Candice & Jeff's 29 Gallon Planted Journal :-)

[candice&jeff]

Hello everyone! We finally have most of our supplies so it's time to get our journal started!! :shappy: Here's a picture of the tank, stand, and our little helpers to start off with.

[candice&jeff]

Here's another picture of some of the supplies we're going to be using. We also have been seeding media in out ten gallon for about a month.

2 bags of Flourite Black Sand
1 Piece of Mopani Driftwood
Hut decoration with a bubble stream
Stock 100Watt Heater, Sticker thermometer
Flourish and Flourish Excel
and some Had-a-Snail

[candice&jeff]

One question I have is where is the best place to put the sticker thermometer? Top? Bottom? Same end or opposite end from the heater?

[Northernguy]

I like it on the side of the tank just above the bottom,on the opposite side of the heater.. I think I get an accurate reading that way.
Nice tank! I love the ferrets!thumbs2:

[candice&jeff]

Thanks NG that's where I had planned to put it actually!! Just wanted to ask first lol. Yep, our ferrets have to help us with everything, they're such curious lil guys. :ssmile:

[Northernguy]

I have never had one but a freind of mine did years ago. Great pets,they are smart and a lot of fun.
Do they come when you call them?

[MCHRKiller]

Looks like your off to a good start so far! Love the ferret btw :22:

[candice&jeff]

I have never had one but a freind of mine did years ago. Great pets,they are smart and a lot of fun.
Do they come when you call them?

NG - Yes they do learn their names. :ssmile: They're extreamly smart, and the most determind animals you'll ever come across, lol. Once they make their mind up that they want something, they almost always get it lol.:hmm3grin2orange:

Thanks MCHRKiller!

[candice&jeff]

Here's some pictures of boiling the driftwood. The water was that dark after about 10 minutes!!

[rich311k]

Looks tasty. It does take a lot and some times you can never get all the tannins out. One of my tens has a brown tinge and has for well over a year.

[candice&jeff]

The tank all filled!! We'll add the fish and media tonight! I'm not sure if we are going to move the live plants over or not. We may leave them in the ten gallon until we can get a better light. Do you all think java ferns would do ok under the stock lighing, I think the bulb is 17watts?
Sorry for the bad quality pics lol.

[candice&jeff]

I just realized I haden't posted what stocking we are going to have in the tank! We're going to move our current stocking from our 10 gallon over. We also plan to get about 5 or 7 more tiger barbs over the next couple of months, and mabee an angel for the centerpiece. :ssmile:

Stocking:
2 Red Glo-fish
2 Tiger Barbs
1 Female Platty
1 Pictus Catfish
1 Common Pleco

[candice&jeff]

I said I wasn't going to do this but, we kind of jumped the gun and bought 3 very tiny tiger barbs.(inpulse buy(blush)), There so tiny I didin't think they would add to much to the bio-load.

We added the 10 gallon stocking and media on Friday evening and added the new tiger barbs last night. Parm. are all looking good, but we'll keep an eye on them with the addition of the new barbs. I was worried about starting a mini cycle but it looks like every thing is going to be fine. :ssmile:

It was so cute when we added them they went right to schooling with our original tiger barbs! Our original two seem much happier. :ssmile: All the fish seem happier, lol.

I'll get some pictures up soon, have to get some batteries for my camra.

[candice&jeff]

Time for an update and some pictures!! We decided to leave the live plants in our 10 gallon until we get a new light fixture, we decided on the Nova Extreme T5 2x24watt. So we are using fake plants for right now.

Parm. all look good!! I'm very suprised! I thought we would for sure get a mini cycle or amm. spike with the move and addition of the new barbs, but everything is looking great!! I've also found the next fish were going to add, I'll send payment for it today!! I'm ordering it from the planted tank forums swap-n-shop, here's a link to the tread:shappy: (http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/swap-n-shop/92431-fs-l144-blue-eyed-yellow-bristlenose-2.html) Its a L144 blue eyed yellow longfin bristlenose pleco. Were still planning to rehome the common pleco. :scry:

Anyway here's some pics;

[candice&jeff]

We had an ich out break. :scry: I'll never add fish without quarenting them ever again.
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=50947

We didn't realise we had ich until after we ordered the new L144 baby pleco, he arrived safely on 9-9-09 so he is in the ten gallon all alone right now. We gave him some cycled media, and cucumber to eat.

I do have some good news I'll be ordering the new light for our tank tomarrow!

[candice&jeff]

Wanted to get an update in, we are down to 3 fish. :scry: Our common pleco and two glo-fish danios. The tank is now empty I took all the fake plants out, it only has the piece of driftwood in it now. I was worried mabee the ich is living on our decor. We've ordered a new light so we will be fully planting with live plants soon. Ich really did a number on our tank. Live an learn I guess.

Anyway, looking on the up side I guess I can start thinking about a restocking plan! Right now I'm thinking:

2 Glo-fish danios
1 Common Pleco (will be rehomed when he gets too large)
1 L144 Blue Eyed Yellow Longfin Bristlenose Pleco
9-15 Rummynose Tetras (please let me know how many max you all think I could get away with)
1 pair of German Blue Rams(they will be added last, aslo does anyone know were I could order a male and female pair?)

Please let me know what your thoughts are about this stocking plan and make any quarks you think i've missed.
Tanks guys!

[PostalPenguin]

For the stocking:
More danios, may get 5 or 6 more
You could get away with the higher number of tetras, they are a light bioload
For rams PM forum member Algenco. I ordered two beautiful rams from them and they are doing great.

[candice&jeff]

Thanks PostalPenguin! How many tetras would you recommend?

[Northernguy]

Thats a nice tank!
Sorry to hear about your loss!
Live and learn I guess!*hit happens!
You can get away with a nice size school depending on your maintenance.

[candice&jeff]

Time for another update, bad news first, we lost our new baby L144 pleco to ich. :scry: Good news, the 29 gallon is now ich free, I'll probally keep dosing for another 5 days to a week or so. The tank is also planted now!!! I'll get some pics up soon. :ssmile:

We've also changed the stocking plan. After losing most of our fish, I think I had better stick to some hardy beginner fish for awhile.

10-15 Glofish Danios (red & orange)
7-10 Peppered Cories
1 Common Pleco (will be rehomed when he getts too big)
and a centerpiece fish, not sure what we will do here........open to ideas!

We currently have 3 peppered cories and 1 glofish danio in our ten gallon being quarentined. We bought them on Saturday at wal-mart and they DO have ich.:14: Didn't notice under the crappy wal-mart lighting. :sconfused: So I think the 3 small barbs that we got from wal-mart was the start of the massive ich outbreak we had. I wish we had a nice LFS around here, wal-mart is the best we can get.

Anyway, I've been dosing our new fishies with seachem paraguard. I also ordered some New Life Spectrum Thera-A food, it should be here tomarrow. I'm just gonna take it slow on stocking for now. I'll get some pics up soon!

[hockeyhead019]

for a center piece you could grab a gourami... beautiful fish and i've had a couple before and they have held up very well in my experience... even through my goofy mistakes as a new comer to aquariums

[candice&jeff]

Thanks HockeyHead! I do really like gouramis, I think I may follow your advise!

Any way time for some pics as promised. :ssmile: Here is the tank as of today.

[candice&jeff]

A few more and our fish.....

[candice&jeff]

Our new fishes in Quarentine now.......
(1 orange glo-fish and 3 peppered cories)
Sorry about all the water spots on the glass....(blush)

[candice&jeff]

And just one more of a ghoast shrimp holding eggs :ssmile:

[candice&jeff]

We added the danio and cories that were in quarenteen on Wednesday night 10-14-09, they seem to be settling in great! We also bought 3 more danios and 1 more peppered cory(wanted 3 or four more they only had 1 left) on Wendesday night, they are in quarenteen now. I went to the petstore on Thursday for some anarchis plants and they through in 2 baby plecos for free(without my knowing) , so they are also in quarenteen now. I'm still not sure on the breed. I also ordered another baby longfin blue-eyed yellow BN pleco on Monday(before I knew about our other to baby freebee ones), so it looks like we're gonna have to change our stocking plan once again, ugg, lol. I'm not gonna make any stocking plans as of now, were just gonna see how things go once everyone is out of quarenteen and in the tank.

Here's some pics, not alot has changed, I did a little bit of rearanging and aquascaping...........

http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/29%20gallon%20planted%20community%20tank/tanks10-19-09011.jpg

http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/29%20gallon%20planted%20community%20tank/tanks10-19-09012.jpg

http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/29%20gallon%20planted%20community%20tank/tanks10-19-09017.jpg

http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/29%20gallon%20planted%20community%20tank/tanks10-19-09010.jpg

[candice&jeff]

some more pics.......
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/29%20gallon%20planted%20community%20tank/tanks10-19-09016.jpg

http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/29%20gallon%20planted%20community%20tank/tanks10-19-09013.jpg

http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/29%20gallon%20planted%20community%20tank/tanks10-19-09006.jpg

http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/29%20gallon%20planted%20community%20tank/tanks10-19-09002.jpg

[rich311k]

Very nice! The tank and fish look great.

[candice&jeff]

Thanks Rich!!

Here's a short video I took last night.........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Uys7Q4WkIQ

[candice&jeff]

Time for another update! We added the danios and cory last weekend, they've settled in gtreat! We're going to add the baby plecos next weekend.

I also got some more plants last week! Yeah! So I spent yesterday afternoon aquascaping. :-)

Current stocking
6 Glofish Danios
4 Peppered Cories
1 Common Pleco(will be rehomed)
2 Bristlenose Plecos
1 L144 Longfin Blue-eyed Yellow BS Pleco

Plants
Cabomba Caroliniana
Bacopa Monnieri
Sunset Hygrophila
Anubias Nana
Bylxa Japonica
Cryptocoryne Backetti
Echinodorus Bleheri-Amazon Sword Plant
Marsala Quadrifolia-Four Leaf Clover
Aponogeton Bulbs (from wal-mart)
Water Lettice

Here's some pictures

Full tank shot with flash 1
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/FTSwithflash2.jpg

Full tank shot with flash 2
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/FTSwithflah.jpg

Full tank shot with no flash
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/FTSwithoutflash.jpg

View from the left side
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/Viewfromtheleftside.jpg

[candice&jeff]

Left side (new piece of DW)
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/leftside.jpg

Center shot
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/centershot.jpg

Right side
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/rightside.jpg

[candice&jeff]

Anuias Nana on our new piece of driftwood
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/anubiasnana.jpg

Cabomba Caroliniana
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/CabombaCaroliniana.jpg

Sunset Hygro
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/SunsetHygro.jpg

[candice&jeff]

View of Anubias Nana from the top
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/topviewofan.jpg

Floaters
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/rescape017.jpg
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/014.jpg
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k409/candicelee356/rescape016.jpg

[candice&jeff]

Just a small update, :ssmile: we added the baby plecos over the weekend!:19: Yea! Our ghost shrimp also had her babies!:19: I'm having to double and triple check the water when I'm doing my water changes now, lol.

I'll try to get some pictures up tonight or tomarrow.

[tetra]

Very nice tank , I cant wait to get mine setup.

[Cristoff]

I love journals like these! The transformation over time is just incredible and really shows off what you are learning!


Wonderful tank! thumbs2:

[rich311k]

Beautiful tank!

[candice&jeff]

Thanks Guys!! (blush) I'm happier with it everyday! I'll get some pics up in just a little while. :ssmile:

[candice&jeff]

I can't believe its been 2 months since my last update! I'm pretty mad at myself for not keeping up with this journal. We are moving so I will be tearing the tank down soon anyway. :help: Once we get moved I plan to start a new journal!