# [Wet Thumb Forum]-The 29 Gallon Natural Planted Tank



## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Got some decent pics of the 29 gallon bowfront Walstad-type natural planted tank yesterday. This tank has around 1 inch of topsoil with an inch of gravel over it. Plants include Pygmy chain swords (Echinodorus tenellus), Dwarf Sag (Sagittaria subulata), an amazon sword, and some wysteria (hygro difformis). Filtration is a Penguin 170 powerhead with a foam prefilter. It houses swordtails, a few Endler's Livebearers, a clown pleco, ghost shrimp and snails (ramshorn, MTS, and pond). These swordtails were line bred by a friend of my daughter's. They're unusual because they are light pink with a darker pink stripe running the length of their bodies. Couldn't find anything like them via a web search.










I think it's looking pretty good since I moved the s. subulata into the background. That stirred up a lot of dirt, but a large partial water change and the 100 micron filter cleared it up nicely.

One of the swordtails recently had what look like three albino babies. Here's a rather blurry pic of one of them:


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## Christian Hansen (Apr 27, 2006)

Looks very nice ;-)


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## Miss Fishy (May 13, 2006)

Lovely tank! What kind of sword plant is it? What are the water parameters, lighting etc.? 

From Alex.


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## Mr Fishies (Apr 9, 2006)

Wow! I see about 25 fish just from a quick count. Is that not a lot of fish for a 29G tank?

Not what I'd call a light load, is there much additional maintenance required to keep this tank happy?

That sure is a healthy looking "crop" you've got growing there, no shortage of fertilizer with all those hungry swords I'm sure.

Hmmm, I wonder if Fish, like people are happier when they have a window to look out?


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Great tank!

The fish look so healthy and of good quality.

I think fish enjoy a little sunlight as much as people do.


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Yea, I know it's getting overstocked. I need to get the empty 55 gallon I have sitting around up and running.

The sword is an amazon sword. At some point I'm going to regret putting it in that tank.

I have 2 20 watt 6500K spiral compact fluorescent bulbs over it and now it's starting to get some direct sunlight from the south window. 

I haven't been doing anything special cuz the fish and plants seem happy. pH at the moment is 8 cuz I'd bet there's not much CO2 floating around this time of day. My tap water runs about 7.6-7.8 with both KH and GH around 7dh.


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Here's what the crayfish did to it. LOL 
Totally deforested it and turned it into a mud puddle.









Here's what it looks like now. It houses my albino bn breeding pair and their offspring.


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## fireman5214 (Mar 4, 2009)

thats a great looking tank, ilove the natural look


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## clearleaf (Oct 4, 2008)

Aw c'mon, I *never* get to see bristlenose pups, let's see some close-ups! None of this 600x400 stuff.


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

LOL
I'll hafta try to get some pics of the juvies. Should be somewhat easier with the new camera. Here are some pics from the end of last year



















and a couple of my brown bn young uns


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## clearleaf (Oct 4, 2008)

Alright, now that's what I'm talkin bout. Great tank and baby ancistrus is always a good sight to see.


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