OK, so I'm brand new to the hobby. Just got my tank set up a few days ago and am trying to cycle it now. Going fishless with direct ammonia addition, so we'll see how that goes.

I converted a hand-crafted (by my wife's grandfather) TV stand that was built pretty sturdy. I added some strategic reinforcing lumber, but I have to admit, I was a bit nervous knowing this tank would probably weigh upwards of 350 pounds. Four days and counting, so far so good.

A few details: 29 gallon freshwater with a Penguin 200 power filter and bio-wheel, 150 W Visitherm submersible heater, a bunch of plastic plants, a few hunks of glass, and a lovely centerpiece rock that looks like Swiss Cheese. I'm sure the fish will love the holes!

The only concern I have is that it looks like the aquarium glass itself is bowed out slightly near the top. The bottom is perfectly straight, but the top is curved out maybe a quarter inch; not much, but just enough to see if you put a straight edge against it, like the lid. Is this normal?

And now for the pics!





Thanks for looking!
-Tim

looks good! I have never noticed the top of the glass bowing, but I never put a strait edge to my 75 and the bow front I have now is supposed to look like that...I think.

your centerpiece is awesome. I love that rock. I have experimented with glass chucks in the tank before, I particularly had good luck with them over a blue glass substrate, looked really cool. There was something intriguing with the way the algae eaters swarmed to it also. I like the light blue/white gravel, although I find that darker substrate makes the fish look brighter. The plants look good. You did a good job with placement.

I have that style heater in my quarantine tank, I love the easy adjustment with the heat scale on it. I did not completely submerge mine though, I couldn't remember if they were sealed, I guess they must be.

It looks like you have plenty of surface action for oxygen, do you get a lot of splash noise? That magic spot where the filter output gets quiet is hard to find sometimes.

I like the placement in the TV stand to, they look good together.

The only thing I see to criticize is your placement of the thermo strip! That would drive me nuts right on the front like that.

Looking good. What is going in it?

Thanks for the comments!

The heater is a submersible model. I also noticed that the minimum water level for the heater is only about an inch from the top so you probably shouldn't let it stick out more than that.

The splash noise is pretty reasonable. I don't have much to compare it to, but I put it at a soft babbling brook sound, which is quite pleasant for a living room.

I wanted to find a better spot for the thermo strip as well, but as you can see, I can't really access the sides of the tank, so I couldn't find a better spot to put it. Maybe I should get a proper alcohol thermometer to stick inside. We'll see.

I'm still researching fish, but I'm leaning towards some simple, hardy starters once my cycle matures like cherry barbs, platies, dwarf gouramis, and cory cats. Any suggestions?

I have never had any luck keeping dwarf gouramis alive, they are supposed to be sturdy though. I think I was just having a bad run. I might try them again, they are really neat.

You are going to want an algae eating tank cleaner after a bit. I like the Oto catfish because they stay small, but a non-hermaphroditic snail can be neat as well; mystery, or a large Apple have been my choices in the past. Some of the Apple snails are hard on plants though, so figure that out ahead of time if you ever decide to go live. There are a myriad of choices, and I don't like to drop one in until I can see the algae and know they have something to eat.

I just got a fan shrimp last night, I went with a bamboo shrimp because they are $6 at petco. They are pretty neat, if you think that might be interesting, there are a few different types of fan shrimp on the market right now.

Everything you have falls in the same recommended PH range as well, and this range is normally what tap water runs, so you probably won't have to make any water adjustments (yay!).

Cherry Barb: 6.5 - 7.5
Cory: 6 - 8
dwarf gourami: 6.0 – 8.0
Platy: 6.8 to 8.3

Everything you listed sounds great man. It looks like it will be a nice tank!

Now for the unsolicited advice: Quarantine tank.
Keep a small tank set up for new fish. Ich is not hard to kill, but because of it's lifecycle, you never get it all the first time. I like to quarantine for 4 weeks before I drop a new fish into an established tank. Even if they show no symptoms, they need to be quarantined. It is also a lot cheaper to treat disease in a 5 gallon then a 29. And nothing will kill your enthusiasm for your fish tank then to see your fish get wiped out by a disease. I don't care how clean the fish store says their fish are, quarantine them.

Hi there.With the top of the glass bowing out id make sure that the silcone is properly doing its job.Just incase its lossing its strenght and the water is forcing the glass to tilt out. As for the thermeter place it ad the right side edge of tank and evertime you want to check the temp use a handheld mirror to check it. Good Luck with the tank

where's the fish?keep a driftwood.it looks more natural..fish can feel more comfortable here...

I have seen your aquarium and it is very nice now I have one my self but that is the biggest one I saw

Thanks for the comment. We're really proud of it ourselves. We were planning to get a 20 gallon, but when I discovered this 29 gallon was a perfect fit for our stand, I couldn't resist.

I've also got a thread in the tank build forum where I am keeping a log for anyone else interested.