Brhino's tank(s)

[Brhino]

Finally got around to taking some pictures, so I figured I'd start my own journal

PHOTO DISCLAIMER: My wife's fancy, modern digital camera is awaiting a new battery charger from Amazon. In the mean time, all I have is my very old, cheap digital, which has several drawbacks: it can't capture a quickly moving object. It can't take a picture of any decent quality without the flash. It can't take closeups. Hopefully soon we'll get the other camera functional and I can take some respectable photos, but for now, here's what you get:




The Fish
Every fish in our tank gets a name. Yes, even the ones we can't tell apart from one another.

2 Veiltail Fancy Goldfish: Ackbar (gold) and Palpatine (white) - to be rehomed in a month or two.
6 Glo Fish: 3 yellow (Laser, Taser, and Maser), and 3 red (Ivan, Uhtred, and Alfred) - Alfred is unfortunately probably not going to live much longer, as he doesn't seem to eat much if anything. See this thread.
2 Zebra Danios: Mercury (male) and Mithril (female)
1 Bristlenose Pleco: Cthulhu

The Tank
This is my first tank. There's a number of things I would do differently and/or plan to change in the future, but I'm trying to do things slowly, one thing at a time, so I make sure I'm not going fish-crazy.

Started: December 27, 2009
Size: 29g (30"x12"x18")
Filter: Tetra Whisper 40
Lighting: Single T12 20W "50/50" 5000K/Actinic. Not ideal, I know.
Substrate: Marbles. Would not recommend this for the most part. Very pretty (though obviously not natural looking), but very hard to clean. Might work better with a thinner layer. With that said, I had them on hand so it was free, so it gives me something to have while I learn the subtleties behind choosing another substrate.
Plants: Different varieties of the Plasticus genus. To be gradually phased out in favor of living plants.
Driftwood: Real. Been in the tank about a month now and the tannins keep coming, although it's lightening up these days.
Background: Nothing! Been meaning to pick up some black posterboard. Haven't yet.

Future Plans
Soon (any day now) - purchase 40W dual T5 light fixture, and some live plants - Java fern, Java moss. Pick up a black backdrop.
Mid April - get AC50 HoB filter, to be run in parallel with current filter, in preparation for new tank.
Mid-May or June - setup new 2'x2' cube tank, transfer goldfish and AC50 filter. Replace substrate in 29g with black sand.
July-? Add 1 or 2 species to 29g. Definitely a school of corys of some sort, and perhaps some sort of mid/top dweller. Black skirt tetras? Livebearers?
Long term - with improved filtration, new cube tank could support one or two more goldfish. Also would like to upgrade the community tank to something in the 80-gallon range and add several more community species.

[Northernguy]

Its coming along nicely! A journal is a great idea for every tank.
A back ground is good to have.The fish feel less stress with a bg,it leaves only the front of the tank open.They get spooked less.
With a solid bg your fish seem to show better and their colors pop more in the pics.I prefer flat black.
As for substrate,research them and pick the one that best suits your tanks needs.

[Brhino]

All right! Went out today and bought a dual T5 light fixture (36W total) and a couple plants. Among other things, the extra light makes the pictures on my outdated camera slightly better.

Whole tank shot:


Java Moss draped over the plastic cave, tied down with fishing line. Did I do this right? It looks messy, but I guess it'll fill in and latch on as it grows?


I wanted a Java Fern but they only had one in the store and it doesn't look great. Hopefully it'll grow out. They had it buried in the substrate, which I know java ferns don't like. It should be much happier tied to my driftwood. Note the Glo Fish blurring by the camera!

[Brhino]

With the extra light and a bit of patience, I was able to get some shots of my goldfish almost worth posting.

[Cliff]

That cave is going to look nice once the moss takes hold

[rich311k]

Nice tank and fish.

[kathymac]

Very nice, I love your marbles, a nice touch.//

[Bunny]

Cool tank. I've never seen marbles used as a substrate before. I like it :)

[Brhino]

Very nice, I love your marbles, a nice touch.//

Cool tank. I've never seen marbles used as a substrate before. I like it :)

Thanks folks! Although, I'd like to point out again - they're pretty but hard to work with. Everything that sinks falls between them. That means your fish don't have much time to grab sinking food, and there's going to be a lot of crud down there that's hard to get out. It also would have been very expensive if I hadn't been collecting marbles since I was a young kid - I believe there's approximately 2000 of them in the tank.

When I get the goldfish their own tank, I'm going to pull the marbles out of the 29g and replace them with sand, then add the marbles to the goldfish tank. That way the community tank will have realistic material (live plants, driftwood, sand... although I guess pure black sand isn't that realistic), and the goldfish tank will be more whimsically decorated. I'd like some kind of flat area where sinking food isn't instantly lost, though. Maybe a large flat stone or something.

In other news, the charger for my wife's camera arrived, and it's now up and running. I have commissioned a full set of tank and fish photos from her (I'm a point-and-shooter, she's a college-trained photographer). I will share them when I get them.

[Brhino]

now we're starting to get some quality pictures.


Can everyone see this? It's taken straight off my wife's facebook page, which is probably a less than ideal way to cross-host a picture file.

Anyhow, that's Palpatine. He "drinks" air from the top of the tank like that fairly frequently. I've heard conflicting reports on whether that's normal goldfish behavior or a warning sign. The other goldfish rarely if ever does it.