New 29 gallon setup

[KINGMED]

Setup my 29 gallon aquarium Saturday and it looks great. I put a whole 50 lb. bag of pool sand into it (took a good hr. to 2 hrs. to clean it all out do to water pressure out side) and the sand is around 2-3 inches, is this to deep? Also I put some I think there call rubie red minnows in there and 3 zebra's from walmart to cycle with, I know I should have used a fishless cycle for the tank. I put some large feller stones that I got at a yard sale in there for decor and for them to swim through. The filter is a Aquaclear 50, visi-therm stealth heater (plastic) and everything seems to be going smoothly. I have aprox. 11 small fish to cycle with, is this way to much if I'm doing a fish cycle--I've read where you should use aprox. 3-5 inches of fish per 10 gallon for fish cycling. The minnows were 28 cents and the zebra's were about 1.00 each.

[Lady Hobbs]

Too much sand for a 29 gallon, tho. Sand too deep with give you gas pockets and should be no deeper than absolutely necessary. Like an inch or two max.

[travie]

Agreed with Lady Hobbs. Too much sand. Just do a lot of water changes till your tank cycles. Did you vinegar test the stones to make sure they won't raise your pH too much?

[RainMan]

I agree too... Sand is way too deep. Look at some of the members tanks with sand. They are probably 1 - 1 1/2" deep at most. If you're careful and patient... you can use a regular cyphon vac to slowly suck out the excess sand without stirring things up in the tank. It might take a few water changes though... and the stuff you vacuum out makes a mess. Do not dump it down your sink. :)

I think that is too many fish to introduce at once.... it's could spike your ammonia even if you have a cycled tank. But, there in the tank now... so just monitor and do frequent water changes to keep the ammonia down.

Post some pics! :)

[Ryuu]

Lady hobbs is right, I had once used to much sand and I had gas pockets that eventually killed my fish

[KINGMED]

Ya, I was afraid I had to much sand--I'll go ahead and try and syphon some out as I go along. How often should I remove or take water out of the tank while it is cycling?

[travie]

If fishless cycling, never do a water change until it is completed. If fish are in there, I would say more then once a week.

[Wild Turkey]

If you want to be sure u wont have problems only use an inch of sand

[Kuli_Loach]

So another sand lover. I use sand in my Malawian tank and I use approx. 1.5" of sand but my fish move it around. If you do regular deep cleaning say weekly you will lower the amount of sand and reduce the possibility of gas pockets.

[KINGMED]

It used to be 20% water change or around that, is that still the going rate today or should I do more?

[RainMan]

20% is a good starting point... if your levels go to high... then more frequent water changes is better than increasing the ammount of water you do at once.