fine with it for now

One thing I have learned with this tank (other than learning about plants) is that I am not a huge fan of having a bigger tank with nano fish...Once these fish have lived their lives, I think my next setup will be fewer fish, but slightly larger (maybe platies, or swordtails...something colorful)...(and I'll definitely lay my heater down in the back instead of upright as it is now 😉)

I lost my first CPD the other day, I'm not sure what happened, the parameters haven't changed in weeks...it was on the smaller side, so I'm wondering if it was getting out-competed for food...the CPDs tend to stay towards the bottom of the tank when I'm feeding and the embers are like little lunatics towards the top...there was no visible damage to the CPD, just found him stuck to the intake when I got home from work 😞

I'll keep updating as my algae issues continue to balance out...and I'll try to get a pic of my Honey gourami and some of my more stellar CPDs (some of the bigger males have amazing coloration 😍), but here's a recent pic of my tank as it is for now

[DebSills]

So, its been a while since I posted about my 29 gallon...just looking at the picture above really puts it in perspective for me! My tank is now a complete jungle, the chain sword has since wrapped several times around the tank, killed both of my crypts by just overtaking them and am now fighting BBA - I had gotten control of all of the above algae and it was going really strong, but then one or two tufts of BBA became a lot of BBA and I can't keep up with it...I initially was just going to let it be and let everyone do their thing, but the more BBA started to take over, the more I started to hate looking at the tank and just don't want to deal with it anymore...well...my current plan:

I have a few ideas, but my first thought is this...

I have one 10g which has been running for about 4 months currently housing a female betta and a nerite snail and another that I am working on a full tear down and rescape, currently housing 2 thorned nerites and one racer nerite - the new 10g tank will obviously need to settle in and cycled, so this is not going to be a quick process, but, my thought is that I will split my CPDs into two groups of about 6 - 8 in each of the two 10g with the Betta in one and my Honey gourami from the 29 in the other...I will then set up my hospital 10g for the embers and the shrimp who will go back to the 29...

the 29 I am just going to completely tear down and start over (keeping filter, some of the plants and substrate)...there will be crypts and stems and NO chain sword...I want something that will give more swimming space for the fish and plants that aren't going to completely overrun my tank...I'm hoping to have a heavily planted, but less "jungly" tank with my school of embers and something new in there once I get it back together...not sure what I want  yet, other than getting something a little bigger than the embers/CPDs...maybe some platys or something of similar size...I still want a lot of color in here, but the embers have rally colored up, so maybe even something like a red eye tetra, I'm open to a lot of things, and since this is going to take a while, I think it will be fun to look at different things while I'm getting the tank set up and pretty again 🙂

So...the picture is a little worse than I would normally have it...one, I just got back from vacation, and two, my brother in law is rescaping his 55 gallon and wanted me to grow a bunch of stems for him, so the rotala is a bit worse than I would normally have it, I need to trim and bunch some for him soon 🙂

[Solstice_Lacer]

It's a jungle in there. 😁 Looks great, but I understand why you might want a bit of a trim

[FLFishChik]

I think it looks great! I have a 29g that I’m slowly converting to planted! 

[DebSills]

So I spent about 4 hours this morning completely breaking down, cleaning all of the BBA off of the glass and intake/output, etc...adding some substrate and new hardscape and then replanting...I lost about 90% of my plants to the BBA outbreak - I let it get too far and it just got out of control to the point where I wasn't able to get it back, so I decided to shut it down and start over...I wanted the tank a bit more open anyways, so I'll get that with this scape. I definitely needs to grow in a lot, but I think it will be nice once it grows in a little and it will be a lot better for viewing my fish and giving them more open swim areas as well (of course they're all a bit stressed right now and are all huddling towards the bottom of the tank under the plants right now, but...) The picture below has a lot of microbubbles, and I took it before I put any of the fish back, but so far I really like it...the fish are starting to color back up and a lot of the microbubbles are starting to fade...I have some ludwigia repens in one of my 10gs and I definitely want to add some of that to this tank, its just not big enough yet 🙂 I also swapped out the standard output for a spraybar, but went the short way instead of the long way and moved my heater to the bottom

Now I just have to be better about keeping on top of my maintenance and making sure that I don't let the algae get that far again!

[Matilyn]

Your tank is looking wonderful! I have a smaller planted tank and I love it! There's something to be said about live plants in an aquarium. 

[DebSills]

Quick update to the tank...its finally starting to grow in and I am really loving it - bits of algae here and there, but I am loving how it came out

and apparently my Anubias seems happy too 😄

[Katherine]

That is some great growth since your last photo.