alright guys I need some help.. I started buying my pieces a little at a time and i really wanted to do a discus tank.. but after doing alot of research i came to the conclusion that 29g just wasnt a big enough tank for discus. I would go way bigger but I'm in the Air Force and 29g is the biggest size tank I'm allowed to have in my dorm room :(. So I bought my tank from petco(the day after they ended their 1$ per gallon sell! =/ ) and decided i was going to build my own wooden stand. For one to save money and another i just like doing things myself. I have a Marineland Bio-Wheel Penguin 350 filter that my grandmother bought me as a Christmas present cause she is huge into salt and freshwater aquariums and she wanted to help me out on getting my tank started.

So i have been trying to find a good aquarium store here in Fayetteville, NC and ive been nothing but disappointed so far. Back home there was a really good store called Wet Pets and they had everything i could have dreamed of and staff that was more than willing to help you out with anything you needed. Anyways i found the "best" store i could find here and the guy told me i should just use pea gravel from Home Depot as my substrate. So listening to him and trying to save money i purchased a large bag for around 3 dollars and it was more than enough to cover the bottom of my tank. I brought it home and started trying my best to clean it and get as much of the dirt out of it as possible and i thought i was doing great until i started filling the tank with water and it was so dirty i could even see through the tank. so I did my best to let the water settle and i bought extra filter media called Bio-Chem Zorb from petsmart and it did a pretty good job of getting the tank clear after a couple days. (I'm going to post some pictures and show all the steps ive taken so far.

So right now Ive got a empty tank with nothing but pea gravel as my base and ive got so many questions of what i should do as my next step. Do i need to add ammonia or anything to start my cycling cause my tank has been sitting like this for about a week now and i dont have my testing kit to check my water levels. I still need a light fixture and a glass top for the top of my tank and I'm wanting live plants so would it be safe to mix bio complete in with my gravel?

As far as fish for the tank I would love for the main feature to be angels.. I also want fish that will be colorful and school. any suggestions? I need as much help as i can get with every aspect of this build. I want it to be beautiful and natural looking with no fake colorful walmart looking decorations. I love the way that driftwood looks with natural plants. Im gonna post some pictures of whats happened so far and im ready for any criticism or advice yall have to offer!!

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My Petco store here in Florida has a big sign if front saying the $1.00 per gallon sale lastd till the 21st. You may want to ask about that.

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29 gal planted,7 Harlequin Rasbora, 8 Neon Tetra,3 Bolivian Rams,3 Albino Cory,2 Emerald Green Cory
55 gal Lake Malawi
15 gal betta tank

That pea gravel will cause you problems.. traps uneaten food. A cheap alternative is pool filter sand at $10.00 for 50 lbs. Find someone to split it with. You should be able to host 4 Angels in that tank with 5 or 6 cardinal tets, a couple of dwarf cory's and maybe a small pleco. With that filter, you'll not be overstocked. Bill in Va.

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12 Tanks, 900 gallons. Discus/Angels/Malawi/Lake Victorias. Just added a 135 & 2 - 29's..

I think the pea gravel will do alright as long as you arent feeding copious amounts of food, and do weekly vaccuming. I'm not sure how it will do if you intend to have live plants (which you should they are awesome!)

Your stand looks really nice, good job there!

As far as cycling, if you are doin a fishless cycle you should add ammonia without surfectants (shake it, if it bubbles its no good) once you add teh ammonia and dose it up to about 4ppm (You WILL need a liquid test kit at this point, get one! :D) sit back and wait until you start to see nitrites. Keep dosing the ammonia once you see that it is dissapearing on it's own. At this point, hold on to your hat and have patience because the nitrites take FOREVER to drop. They will though. When you can dose ammonia to 4ppm, and within 24 hours test and have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, then you are cycled. Do a nice big water change to clear everything out and drop the nitrates you will have accumulated and you will be ready for fish. This whole process will take approx 2-6 weeks. If you want to speed this process up, see if you can gets ome old filter media from a pet store from a clean disease free tank and that will most def. speed it up.


One thing i do disagree on is what william said above--4 angels is WAY too many for a 29 gallon. one angel would be alright with a few other small fish. no more than that. Looking forward to seeing your tank grow!

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"Being ignorant is not so much a Shame, as being unwilling to learn".-- Benjamin Franklin

Pea gravel would be fine, but don't need more than 2 inches of substrate. And no 4 angels will not do fine in that tank. That would be over crowding and a lot of aggression.

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SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html

Let me defend the 4 angels in a 29 for a sec hey?.. I've some breeder friends that will have 10 breeder pairs in a 90. A discus which is much bigger it is suggested that 10G per fish is the recommended. 4 angels in a 29 is almost 7.5 gallons per fish and it will take well over a year for them to grow to a size where they'd outgrow that 29. Um.. I'm now keeping over 100 Angels.. you? Bill in Va.

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12 Tanks, 900 gallons. Discus/Angels/Malawi/Lake Victorias. Just added a 135 & 2 - 29's..

I keep and have bred angels many times. You can keep a breeding pair in a 10 gal but I still wouldn't advise it. He's just wanting a show tank, and even with 2 if the 2 don't pair one can kill the other. I have seen it happen many times.

Even keeping big fish in a small tank works, it don't help the fish to thrive. Angels and discus can be overcrowded like that for breeding purposes, but to me it isn't right or fair to the fish. You should put fish in a tank on a long term basis not just a few and get rid of some or let some be killed.

I'm not going to argue on this you have your opinion and I have mine, and no I am not a beginner I've been keeping fish for over 30 years.

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SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html

Why put any fish in a tank that will grow into a situation of overcrowding? What then? We preach against this everyday on here.

I don't have the experience that ben and susan have, but i've been around here long enough to know that if you really care about the fish you want them to live in the best situation possible. Just because they would be fine for a year, does not make it right. Not if the end scenario is death to one or more fish because of territory issues, or having to rehome fish that have been a pet for a year or more. And for the record, the OP did say this is the biggest tank he is allowed in his dorm room, so why get fish you eventually cant keep anyway?

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"Being ignorant is not so much a Shame, as being unwilling to learn".-- Benjamin Franklin

Where are all those tanks located in your house? lol. I started a thread awhile back and it had everyone say how many tanks were in their house and where they were. I think you have the most big ones lol

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Thanks for all the input everybody! as far as starting to cycle my tank, I'm going to put a small decoration from a previous 10g tank that i had with african cichlids in it. That will be enough to start it i think from what ive read in the precious post. and when it comes to buying fish online how does everyone feel about that? Liveaquaria.com seems to be the best ive looked at because as far as the local fish store there is no way i'm buying my fish there. They just dont look healthy at all. I am gonna try to find me some driftwood that i can maybe purchase online as well.

When it comes to lighting i really like the way a T5 with moonlight looks. and this would help me out with natural plant growth. Im still decided on fish to go with the angels so ill be posted more pictures as i go!

PS: does anyone use homemade backgrounds?

Every one of my tanks are in my attached 1.5 car garage. I'll be adding 2 more 20H's to support the Angel breeding operation.. plus some 5G's for spawn hatching.. a couple of more 10's for fry-grow outs..

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12 Tanks, 900 gallons. Discus/Angels/Malawi/Lake Victorias. Just added a 135 & 2 - 29's..