# Yay! New 29 Gallon!



## BlackArchFish (Apr 29, 2005)

I am SO happy.
I just got off of my spring break and had almost $100, so my mom took me to an aquarium place we had never been. I liked the prices because independent business' around me are crazily priced.
29 gal + hood + light = $35
30 gal. filter = $20
Gravel = $3.50 a bag (VERY PRETTY COLORS!)
and everything else I needed, I have.

So I really wanted a bigger tank, and I got it!
My dad bought me a heater, and an undergravel filter from Wal-Mart. (Bleck)

So today I spent many hours setting it up, first I filled it from bathtub faucet water (forever), then I put the gravel in, THEN we went to Wal-Mart and my dad always complains about an U.G.F. so he bought it so then I had to take out ALL the gravel, just to put it back in X_X!
Finally I set up the filters, the air, the orniments, and plugged and turned on everything.
I almost DROPPED DEAD! I think it is UTTERLY beautiful!










I still have to clean up the mess of cords, and stuff around it but I am so happy with it!
I am wondering "WHAT THA HECK AM I GUNNA PUT IN HERE?!" I really LOVE colorful fish, but no cichilds please. Obviously that means I would LOVE suggestions! I'm hoping to do research to see if I can get a Blue Crayfish !

Thank you!
-Callie

P.S. I have my 10 gallon set up with all 12 fish.
(11 flame tetras, and 1 fancy male guppy) I also FINALLY bought all the test kits I "Needed", Ph, Nitrate, Nitrite, and Ammonia. Everything turned up NORMAL! I almost freaked lol. Everything was zero, or in the non-danger range. (You know how the drop test kits go). I bought nicer ones from a place going out of business they were $1 each. WOO!
Thanks again!


----------



## Ben Mazur (Mar 21, 2006)

Oh Sweet Jesus, Congrats friend of mine, you are my hero. For awhile.


----------



## BlackArchFish (Apr 29, 2005)

Ben Mazur said:


> Oh Sweet Jesus, Congrats friend of mine, you are my hero. For awhile.


Lol thanks.
I have been pretty 'wise' or trying to be when looking at fish stuff.
They were having a 'sidewalk sale' they had a WHOLE bunch of large aquariums for sale, they were practically $1 a gallon. lol.
I like them good! ^_^


----------



## Ben Mazur (Mar 21, 2006)

Well i'd say you made a marvelous choice.


----------



## Fishy Lee (Nov 9, 2005)

You should put a red-tail catfish in there.




Just kidding.


----------



## BlackArchFish (Apr 29, 2005)

Fishy Lee said:


> You should put a red-tail catfish in there.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Lol. I dunno they probably get pretty big! !
Do you thank an UpsideDown Catfish would be okay here w/ some other buds?


----------



## tromeokid (Mar 8, 2006)

congrats! i just got my styrofoam from eBay (can you believe my town has no styrofoam what so ever? seriously, i tried) getting ready to do my first background. i want rock of course but i really have no idea what fishises will go in.


----------



## ALFA WOLF (May 24, 2005)

the little hut u got with the painted moss or whatevers be careful with it cause i have the same one and it has taken one of my favorite fishes life cause thier will be a day were yrou fish will think they can fit through the little window and it will get stuck and die and u will be sad. and it u get like a pleco or any type or alge eating fish the green will come off of it. but other then that litte warning its a awsome tank full of awsomeness.


----------



## BlackArchFish (Apr 29, 2005)

Yeah I know about the fish and holes.
My friend had an angel fish that she bought when she was small, and he had a fav. hole and then one day he got stuck, they had to pull him out.
His fins got messed up, but he lived and he's VERY big now lol.


----------



## ALFA WOLF (May 24, 2005)

sigh mine has a sad ending it was in a old koi tank i had it was a (big tnak before i moved) and i had one of those to hide all the ghost shrimp from being eaten too quickly and my favorite koi just got stuck righ tup in theri and i didnt catch him in time. So i moved it to my gurami tank and sadly my favorite gurami got stuck inthei and i foudn him next day dead and picked at by all the other fish. My koi i foudn aliv ebut he died later on and my gurami i could only cry for lol cause he was my favorite of all time.


----------



## BlackArchFish (Apr 29, 2005)

I definately should add on here, that I prefer 'colorful' fish. I prefer reds and blues!
This would be a community tank, and I don't think I'm upgrading any time soon AT ALL! (Like in the next year or two).
You can see below I've added some things already, but please suggest what you think would be nice !


----------



## KiltyONeal (Jan 25, 2006)

Very cool! I like the bridge!

If you need to cycle your tank with some hardy fish, I recommend white clouds. They're very pretty and underrated fish!

Good luck with the new tank!


----------



## BlackArchFish (Apr 29, 2005)

Thanks Kilty!
The bridge was my big ornament spender lol. I'm thinking some cool driftwood though would be nice to replace that little cave thinger.
And I definately want more plants when the time (aka more $) comes !


----------



## Sprite42 (Mar 10, 2006)

I think that tank begs for a trio of pearl gouramis, some white cloud minnows, and a school of cory's


----------



## Fishy Lee (Nov 9, 2005)

ALFA WOLF said:


> sigh mine has a sad ending it was in a old koi tank i had it was a (big tnak before i moved) and i had one of those to hide all the ghost shrimp from being eaten too quickly and my favorite koi just got stuck righ tup in theri and i didnt catch him in time. So i moved it to my gurami tank and sadly my favorite gurami got stuck inthei and i foudn him next day dead and picked at by all the other fish. My koi i foudn aliv ebut he died later on and my gurami i could only cry for lol cause he was my favorite of all time.


Holy punctuation batman!!!!!!!


----------



## Georgia Peach (Sep 23, 2005)

nice tank!


----------



## Zoe (Feb 26, 2006)

What about Balloon mollies? Seriously they are just the cutest little things! They bobble around and are very gluttonous... and they come in all sorts of colours. No blue, though, so a nice school of neon or cardinal tetras would compliment them well.
Very basic, I know, but my fat balloon mollies bring me so much pleasure, I just love to watch them.
Zoe


----------



## BlackArchFish (Apr 29, 2005)

Zoe said:


> What about Balloon mollies? Zoe


I have actually many times considered them. I will probably try some in the future !


Does anyone know if I could get a crayfish at all? Thanks again!


----------



## Pac-Man (Mar 18, 2005)

You could definetely fit a cray in your tank, no question. The thing is, crays have a tendency to eat fish-especially while theyre sleeping.


----------



## Ben Mazur (Mar 21, 2006)

BlackArchFish said:


> Yeah I know about the fish and holes.
> My friend had an angel fish that she bought when she was small, and he had a fav. hole and then one day he got stuck, they had to pull him out.
> His fins got messed up, but he lived and he's VERY big now lol.


Same thing happened to my Gourami, quite the scare.


----------



## labrakity (Apr 3, 2006)

You can't have crayfish with fish, but you might be able to with only crayfish. If you want a community tank I would do something like:

1 blue gourami
15 cardinal OR lemon tetras
10 panda corydoras
2 bristle nose OR 6 ottos


----------



## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Wow, what a great deal! How come I can't get lucky like that more often?

That bridge is way kewl. Obviously, a background to hide all that stuff behind the tank will go a long way toward making things even prettier.

If you like red & blue, then the obvious first choice would be cardinal tetras, or neons. Dwarf Gouramis are also nicely red & blue. In a city the size of Orlando you might even be able to get killifishes. There are also those red & blue Columbian Tetras, and Blue tetras, and Ember tetras which are solid red.

A blue crayfish can be a fun pet, but as already noted, it will eat all your fish.


----------



## BlackArchFish (Apr 29, 2005)

TheOldSalt said:


> A blue crayfish can be a fun pet, but as already noted, it will eat all your fish.


Ahaha! TOTALLY GETTING ONE NOW! (Joking)
Yeah I always thought they looked cool, but I also think I'm not ready for one. They need steady water and this is a new tank so I doubt it. I'm good with just some fishies.
I love NeonTetras so I will probably get a school of those at one point.
I'm loving my Albino Cories, they're just beyond cute for me! I have had dwarf gourami's in the past, and definately love the red ones !
I'm not that hip about the neons or anything. Right now I'm trying to get the water to stableize gah.
Lol.
Thanks again for all the suggestions!


----------



## labrakity (Apr 3, 2006)

How bout:
2 dwarf gouramis
15 neons
10 albino corydoras


----------



## BlackArchFish (Apr 29, 2005)

labrakity said:


> How bout:
> 2 dwarf gouramis
> 15 neons
> 10 albino corydoras



OooOoooo sounds purty! !
Love gouramis so it's good with me lol.
Can I mix and match my tetras? (Sorta)
I have the 6 flame in there now, could I stick in 10 Neons?


----------



## BlackArchFish (Apr 29, 2005)

Oh darn it I forgot.
Although I love the cories, I am SO hoping to get my old Pleco(Splecker) back.
He's my cute fish.
He's currently living at my friends house.
Think I could drop a few cories to fit the big guy in?


----------



## ultasol (Mar 12, 2006)

Just a few suggestions from someone who has gone through some trial and error,...
1) with a 30, you can buy better lights. For about 20 dollars you can get about 40 or so watts easily over that tank with 500-6400K bulbs, I know, I just did it with a 30 gallon I was given. about 1 or 1.5 WPG should do ya The advantage? Live plants, which leads me to my second point...
2) live plants!! you don't need to be a whiz kid (although some people get really technical with planted tanks), but even just a handful of floaters will make your fish happier. Why? They just love to eat up nitrates and other nasties that will throw off your water paramets,.. some fish will eat them.. some fish will breed in them!! Try some java fern, some java moss, some anubias, some some salvinia, wome watersprite, or any combination of the above....
3) esp if you are keeping an unplanted tank... understock! Also, keep fish that need similar water parameters... it made me cringe to hear someone suggest balloon mollies and neons together. Neons would prefer softer water, mollies like additional salt and harder water. I know such things can be done, but the more ideal the conditions are for your fish, the less you'll have to deal with fish death or illness from stress.


----------



## BlackArchFish (Apr 29, 2005)

Thank you very much for the suggestions!
I didn't quite remember the molly-neon situation I last had.
Added the salt to the tank and all of my neons died. Jeeze.
I will be looking for better lighting soon, I just need more $ once again.
And I REALLY want plants, but I consider my light to be inadequate, so once one is fixed, the other will soon follow.
I know plants help a lot, it's just the lighting I HAD in my 10's discouraged me.
But I've been doing research and I obviously love Java ferns, and I would like to get some watersprite.
I also think I wanted my tank to cycle, even if the plants would've helped before, I just needed time to get everything in there the way I wanted it, now it's settled with what fish, and only 1 ornament.
So plants are soon to follow!


----------



## xerxeswasachump (Mar 29, 2006)

Have you considered any shrimp? You would really need to have some plants then though. Red Cherries are very brightly colored and would spice up the tank a bit. I'm not sure if you fish would make a meal out fo them though. Might want to try some cheap ghost shrimp first and see what happens.


----------



## BlackArchFish (Apr 29, 2005)

Pretty sure my ram would try to eat those pretty little shrimp lol.


----------



## Guest (Apr 19, 2006)

You could add a couple more flame tetras, about 8 glowlight tetras, a blue gourami, and a school of cories. If you want pandas I wouldn't go any less than 8. They are very social and do much better in higher numbers. And you would still have room for the pleco, i think. What type is he?

Or you could move all your flames to the 29g and add a few more (to have about 14), get a blue gourami, the cories, and maybe the pleco.
Then you could put a school of 6 Harlequin Rasboras in your 10g.

Or you could have the Harlies in the 29g (about 12 of them) and move the flames back to the 10g.


----------



## BlackArchFish (Apr 29, 2005)

Thanks for the suggestion!
The Pleco is a common Pleco.

I'm considering adding these:
29 gallon- Get 5 more Cories(Albino), My pleco, and 10 glowlight tetras.
10 gallon: Get more Fancy Guppies (Cause I'm a dork), And transfer Flames to 10 gallon.

All of which will be gradual (Duhh) lol.
Thanks again!


----------



## Guest (Apr 20, 2006)

I wouldn't add any more guppies to the 10g. With the flame tetras, the betta, and the guppies you already have in there, the tank is at its limit, maybe even overstocked. And guppies make lots of babies (if you have alot of females). I would hold off on adding more guppies.


----------



## xerxeswasachump (Mar 29, 2006)

BlackArchFish said:


> Pretty sure my ram would try to eat those pretty little shrimp lol.


My bolivian rams have left my japonica shrimp alone, they would probably eat smaller shrimp though, like cherries.


----------



## BlackArchFish (Apr 29, 2005)

No one near me has bigger shrimp than ghosties lol.
No more guppies is good. Jeeze I just dunno where my head is lately!? lol


----------



## seven11junkey (Apr 16, 2006)

i would do a bunch of dwarf Gouramis


----------

