stone50

Greetings all!

Besides recommending Manzanita Bullworks this is my first official post. I live in Savannah Georgia and I am a Police Officer with the City. I started in the hobby in 2002 and set up a 90g tank which did well until I got hired on by the Police Dept in '03 and I lost track of time(shift work can be a pain). Needless to say when I was in the hobby back in '02 I was using the PMDD method and limiting PO2, Mixed results at best.

That bring me here now, and a reinvigorated desire to actually grow plants and maintain a healthy aquarium! We'll see how it goes. My first attempt will be this 29g. I went with AH supply which was around back in '02 and is still providing the best DIY kits in the business IMO. 2x55w and I built the hood using links from their website about enclosures. Before setting the tank up I added legs raising it up an inch instead of resting on a glass top. Savannah gets pretty hot during the summer so I preferred not to boil the water

I went with eco-complete and I really like the black as well as the ease of inserting stems into the substrate. It seems to hold better than Flourite which I used back in '02. The driftwood is from Manzanita Bullworks, and as you will see I have tons leftover.

The filter is an old Eheim 2026 I had laying around, I also picked up a Hydor Nano to aid in circulation but I took it out after the first days as the Ehiem is got things really moving.

After making an external PVC reactor my research pointed me towards a diffuser disk as equally efficient as well as not reducing the flow of the eheim, after 2 days I am sold. I went with Green Leaf Aquariums for the diffuser, tubing, and drop checker. Orlando has a great operation there and I will not hesitate to make another purchase if he has what I need. I also got my dry ferts there as well.

Plants came from 2 sources. I ordered from Aquabotanic and have always been satisfied. Secondly I discovered the For Sale or Trade section and had 3 great transactions with Davemonkey, Imeridian, and ORiN999. What a great pleasure to get beautiful plants without droppin 30 bucks for shipping!

I am dosing EI for 20-40g setups. I like dry dosing so I mix up the dry ferts with a little tank water and throw it in! Right now I am working to get the CO2 right. I had a malfunction with my bubble counter(brass type that sits on the reg). After a couple of emails to Orlando I discovered it to be the problem. Right not I am showing a light yellow on the dc indicating a little too much but I have no fish yet so better to have a little extra than be short!

As far as I can tell the 2026 seems to have the entire tank circulating. With the aid of the diffuser I can see the bubble traveling all over the tank and every leaf seems to have a little movement. Heating is from a Hydor 200w with the 5/8. Seems to be fine afetr several days of course in I will know better in about 7 months

Plant selection was easy, fast growers except for the L. Aromatica. We'll see how it goes but everything is responding well as all the plants have shown new growth.

As for aquascapin. hmmm, I am not artist unless you consider a tight grouping at the range, or the 3 screenplay's I have written that did not sell

For this I just wanted cool looking wood and healthy plants... then I may search for the "art"

The picks show a pot of HC which is now planted. I dabbled with using some Riccia in the foreground but I put it back in the 90g cus it annoys me

Thanks for looking/comments

Stone

Initial Setup
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Extra wood for future scapes!
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DIY Enclosure: 1 GE9325, 1 5500 AH bulb
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