[freshfish]

It will be at least a few more weeks before I really get started on this tank, but here's the plan so far:

29gal tank
Lighting: Coralife T5 2x18 watt
Filtration: Rena Filstar XP2
Substrate: ADA Amazonia II, possibly on top of black ColorQuartz for added height.

Needed:
Hardscape, probably Malaysian driftwood to stay in theme.
ColorQuartz

Planned livestock:
Amano shrimp
Philippine horned Nerite snails
Botia sidthimunki - dwarf chain loaches
Dwarf rasboras (Boraras sp.)
Pair of wild bettas- sp. TBD

Planned plants:
Predominantly Crypts.
Probably C. balanse in the background.
Perhaps needle-leaf Java fern and some moss (sp. TBD - NOT java moss!) on the driftwood.
Several Wendtii species in the midground.
C. parva in the foreground.
Possibly Lilaeopsis carpet, as well. I considered dwarf hairgrass, but don't want to fool with "mowing."

Currently the tank is serving as a QT tank for 35 Cardinal tetras. They have just completed their first week in QT, with one to two weeks to go. Once they have been moved over into my 90gal, I will begin cycling the AquaSoil. I'm leaning towards growing my foreground emersed.

[WhoMe???]

Hey, I caught what you just wrote: NOT Java moss. Any reason why?

[freshfish]

Java moss is always crazy invasive in my tanks, and strands of it always pull free and clog my filter intakes. The stuff generally drives me batty. It also is too "stringy" looking for what I have planned. I've got some right now in my 46gal that I'll probably get rid of soon.

I'm thinking about trying to score some Asian fissidens species- I really love the look of fissidens.

I've also got some Suesswassertang and Pellia, but those are both a bit harder to "tie down"- especially Pellia. I'll probably end up putting those in my 10gal once I set it back up as a shrimp colony at work in a few weeks.

I really like most mosses, though.

[freshfish]

I'm posting this for reference once I start cycling the AquaSoil:

Silane (Ken) on shrimpnow.com who is one of the most respected breeders of CRS posted this
"Fastest Cycle time with ADA Amoniza Aquasoil for me.

Recently just cycle a new tank with ADAsoil within 1 week, ammonia was very near 0. After 11 days, nitrate was 5ppm.

What I did was:
Day 0 - add in Adasoil and water
Day 1 - change near 100% water
Day 1.5 - change near 100% water
Day 2 - change near 100% water
Day 2.5 - change near 100% water
Day 2.5 - add in water that was used to wash a matured filter wool and sponge
Day 4 - start to see ammonia goes down and nitrate raising
Day 6 - ammonia at 0.25ppm and nitrate 20ppm did a water near 100% water change, parameter just after WC: ammonia is very near 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate is less than 5ppm
Day 7 - ammonia is very very close to 0, I introduce my CRS.
Day 8 - ammonia is 0.
Day 11- ammonia is 0, nitrate is 5ppm.

I used de-chlorinated water to prevent the beneficial bacteria from being killed."

[freshfish]

Just for reference, here's pics of the tank As Is today, with 35 Cardinal Tetras in Quarantine:

[k2_16]

Love that piece of wood! Oh, and the cardinals also!

[Thom]

Have you managed to successfully count all 35 yet?

I'm looking forward to seeing this tank develop, hope to pick up some ideas for my Asian tank!

[freshfish]

Actually, I did just that yesterday- and after about a dozen tries, I THINK I have 36... Little boogers didn't want to hold still and BE counted.

Thom, you may not have long to wait. If the Cardinals "graduate" as planned to the 90gal this weekend, I'm probably also going to go ahead and start cycling the AquaSoil in the tank beginning this weekend. I've decided for sure that I want to grow an emersed carpet (probably microsword) before fully filling and planting the tank, so this will be a relatively long process.

But hopefully fun.

[Renegade545]

I'm not sure what it is but you tank leaves me feeling wanting more It just seems empty.

I'll be following this one, good luck and keep us updated.

[J.B.]

It's looking great so far Laura; I'm kinda diggin' the hard-scape.

Seriously, I'm excited to see this one progress under your steady hand and watchful eye. Should be a real eye pleaser!

[freshfish]

LOL thanks guys.

Believe it or not, just that one little piece of Manzanita is releasing tons of Tannins. Despite the fact that I've had it soaking since February, and the first 2 months in a big trashcan with hot water changes every other day... I removed the Purigen last week when I started the Melafix and Pimafix on this tank, and so I hadn't noticed it before. Today, the water definitely has that yellowy-brown tint.

These most recent pics of my 29gal are taken with the new Coralife T5 over the tank. It's amazing how much more light the tank gets compared to the old T8, I think I would have gotten much better pics of my little Apisto under this light, LOL. Brown algae is also loving this light, since there aren't really any plants to speak of (I'm not counting the unwanted hitchhiking Riccia that's been floating around and reproducing at about the same rate as the pond snails... the stuff's almost as bad as duckweed. Oh yea, there's a little of that, too. This tank is gonna get a good scrub once the Cardinals are out.)

[freshfish]

Couldn't resist this gorgeous piece of Malaysian DW that was at my LFS today...

[J.B.]

That is a nice piece of Manzanita, mind if I ask what you dished out for it? BTW, I probably would have used a different reference object...

[freshfish]

Ooops I meant Malaysian *fixed* It was $35. My foot was what was handy. IDK where my ruler went...

Did you just resize my pics for me?

EDIT - no, how odd; the pics show up appropriately sized when on my edit screen, but not on the main forum?

[WhoMe???]

Ooops I meant Malaysian *fixed* It was $35. My foot was what was handy. IDK where my ruler went...

Did you just resize my pics for me?

EDIT - no, how odd; the pics show up appropriately sized when on my edit screen, but not on the main forum?

WOW, I like it, nice and weird and twisty... I'm betting the wood grain will scream underwater! I can't wait to see how you utilize it!