Seeking assistance on starting up a new tank 29 Gallons and stock

[FrancisBueno]

Hi decided to get some information on restarting my 29-gallon tank and what capacity of fish could I get or the ideal fish to stock into the tank. Searched all over and kept seeing an array of conflicting responses. Figured this community would be of better assistance and provide accurate information. 

1. What product should I use to start my tank of as it is a new tank setup? recommendation and link be a great help

2. thoughts on the Queitflow 50 filter from Petco for this tank and size?

3. The lighting setup to possibly support plants shortly. Not sure if just led is sufficient? 

4. How would you all stock the tank ideal how many fish can I keep in this 29-gallon tank? Ideal vision like to have an array of fishes that can coexist and have vivid color and tend to lean into more tetras and guppies due to color, them being community fishes. Would like a statement fish is possible to keep one in the tank. 

5. Due to the depth of the tank is best to have a substrate or go without it to ensure proper flow of waste makes it to the filter? 

Any other tips and ideas I would appreciate since I'm just at the brainstorming portion and trying to figure out my setup. Thank you for your time and hope to hear from you all soon.

 

[doktor zhivago]

On 6/27/2024 at 7:17 PM, FrancisBueno said:

What product should I use to start my tank of as it is a new tank setup? recommendation and link be a great help

There is no product that starts up a tank you will have to cycle the tank which is mostly time and patience

 

On 6/27/2024 at 7:17 PM, FrancisBueno said:

thoughts on the Queitflow 50 filter from Petco for this tank and size?

It will probably be fine.

On 6/27/2024 at 7:17 PM, FrancisBueno said:

The lighting setup to possibly support plants shortly. Not sure if just led is sufficient? 

You will want to get a light specifically made for aquarium plants. There are many brands that are very good. But a regular aquarium light probably won't have the correct frequencies or intensity.

 

On 6/27/2024 at 7:17 PM, FrancisBueno said:

4. How would you all stock the tank ideal how many fish can I keep in this 29-gallon tank?

There isn't really an answer to this other than it depends.

On 6/27/2024 at 7:17 PM, FrancisBueno said:

Due to the depth of the tank is best to have a substrate or go without it to ensure proper flow of waste makes it to the filter? 

I don't know how you're going to grow plants without a substrate. I recommend gravel for a first tank but others may disagree.

[TinaPax-Peeks]

On 6/27/2024 at 7:17 PM, FrancisBueno said:

1. What product should I use to start my tank of as it is a new tank setup? recommendation and link be a great help

3. The lighting setup to possibly support plants shortly. Not sure if just led is sufficient? 

4. How would you all stock the tank ideal how many fish can I keep in this 29-gallon tank? Ideal vision like to have an array of fishes that can coexist and have vivid color and tend to lean into more tetras and guppies due to color, them being community fishes. Would like a statement fish is possible to keep one in the tank. 

5. Due to the depth of the tank is best to have a substrate or go without it to ensure proper flow of waste makes it to the filter? 

I am a newbie so I am answering from what I have done, not from a position of authority.

1.  There are many ways to "cycle the tank". YouTube is full of videos. Don't believe any product that claims you can add fish first day. I used Dr Tim's ammonia and a bottle of nitrifying bacteria I bought at PetSmart. Then, I waited. I think the bottle of nitrifying bacteria speeds up the cycling process but still not a one day process. Mine took 4 weeks.

3. It depends. LED lights are okay for low light plants. If or when you want plants that require bright light, you will need to upgrade.

4. Pick your centerpiece fish. Then, base the other fish on ones that do well with the centerpiece fish.  YouTube. Lots and lots of videos on good choices for different size tanks. Many videos about great centerpiece fish for different size tanks.  While you wait for your tank to cycle, you can binge watch YouTube. Lol

5. Plants will need substrate. What type is another rabbit trail to follow. Some fish really need substrate while others, it seems, are better without. So, it depends. 

[Tlindsey]

On 6/27/2024 at 7:17 PM, FrancisBueno said:

Hi decided to get some information on restarting my 29-gallon tank and what capacity of fish could I get or the ideal fish to stock into the tank. Searched all over and kept seeing an array of conflicting responses. Figured this community would be of better assistance and provide accurate information. 

1. What product should I use to start my tank of as it is a new tank setup? recommendation and link be a great help

2. thoughts on the Queitflow 50 filter from Petco for this tank and size?

3. The lighting setup to possibly support plants shortly. Not sure if just led is sufficient? 

4. How would you all stock the tank ideal how many fish can I keep in this 29-gallon tank? Ideal vision like to have an array of fishes that can coexist and have vivid color and tend to lean into more tetras and guppies due to color, them being community fishes. Would like a statement fish is possible to keep one in the tank. 

5. Due to the depth of the tank is best to have a substrate or go without it to ensure proper flow of waste makes it to the filter? 

Any other tips and ideas I would appreciate since I'm just at the brainstorming portion and trying to figure out my setup. Thank you for your time and hope to hear from you all soon.

 

Welcome to the forum. 

[EricksonAquatics]

A good centerpiece fish for you might be a honey gourami or a Bolivian ram. I would definitely use gravel so you can grow plants!

I would highly suggest you buy a light that is adjustable - makes things much easier in the long run. 
One product you can use to help start your cycle is Fritz Zyme 7 beneficial bacteria in a bottle. But you’ll need to feed the BB with a source of ammonia. This is assuming you don’t have any other tanks to pull filter media from. 
 

good luck 🙂

[Sandrock14]

On 6/27/2024 at 11:41 PM, EricksonAquatics said:

A good centerpiece fish for you might be a honey gourami or a Bolivian ram. I would definitely use gravel so you can grow plants!

I would highly suggest you buy a light that is adjustable - makes things much easier in the long run. 
One product you can use to help start your cycle is Fritz Zyme 7 beneficial bacteria in a bottle. But you’ll need to feed the BB with a source of ammonia. This is assuming you don’t have any other tanks to pull filter media from. 
 

good luck 🙂

I second the Fritz Zyme beneficial bacteria. I have used it in multiple tanks and it probably saves a week or so to help establish the nitrogen cycle. But patience is always key.

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/fritz-zyme-7-live-bacteria-freshwater

I recommend having live plants. If you decide to do live plants, you can plant them before you fill up the tank with water. It will also help the cycling process.

[daggaz]

Nitrifying bacteria is literally everywhere.  You can take a bunch of old sticks that have been laying in the (preferably moist) soil and toss them in your aquarium, and toss in some mulm and leaf litter material from a local lake or stream along with some of the water, and you will RAPIDLY accelerate your cycling process.  This is free.  You can remove the sticks or whatnot later and no it wont hurt your fish.  On the contrary, having a wide variety of microorganisms sets up a competitive ecosystem, and this almost invariable tends to keep harmful pathogens in check, as opposed to attempting to sterilize everything (you cant) and creating a perfect environment for a run-away population explosion of species X.  Hospital studies have shown this, looking at bacterial surface contamination in rooms with open windows and no cleaning solutions beyond regular soap, versus sealed rooms using stringent anti-bacterial agents:  there is more bacteria overall in the former, but there are less of each species versus the latter, and the worst species tended to dominate in those latter rooms.   

So I wouldn't buy bugs-in-a-bottle, if I were you.   Waste of money at best.  

Regardless, cycling just takes time and it pays to be patient.  You should think about if you want plants or not.  In my opinion, plants are great: they are beautiful, they provide food and shelter for your tank and surface area for more nitrifying bacteria, and they consume nitrates which means you need to do less water changes as otherwise you have no other way to get rid of them.  Plants complete the nitrogen cycle.  If you do want some plants, then you start to inform your decisions about everything else about your tank, starting with the filter.

I really like the undergravel filters.  They work, they cant leak, there is minimal noise and you dont actually need to clean them beyond stirring up the gravel on occasion.   And they are DIRT cheap: you arent buying replacement material all the time (which is actually a really bad idea as you will be removing your bacterial colony when you do).  Cory has some great videos on them, he likes them as well.   You can also set them up in only a section of an aquarium, for example if you want have a dirted tank or use aquasoil for plants : check out my journal for an example.  

You are gonna want to add fish later, after you have cycled.  You can do fish-in cycling but most likely you are gonna kill your fish or harm them, and its not so fun when your fish die especially when you are just getting started.   Your filtration level, including possibly with plants, is going to strongly determine how many fish you can end up with.  So I would worry about the fish, last.  

 

Edited June 28 by daggaz

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 6/27/2024 at 7:17 PM, FrancisBueno said:

Hi decided to get some information on restarting my 29-gallon tank and what capacity of fish could I get or the ideal fish to stock into the tank.

What do you mean by "restarting" here? Is this a currently running tank, or something that you'd taken down and are now looking to get set back up?

On 6/27/2024 at 7:17 PM, FrancisBueno said:

1. What product should I use to start my tank of as it is a new tank setup? recommendation and link be a great help

If you've got access to any filter media from any fishkeeping friends or your local fish store (LFS), you can use that to jump-start cycling. Even just squeezing 'dirty sponges into a new tank, while gross looking, will really get things going. Get a liquid test kit or some test strips so you can monitor the nitrogen cycle.

On 6/27/2024 at 7:17 PM, FrancisBueno said:

3. The lighting setup to possibly support plants shortly. Not sure if just led is sufficient? 

Very nearly all lights on the market at this point are LED. Do you have a light already? The sort of LEDs that come with kit tanks are often underpowered for live plants, so if you think you'll go in that direction (and I recommend that you do, because plants can really make your job as fishkeeper easier) then you'll want something stronger. The ACO light has a lot of fans here, but you can also get something cheaper. Ideally, it would have adjustable brightness and a built-in timer, but there are ways around both of those things.

On 6/27/2024 at 7:17 PM, FrancisBueno said:

4. How would you all stock the tank ideal how many fish can I keep in this 29-gallon tank? Ideal vision like to have an array of fishes that can coexist and have vivid color and tend to lean into more tetras and guppies due to color, them being community fishes. Would like a statement fish is possible to keep one in the tank.

Slowly! If you like tetras and guppies, take the time while waiting for your tank to cycle to visit your LFS(s) and see their fish and to check out other people's tanks. Take note of species that appeal to you and do some further specific research on them. If you like guppies and tetras, you should have wide open, though not unlimited, choices for a 29 gallon.

As far as centerpiece fishes go, there are a fair amount of choices there. I like gouramis and dwarf cichlids myself, but there are a lot of options our there.

On 6/27/2024 at 7:17 PM, FrancisBueno said:

5. Due to the depth of the tank is best to have a substrate or go without it to ensure proper flow of waste makes it to the filter? 

You can grow epiphyte plants without substrate, but lots of plants will need something to grow their roots into. And if you've got rooted plants, eventually the fish waste will work its way into that substrate to become fertilizer. Some fish really do a lot better on a substrate, too. Plus, since nitrifying bacteria ("beneficial bacteria") grow on every surface, a substrate can provide a ton of surface area to deal with dissolved, nitrogenous waste. Bare bottom tanks can be done and have their place, but unless you've got a specific reason for wanting one, I think the benefits of a substrate outweigh the drawbacks.

[SantaMonica]

Maybe forego the idea of plants for now, and keep it simple. A small tank like that can be re-setup later for plants easily.

[johnnyxxl]

On 6/27/2024 at 7:17 PM, FrancisBueno said:

Hi decided to get some information on restarting my 29-gallon tank and what capacity of fish could I get or the ideal fish to stock into the tank. Searched all over and kept seeing an array of conflicting responses. Figured this community would be of better assistance and provide accurate information. 

1. What product should I use to start my tank of as it is a new tank setup? recommendation and link be a great help

2. thoughts on the Queitflow 50 filter from Petco for this tank and size?

3. The lighting setup to possibly support plants shortly. Not sure if just led is sufficient? 

4. How would you all stock the tank ideal how many fish can I keep in this 29-gallon tank? Ideal vision like to have an array of fishes that can coexist and have vivid color and tend to lean into more tetras and guppies due to color, them being community fishes. Would like a statement fish is possible to keep one in the tank. 

5. Due to the depth of the tank is best to have a substrate or go without it to ensure proper flow of waste makes it to the filter? 

Any other tips and ideas I would appreciate since I'm just at the brainstorming portion and trying to figure out my setup. Thank you for your time and hope to hear from you all soon.

 

I used Fritz 7 for aiding the cycle did it help don't know, still waited around a month before I had enough nitrates for my plants.  I have a substrate of sand and pea gravel from home improvement store.  My plants and fish are doing wonderful.  I personally love a blackwater tank and heavily planted jungle looking.

My light is from hygger would have ordered the co-op one had it been available when I ordered.

Stocking ideas, personally I like more small fish rather than fewer big fish.  

[JE47]

On 6/27/2024 at 4:17 PM, FrancisBueno said:

The lighting setup to possibly support plants shortly. Not sure if just led is sufficient? 

Aquarium Co-Op sells lights for plants. I use hyggers 24 hr. aquarium light and it has grown rotala rotundifolia well for me as well as dwarf sag.

 

On 6/27/2024 at 4:17 PM, FrancisBueno said:

How would you all stock the tank ideal how many fish can I keep in this 29-gallon tank? Ideal vision like to have an array of fishes that can coexist and have vivid color and tend to lean into more tetras and guppies due to color, them being community fishes. Would like a statement fish is possible to keep one in the tank. 

Like others have said this can depend on what you want to stock it with. If you want to you could check Aquadvisor which is a great place to get a rough estimate of how stocked your tank will be.

On 6/27/2024 at 4:17 PM, FrancisBueno said:

. Due to the depth of the tank is best to have a substrate or go without it to ensure proper flow of waste makes it to the filter? 

This shouldn't be an issue I would use substrate I personally love using sand in my aquariums. Let us know what you decide.

[FrancisBueno]

On 6/27/2024 at 5:29 PM, TinaPax-Peeks said:

I am a newbie so I am answering from what I have done, not from a position of authority.

1.  There are many ways to "cycle the tank". YouTube is full of videos. Don't believe any product that claims you can add fish first day. I used Dr Tim's ammonia and a bottle of nitrifying bacteria I bought at PetSmart. Then, I waited. I think the bottle of nitrifying bacteria speeds up the cycling process but still not a one day process. Mine took 4 weeks.

3. It depends. LED lights are okay for low light plants. If or when you want plants that require bright light, you will need to upgrade.

4. Pick your centerpiece fish. Then, base the other fish on ones that do well with the centerpiece fish.  YouTube. Lots and lots of videos on good choices for different size tanks. Many videos about great centerpiece fish for different size tanks.  While you wait for your tank to cycle, you can binge watch YouTube. Lol

5. Plants will need substrate. What type is another rabbit trail to follow. Some fish really need substrate while others, it seems, are better without. So, it depends. 

How long did you wait after using Dr. Tims's ammonia?  

On 6/27/2024 at 9:41 PM, EricksonAquatics said:

A good centerpiece fish for you might be a honey gourami or a Bolivian ram. I would definitely use gravel so you can grow plants!

I would highly suggest you buy a light that is adjustable - makes things much easier in the long run. 
One product you can use to help start your cycle is Fritz Zyme 7 beneficial bacteria in a bottle. But you’ll need to feed the BB with a source of ammonia. This is assuming you don’t have any other tanks to pull filter media from. 
 

good luck 🙂

Thank you for the recommendation I have never heard of a Bolivian ram, but I will have to do some research on them. What is BB? 

On 6/27/2024 at 11:06 PM, Sandrock14 said:

I second the Fritz Zyme beneficial bacteria. I have used it in multiple tanks and it probably saves a week or so to help establish the nitrogen cycle. But patience is always key.

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/fritz-zyme-7-live-bacteria-freshwater

I recommend having live plants. If you decide to do live plants, you can plant them before you fill up the tank with water. It will also help the cycling process.

how many weeks did you wait it out after adding the fritz? 

[FrancisBueno]

On 6/28/2024 at 3:24 AM, daggaz said:

Nitrifying bacteria is literally everywhere.  You can take a bunch of old sticks that have been laying in the (preferably moist) soil and toss them in your aquarium, and toss in some mulm and leaf litter material from a local lake or stream along with some of the water, and you will RAPIDLY accelerate your cycling process.  This is free.  You can remove the sticks or whatnot later and no it wont hurt your fish.  On the contrary, having a wide variety of microorganisms sets up a competitive ecosystem, and this almost invariable tends to keep harmful pathogens in check, as opposed to attempting to sterilize everything (you cant) and creating a perfect environment for a run-away population explosion of species X.  Hospital studies have shown this, looking at bacterial surface contamination in rooms with open windows and no cleaning solutions beyond regular soap, versus sealed rooms using stringent anti-bacterial agents:  there is more bacteria overall in the former, but there are less of each species versus the latter, and the worst species tended to dominate in those latter rooms.   

So I wouldn't buy bugs-in-a-bottle, if I were you.   Waste of money at best.  

Regardless, cycling just takes time and it pays to be patient.  You should think about if you want plants or not.  In my opinion, plants are great: they are beautiful, they provide food and shelter for your tank and surface area for more nitrifying bacteria, and they consume nitrates which means you need to do less water changes as otherwise you have no other way to get rid of them.  Plants complete the nitrogen cycle.  If you do want some plants, then you start to inform your decisions about everything else about your tank, starting with the filter.

I really like the undergravel filters.  They work, they cant leak, there is minimal noise and you dont actually need to clean them beyond stirring up the gravel on occasion.   And they are DIRT cheap: you arent buying replacement material all the time (which is actually a really bad idea as you will be removing your bacterial colony when you do).  Cory has some great videos on them, he likes them as well.   You can also set them up in only a section of an aquarium, for example if you want have a dirted tank or use aquasoil for plants : check out my journal for an example.  

You are gonna want to add fish later, after you have cycled.  You can do fish-in cycling but most likely you are gonna kill your fish or harm them, and its not so fun when your fish die especially when you are just getting started.   Your filtration level, including possibly with plants, is going to strongly determine how many fish you can end up with.  So I would worry about the fish, last.  

 

Your post is very informative and found it interesting that nitrifying bacteria isn't available just from the bottle. Essentillay is letting bacteria start living in the water? the wood would act as a food source? I didn't know plants assisted in painting the tank as well this is a huge plus. Any plant Recommendations?

Ungravel fliters I've seen them but not sure where to buy I see some at Petco but not sure due to the size and my tanks are pretty long. For those would the setup be just having an air filter or is there more to the setup?

[FrancisBueno]

On 6/28/2024 at 2:19 PM, johnnyxxl said:

I used Fritz 7 for aiding the cycle did it help don't know, still waited around a month before I had enough nitrates for my plants.  I have a substrate of sand and pea gravel from home improvement store.  My plants and fish are doing wonderful.  I personally love a blackwater tank and heavily planted jungle looking.

My light is from hygger would have ordered the co-op one had it been available when I ordered.

Stocking ideas, personally I like more small fish rather than fewer big fish.  

Guessing fritz 7 is good as I keep seeing it on many posts gonna have to get a bottle soon. Thank you for the light recommendation just in case the co-op one is sold out. I feel smaller fish would give a school of fish effect. 

[daggaz]

If you want to have plants, you should watch some youtube on the topic: cory and aquarium coop have a lot of good videos, alexander from fishtory also knows what he is doing.   but essentially:

1) you need some kind of substrate they can live in (for most plants, there are some very slow growing species that feed primarily from the water column, and then there are floaters which always grow fast because they are at the surface).  this can be small pots of substrate or normal gravel both with extra root tabs for fertilizer, a commercial aqua-soil (highly recommended by a lot of people but can be pricey), or good old fashioned dirt of varying compositions (cheap and easy but harder to control).   You should also regularly add some kind of liquid fertilizer at least in the beginning, to help your plants get started.  CO2 is optional, but it definitely makes a huge improvement (I dont have it yet but my tank has other means of producing CO2).  

2) you need a LOT of fast growing plants in the beginning, you want to really pack the tank with them or you will have problems. sorry but im terrible at remembering the names, however this is easy to find in forums also here.  definitely gets some floaters tho and in fact, if you are overwhelmed with all of this, you can pretty much always put floaters in regardless of your tank setup and get a lot of the benefits of plants with the minimum of work.  beware of duckweed, however, unless you want to have it forever (the larger forms, like frogbit, are fine.  its all about ease of removal).

3) you should buy some stronger lights and get a timer.   this costs a bit of extra money but is definitely worth it.  

If you do that, your plants will most likely grow and outcompete most of the algae.  If you dont, you can quickly end up in an algae nightmare and all your plants can die before they really get started.   It might sound a bit overwhelming, but in all honesty its not.  And man do planted tanks look fantastic.  An additional benefit of plants is that they compete directly with algae (once they get growing), in part by taking all the nutrients that algae would otherwise consume, and in part by producing hormones that directly interfere with algae growth.  

On 7/1/2024 at 9:05 AM, FrancisBueno said:

Under-gravel fliters I've seen them but not sure where to buy I see some at Petco but not sure due to the size and my tanks are pretty long. For those would the setup be just having an air filter or is there more to the setup?

Im pretty sure Cory sells them.  Buy his stuff!  His "Easy-green" liquid fertilizer is also widely praised.  

Edited July 1 by daggaz

[TinaPax-Peeks]

On 7/1/2024 at 2:54 AM, FrancisBueno said:

How long did you wait after using Dr. Tims's ammonia?  

I put the ammonia in and the next day confirmed the ammonia was 2ppm and then began dosing with nitrifying bacteria. It took several weeks to begin registering nitrites and more time to read nitrates and then as nitrites went to zero, I started dosing with more ammonia. Dr Tim says the tank is cycled when the ammonia becomes nitrates in 24 hours. So, cycling the tank took 4-5 weeks. 

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 7/1/2024 at 2:54 AM, FrancisBueno said:

What is BB?

BB is "beneficial bacteria", a common name synonym of nitrifying bacteria. @daggaz is right that there are enough "wild" nitrifying bacteria that you can just set the tank up, provide some kind of ammonia food source, and wait. That's what I did. The "bacteria in a bottle" products are claimed to speed the cycling process up by adding a bigger-than-'wild' concentration of those bacteria. As products go, they're fairly controversial. Some people swear by them, some people swear they're a waste of money. I don't think I've seen any controlled experiments about their effectiveness but I've seen a lot of anecdotal evidence in both directions.

 

On 7/1/2024 at 3:05 AM, FrancisBueno said:

Ungravel fliters I've seen them but not sure where to buy I see some at Petco but not sure due to the size and my tanks are pretty long. For those would the setup be just having an air filter or is there more to the setup?

Whether or not to use an undergravel filter will depend on what kind of substrate you choose. Here's one option from Amazon but they ought to be labeled with what size tank they're for.

[Sandrock14]

On 7/1/2024 at 1:54 AM, FrancisBueno said:

How long did you wait after using Dr. Tims's ammonia?  

Thank you for the recommendation I have never heard of a Bolivian ram, but I will have to do some research on them. What is BB? 

how many weeks did you wait it out after adding the fritz? 

I kept testing the water to make sure the nitrates and nitrites were adequate and safe before I added fish. I had live plants in the tank as well from the beginning of the process. Once the nitrates and nitrites were down to 0 I added a few fish. So in total, I think I waited 2-3 weeks before adding any fish.