New 29 gallon tank

bigcarl

Well folks, I finally set a tank. I was going to set up a 55 gallon angel tank.

but there's been so many changes to the hobby in the past 30 years. That I'm almost totally confused, so I figured I be better off, starting with something a little smaller. So my new 55 is in my sons garage, for the time being.

Anyway I went to All Pets Club and got a 29 gallon kit and 50 pounds of gravel, an air rater, and a box of that API first layer. Then I went to Petco and bough a stand." I like the levelers on their stands " The floor in my man cave isn't very even."

So I spent 4 hours Sunday raising the API first layer. I didn't think that s...

Ah, what was I saying Oh yeah, I didn't think that wonderful stuff was ever going to get clean... The gravel on the other hand was easy to rinse.

I have been soaking my M.D.W. for a couple of weeks. But something told me to boil it anyway. So I boiled my drift wood, for about 20 minutes.

However, after all my hard back breaking work my water turned reddish brown...anyway. But thankfully it cleared up nicely over night.

So I just let the tank run on Monday and I gave my aching back a break.

Tuesday I went looking for live plants Hmm you know all those nice looking pictures of plants, you see on line? Well folks, I don't know how to tell you this. But the plants in the pet stores, don't look anything like the ones you see on line!

Oh BTW folks,there's one more thing. I think I should tell you! Half the plants, I was looking for...no one had them in stock... They told me to keep coming back. So I got the best looking plants I could find, but they really didn't look that good.

However, with just a little bit of light and one dose of Sachem Flourish comprehensive, my plants seemed to have picked up a bit

I added 6 little Red Fin tetras to start the cycle with. My little fish are doing great, and they're eating little a bunch of pigs.What can I say? I'm very happy with them.

I'm going to go on a little road trip next week, and see if I can find a couple of more plants. I want to add a bigger plant in the back corner to try and hide my heater. I also want a couple of more plants to put on my D.W.

I also read that I needed to have my filter and air rater breaking the water to help with the cycle Well I won't go into my confusion about all this stuff about cycling a fresh water tank! Salt water yes, but fresh water.

what can I say, I'm old school, if you have a problem with your water... just tap your tank; it always worked for me in the past.

Oh well I'll try this cycling stuff, and see how it goes.

Anyway I'm going to put a valve on my air rater and bring up my water level. If anybody reads this please let me know what you think of my tank so far.

Thanks
Carl

Oh BTW, that picture of the old fat guy is me.

Have a great day?

Varkolak

BIGGER IS ALWAYS BETTER! But sounds so far good, these days you can order plants online and they will ship pretty cheaply and very fast, I actually got all my plants from a guy on this forum. That way you can browse around for exactly what you want and get it shipped to you for less then what a pet store would cost even with shipping and the same goes for fish but I personally don't want to buy a fish I cant see first

I wish you good fortune xD

bigcarl

Hi Thanks for the advise. I've been looking at those mail order plants on line. but I'm a little iffy about buying anything from them, and as for buying fish I haven't seen, well that's just out of the question!
I like going to the pet stores and looking at the fish. I always stocked my tanks slowly in the past, maybe a couple of fish every week or so. I'm usually very fussy about my fish. But sometimes I see a fish and I just have to have it. *WINK* if you know what I mean, and something tells you do.

Thanks for taking the time to send me a comment.
Carl

marshallsea

im the same way. sometimes i see a fish i have to get. those are usually the ones that backfire on me.

bigcarl

LOL Marshall sea, I know what you mean. There's a couple of small Pictus Catfish at Pets-mart, that are calling me. I think they're saying," Buy Us."
I've had those fish in the past and I've always had good luck with them. But my tank is so new, I'm trying really hard not to give into the urge...
Who knows maybe my will power will prevail for a little while longer, I know i need a couple of bottom feeders. I'm crazy about those tiny Cory catfish.
But what I really want to get, is a few angels, and I know it's much too soon to get them.

Anyway Marshall sea it was nice to hear from you.
Have a Great Day.
Carl

KPainter

I plan on getting some of those cories too. They're so stinking cute! And beneficial. They're a two-fer. ;o)

Kelly100

Carl,
You kinda sound like me ! hahha I had aquariums years ago when the kids were little. And they seemed like a lot of trouble back then. I LOVE to look at all the fish in the pet stores, I can spend hours just starin at them swimmin soooo peaceful in their little world ! So, anyway, I found a 29 g tank on craigslist and went and got it. It is BEAUTIFUL !! It sits in a lovely wood cabnet. It was only $ 150. I set it up and ran back to town, ( an hour away, we live out in the sticks) I went crazy, I got pretty white rocks, colorful plants (fake, I mite think about real ones later) and I got a really neat broken down roman columns. I'm gonna try to get a pic on here. It came with 7 Goldfish, but, I would like to slowly "weed" them out and start with cuter fish.
I'm sooooo glad I found this board, it's fun to read about other fish keepers !!!
Kelly in S.C. never mind about tryin to put a pic....I have ne idea how !!

bigcarl

I couldn't resist, I got three little pepper cories. My Red Fin tetras are eating little pigs and and there's a lot of food going to the bottom of the tank, so hopefully the cories will have plenty to eat.
Carl

bigcarl

Kelly, I'm glad you found this sight too. I know I'm glad I found it. The people here are real nice. Your tank sounds like it looks great.
Carl

eaturbyfill

Good luck with all of your fish!! (: