Supermassive Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 As the title says I'm doing a planted 29G with guppies and cherry shrimp and I would like to share how things go. The tank has already been setup since around August-September. I had goldfish in the tank but they got too big and I had to give them to my LFS. I considered getting a stock tank for them but it just wouldn't be practical for us. I've never kept a bunch of fish together, I've only done bettas and the goldfish so I welcome any and all advice or suggestions. I'm pretty excited to actually have some nice plants that wont get demolished. Currently I need to move some plants around in the tank and figure out what I'm going to do with the hardscape. Most of the hardscape is in the tank already. I just have 1 medium-large piece of mopani wood soaking right now. It doesn't seem to be releasing much tannins after being boiled so I can probably add it any time. Once the hardscape is figured out I have a few plant species to go in the tank. Cryptocoryne wendtii Green and Tropica, Hygrophila Rosanervig, Limnophila sessiliflora, and Ceratopteris thalictroides. I will probably also add some S. repens and Hellanthium Quadricostatus in the future but they are struggling in my other tank right now so I don't want to move them. Maybe I should move them anyway and see if they do better in the 29G. There's quite a few plants in the tank already too. Anubias Barteri, Anubias nana, Anubias petite, Bucephalandra pygmaea Bukit Kelam, narrow leaf and normal Java fern, and two Amazon sword plants. Every plant is attached to wood or rock except the sword plants. I plan on moving the swords into the back corner to try and obstruct the view of the filter. I also need to decide if I want to slope the substrate or not. I know generally it looks better if you have a nice slope but I don't have a lot of gravel to go around and I really don't think it looks that bad as is with the flat substrate. Its quite a large grain size. I would say 5-15mm and its smooth and round so it looks like a natural stream bed to me with the flat bottom. If I do make a slope it wont be very steep. I just got the light for the tank today. Its a Chihiros WRGB II Slim. It looks fantastic... well, the colors look fantastic. The tank looks a bit shoddy currently lol. The plan as of now and likely to change is 1. Water change out all the salt. 2. Set hardscape. 3. Add plants. 4. Get heater. 5. Get shrimp. 6. Decide exactly what fish I'm getting. 7. Setup QT. 8. Get fish and QT. 9. Add fish. I'm expecting it to be 1-2 months until the fish are actually in the tank. Hopefully only 1-2 weeks for the shrimp. I haven't fully decided what fish to get. Besides the guppies I also want a middle water column schooling/shoaling fish. Initially I was thinking chili Rasboras or neons but I think it would be too expensive for me to get enough of them to make an impact so I'm thinking 10 or so 1.5-2in fish. It seems like a lot of the schooling non-livebearers prefer soft acidic water so I'm having to search for the right species. I'm also considering getting ottos but I've heard they can be a bit difficult. And I've considered a bristlenose or some other small pleco too but idk if they would be comfortable in the tank. Its in the open with no background. I think I have enough wood for a pleco to hide but I cant decide yet. Ill post a photo of what it looks like without the light. Ill get photos with the light in the near future. That's all for now. Thanks for reading 🙂 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 Look like a great start. Looking forward to following along. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 Hello! Lovely tank you have there. I used to have a similar peninsula style in my bar right in front of my sink too, without a background. Made doing dishes more tolerable ☺️ I had a bristlenose in that set up. I had a little cave (it was a fake log looking thing from PetSmart) as well as a bit more drift wood, which I would suggest as your set up is pretty open right now since plants haven't grown in yet. She did fine in that set up but definitely was mostly active at night and stayed in her in her cave or on the underside of driftwood most of the day. But I think that is fairly normal pleco activity. If you are worried about size or bioload, clown plecos are adorable and only get about 3 inches. They seem to be a little more shy though and can be harder to find in shops where I live than bristlenose. I have one right now in my 29 with a lot of driftwood, plants and terracotta pots/caves and it seems to be doing well. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supermassive Posted February 10 Author Share Posted February 10 I got most of the hardscape finished. I have a couple more stones I may or may not use. I want to get the plants in before taking up space with more stones. The only thing I really have planned for the rest of the layout is to put the limnophilia in the center and have it like a big tree with the guppies swimming above it. That was my plan from the beginning. Sorry for the glare. At some point Ill get some picture when there's not so much glare. This is the front. It is meant to be viewed from both sides but I still focused on this side as the main side. And this is the "back". 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitecloud09 Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 On 2/10/2024 at 11:50 AM, Supermassive said: I got most of the hardscape finished. I have a couple more stones I may or may not use. I want to get the plants in before taking up space with more stones. The only thing I really have planned for the rest of the layout is to put the limnophilia in the center and have it like a big tree with the guppies swimming above it. That was my plan from the beginning. Sorry for the glare. At some point Ill get some picture when there's not so much glare. This is the front. It is meant to be viewed from both sides but I still focused on this side as the main side. And this is the "back". Nice. I like the way that tere is a lot of plants and driftwood. I am a big fan of natural looking tanks. Are you going to put anything in the middle of tank or is that some swimming space for the fish? I will 100% follow this as I am always interested in journals!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supermassive Posted February 10 Author Share Posted February 10 On 2/10/2024 at 3:09 PM, Bigdog99 said: Nice. I like the way that tere is a lot of plants and driftwood. I am a big fan of natural looking tanks. Are you going to put anything in the middle of tank or is that some swimming space for the fish? I will 100% follow this as I am always interested in journals!! Thank you! Yeah, natural aquascapes are my favorite too. I am going to put a bushy plant in the center of the tank. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitecloud09 Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 On 2/10/2024 at 3:12 PM, Supermassive said: Thank you! Yeah, natural aquascapes are my favorite too. I am going to put a bushy plant in the center of the tank. Nice! I hope everything goes great for u! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supermassive Posted February 11 Author Share Posted February 11 Plants are in. I might add some things here or there but its set for the most part. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitecloud09 Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 On 2/11/2024 at 11:16 AM, Supermassive said: Plants are in. I might add some things here or there but its set for the most part. Looks great! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 On 2/11/2024 at 11:16 AM, Supermassive said: Plants are in. I might add some things here or there but its set for the most part. I'm loving what you are doing with this tank! Makes me want my kitchen sink tank back! Keep up the updates! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitecloud09 Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 On 2/12/2024 at 6:02 PM, cmo1922 said: I'm loving what you are doing with this tank! Makes me want my kitchen sink tank back! Keep up the updates! I know. I am jealous! 🤣 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitecloud09 Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 Did you add the fish and shrimp yet or have u done that a long time ago? @Supermassive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supermassive Posted February 24 Author Share Posted February 24 On 2/24/2024 at 5:42 PM, Bigdog99 said: Did you add the fish and shrimp yet or have u done that a long time ago? I added the shrimp about a week ago. I just haven't felt like making an update yet. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitecloud09 Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 On 2/24/2024 at 5:52 PM, Supermassive said: I added the shrimp about a week ago. I just haven't felt like making an update yet. That’s ok, I was just curious, no rush, @Supermassive, it is your journal so post whenever 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supermassive Posted March 12 Author Share Posted March 12 Finally updating, not much has changed. I added the cherry shrimp almost three weeks ago and I added a few more plants but they are small right now. I added a small Quadricostatus, a small anubias coin leaf, and a few short stems of moneywort. A couple of my anubias are flowering which is pretty great. The limnophilia has exploded and all the other plants seems to be growing well. We got 11 adult shrimp and there was 1 baby so 12 total. We lost 4 or 5 in the first couple weeks. The baby shrimp is growing really fast and is the most active shrimp in the tank so I think we have a decent environment for them. We are going to get some more too. I'm not sure how many. Probably at least 10 more. I ordered some plants for my other tank and when they get in ill buy the fish as well. I'm going to start with 6 guppies and I think I've settled on emerald dwarf rasborras for my middle water column species. I'm not really sure how many of those I should get though. I setup a 10G quarantine tank for them. Its hard to get good pictures of the whole tank with the lighting and position of the tank. I can get some decent closeups though. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitecloud09 Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 Thanks for the update @Supermassive! Again, the tank looks amazing there🙂. Plants are looking sharp too! Love cherry shrimp! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyxxl Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 Looking nice, much more mature plants than the ones I just got 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supermassive Posted April 1 Author Share Posted April 1 (edited) Starting to get frustrated. I got cherry shrimp because they are supposed to be so easy to take care of if your parameters are good. They are the staple for no filter, no maintenance planted tanks. I had heard of the green fungus before but I've read people have kept shrimp for decades and have never ran into it a single time. Of course, the very first time I ever get cherry shrimp, they have it. I put a lot of effort into trying to do the best of my ability, knowledge and budget, and still anything that can go wrong goes wrong. I haven't even got the fish for the tank yet and already the shrimp have issues. The shrimp were supposed to be a freebee. Just stick them in the tank while the fish are in QT and they'll be great... or so I thought. And no I'm not mistaking eggs for ellobiopsidae. It is for sure "green fungus" Edited April 1 by Supermassive 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitecloud09 Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 On 4/1/2024 at 3:52 PM, Supermassive said: Starting to get frustrated. I got cherry shrimp because they are supposed to be so easy to take care of if your parameters are good. They are the staple for no filter, no maintenance planted tanks. I had heard of the green fungus before but I've read people have kept shrimp for decades and have never ran into it a single time. Of course, the very first time I ever get cherry shrimp, they have it. I put a lot of effort into trying to do the best of my ability, knowledge and budget, and still anything that can go wrong goes wrong. I haven't even got the fish for the tank yet and already the shrimp have issues. The shrimp were supposed to be a freebee. Just stick them in the tank while the fish are in QT and they'll be great... or so I thought. And no I'm not mistaking eggs for ellobiopsidae. It is for sure "green fungus" @Supermassive I am sorry this happened but it happens, I mean it is not luck or the like but just another thing that happens in this fallen world, and I am again sorry about that, but stay with it because there is +s to of this great hobby 🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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