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Probably not to many of you will recognize me, but a couple years ago I was on here quite a bit. As life goes, my fish keeping hobby went by the wayside for a bit. But now I have the time, and more imortantly as I'm sure most of you can identify with, the money to spend I am going to get back into it. And that is why I am here, looking for ideas and inspirations.

Right now I have a 29 tall (30"x18"x12" or for our metric friends, approx 76x47x30cm) 250W heater, Penguin 125 filter, Whisper 10-20 (I'm not sure what that translates to in current names since its almost 7 years old now) A homeade hood with two 20W flourescent tubes, but there is room for a tight third, or would easly fit some CF. I have about 4 inches of gravel 75%flourite/25%pea gravel. Also I have a space in the stand that I am contemplateing putting in a 10ish gallon sump mostly for the extra water volume and thus stability.

So here is my real question. What should I do with it? I have had a few thougths each with there pros and cons so I am interested in what you guys think, and think I would need for each.

1. Freshwater comunity tank: probalby more like a species tank with rainbow fish which I have had before and enjoyed. Just fake plants, maybe upgrade the wisper filter but don't wory about the sump or any upgrade to the lighting. Just something easy and reletivly low maintenance to get back into it. However, harder to go to something else later one I have fish established and just a little boring, been there done that sort of thing.

2. Freshwater Ecotype tank: Probably Amazon, full live region specific plants, then eventualy a couple angelfish, maybe Dicsus if I feal lucky, and the filler school of tetras, probably a brislenose or some corys. I would probably want to do the sump for this, expecialy for discus, maybe a reverse flow UGF to go along with it. Would definately need to upgrade to either some VHO or CF lights. I'm a little bit leary about doing plants becuase I tried them once before and ended up with a nice forest of very thick blue/green algae, and alot of dead plants. Again runs into the issue of been there done that sine angle fish are pretty comon, but could still be very cool looking If I can get some pants to thrive.

3. Saltwater: This would be a first for me which makes it exciteing and interesting, but also a little daunting. I would just do fish and live rock. I would need the sump I think, but probably wouldn't need a new light fixture just some diferent bulbs. I would also need all new substrait. I'm probably the most excited by this prospect, but also most unsure based on cost and dificulty, meaning I don't want to flush a couple hundred $$ down the toilet. and end up with an empty tank which I have now, and some salt creep up my wall.

any thoughts?

Big Bear

#1 with live plants.

Its daunting yes, but the live plants should actually help with algae if you plan for them properly And there is nothing like live plants in a tank

I'd say start with that, get your feet wet again, and then if you want to do SW, you can either sell off stock or buy a new tank

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I have a 180 gal with rainbowfish, cories , angels , shrimp, and absolutely loads of plants. Far from being the most boring of my tanks its probably the one with most activity. You could just up your game on the rainbowfish front and keep a range of species in full shoal numbers. Rainbows are a good mid sized fish that will breed for you, wont really concern themselves with other fish and change colours throughout the day. Their behaviour changes during the course of a day and in various seasons but most people dont ever give em enough room and a well appointed enough tank to see most of this stuff. Personally I think theyre a great basis for a larger community tank.When you really manage to get conditions right for rainbows (most people underdo it) youll find that you can keep a whole range of other fish in the same pristine conditions.

For display impact try keeping turquioses, trilineatas. boesmans, and new guinea reds- perhaps even some west australian rainbows.Go big on the tank, the filter,oxygenation levels, and plants. You will be rewarded.



Last edited by longhairedgit at 19-Sep-2005 12:00

Do yourself and the fish a favor and if your doing the amazon tank don't put anything larger than a dwarf ram in there.

There's no way you can have angels and discus in a 29, let alone just the angels. You should have a schools of small fish and a few bigger ones like a bolivan ram or something of that size.

My Scapes

Personally, I think that rainbowfish, maybe with the exception of the smaller species, need a larger tank than 29g.

I have a 29g with 1 australian rainbowfish amongst other fish (rosy barbs, cories, otos, and a thick-lipped gourami). I was originally planning on having a school of rainbows, but the second batch that I bought was sick when I got them and they all died within a few days. Since I didn't want to get more from the same place, the 1 remains alone.

She's probably not even full grown yet and I can't imagine having a school of them in there. This is my first tank and I feel like I underestimated the size of a 4" fish, especially one that is such a fast swimmer.

Maybe others would disagree. Just my opinion. Good luck with your tank.

Doug