Planted 29G Biocube

[shandylawson]

I started this tank about six weeks ago, but due to a marathon bacterial bloom pictures were pretty useless until yesterday. And even still, it looks pretty cloudy. I'm looking forward to using this thread to keep track of the tank's growth and whatever changes I'm in for.
 
My wife recently got a 29-gallon BioCube and set up a marine tank, and I got tired of watching her have all the fun so I jumped in with a freshwater system of my own. I had a few tanks when I was young(er), but keeping fish is not like it used to be, so I'm learning as I go and this site has been a huge help.
 
Anyway, the tank is an Oceanic BioCube 29 with an extra 0.75W LED bar (for a total of two) as well as the two stock 36W 10k compact fluorescents (one daylight, one blue actinic). I keep all the lights on for about 8 hours each day, and for a few hours in the evening I just leave the two LEDS on for a shimmery moonlight look.
 
For filtration, it comes with a 265 gph two-stage system which seems to work well enough, but tonight I'll be adding an external canister filter (SunSun HW-603) to help it out. If I've finally kicked this bacterial bloom, I want to keep ahead of it so it doesn't come back.
 
My LFS sent me home with flourite for substrate, as I wanted a planted tank but I'll be replacing that with play sand very soon for a more natural look and to have something gentler on my catfish. Which brings me to my fish/inverts:
 
 
1 Spotted Pictus cat (too late realizing I'll have to rehome him eventually, but for now he's tiny and happy enough)
 
6 Black Phantom Tetra (with a possible future as catfish food one day if I'm not careful)
 
2 Siamese Algae Eaters
 
1 Gold Mystery snail
 
2 Tiger Nerite snails
 
 
For plants, I have several small dwarf chain swords that are creeping around and popping up here and there, two wisteria, a pretty dense tuft of dwarf hair grass and one tall thing that I've long since forgotten the name of. The chain sword is doing very well but the other plants are pretty much just hanging in there. I just started adding Flourish and Flourish Excel this week, so hopefully that will spur some new growth.
 
I'll upload some photos tonight...
 
 

 

[shandylawson]

So here's the tank... I was really hoping to come home and see clear water, but it seems today was not the day.


 
And I somehow managed to get a good shot of one of my Black Phantoms, so what the heck:
 

 

[shandylawson]

I swapped out the fourite gravel with sand the night before last, and the water has cleared up pretty well for now, so I figured I'd take a picture while I can. June 20, 2015:
 
 
 

 

[fal3]

looking real nice there mate! Amazing how quickly it cleared up huh? Love how it looks simple, yet really good. Hard to get that balance right but I think you have

 

[shandylawson]

Thanks! I definitely want to keep it as simple and natural as I can, but I'm also looking forward to having those plants start to fill out. I have two CPO dwarf crayfish coming (hopefully) this week that should be a nice addition too..

 

[fal3]

Yah I understand what you mean. The satisfaction when the plants actually start to fill the tank and grow quite a lot eh? OOOHHHH dwarf crayfish, never even seen those before in all honesty.. let me go look them up

 

[shandylawson]

Yeah, the CPO dwarf crayfish are great... they typically won't destroy your plants, they tend to leave your fish and other inverts alone, and they're pretty easy to breed too. They'll keep your substrate clean and eat just about anything, and they're not nocturnal like most crayfish. I'll let you know how they work out...

 

[fal3]

wow they sound like amazing! Must look into them if and when I upgrade or get a different tank! And yes, please do let me know how it goes

 

[shandylawson]

The CPO crayfish arrived, and after acclimation they were right at home. It took less than a minute after I put them in the tank for both of them to start sifting through the sand and cleaning the place up.
 
I'd requested one male and one female, which is just what I got, but I was a little disappointed to find that the male was missing a claw. In the lobster business, we'd call him a pistol.

 
 

 

[LyraGuppi]

Cute!

 

[shandylawson]

Added some dwarf Baby Tears last night, and discovered it's the new favorite food for my gold mystery snail. Time to re-home...
 
 

 

[shandylawson]

Still having a hard time kicking the white cloudiness (I'm still 99% sure it's a bacterial bloom), so last night I did a 75% water change, a thorough vacuuming of the sand, and I got rid of almost all of my plants, most of which weren't faring too well. I'd planting species that were a little more challenging to maintain than I'd expected, and I'm not the aquatic gardener I'd hoped I was. So far, the water looks a lot clearer. Fingers crossed it stays that way.
 
I replaced the dying plants I took out with hardier types that will require less light and therefore should produce less algae, if I get my balance right: Moneywort (Creeping Jenny) along with Amazon sword, and I have Anubias, Java moss, and Jungle vals arriving later in the week.
 
Pictures to follow soon...

Also a quick note on the one-clawed crayfish: after a molt, we have a new claw. I had no idea they could do that, but there you go. 

 

[shandylawson]

Added Anubias, Java Moss and a few Jungle Vals last night:
 
 

 

[LyraGuppi]

Beautiful!

 

[shandylawson]

Thanks! I still have to fill in the foreground a bit, but I'll wait and see if I can keep the plants I already have in there alive for a while first...