New 29 gallon setup

My brother had a 29 gallon tank that he no longer wanted, so he gave it to me. He also gave me the stand, filter, heater, and the sand.

This empty spot in my dining room looked like it was designed for a 29; it fits perfectly!



The sand was pretty clean and only needed a little bit of rinsing.





I'm going to replace the filter with a canister so I can keep the tank as close to the wall as possible. It sticks out a little bit and I don't want to end up breaking a toe on the stand, but I think it's going to work out okay in this location.



To be continued.....

very nice pick up

Thanks, Derek. This is the 2nd tank he's given me.

I was at a pet store the other day and picked a canister up for 50% off. The store is moving to a new location and had everything on sale. There wasn't much left -- no XPs which is what I really wanted. But I've heard lots of good things about Eheim, so I figured I'd give one a try because it was all that was left and it was half off.



Well, I guess the Ecco variety must be the bottom of the line for Eheim. I opened the box and the thing was already broken. There are four tabs that hold the top of the canister on and three of those tabs had been snapped off and were nowhere to be found.



I went out this morning and got another one that is intact. Got it put together and it's working. I'm going to run it on another tank while I'm waiting to make a trip up to my lfs.

well let me know how it runs i havent always wanted a ehime

It's running fine. It's not dead silent, but it's pretty quiet -- comparable to the XP that is running along beside it. I can tell already that disconnecting it for maintenance is going to be a bit more involved with the Eheim (XPs are so simple). The hoses on the Eheim are narrower than the XP and the outflow doesn't seem as powerful, but it's plenty for smaller tanks like this one. And it just seems more fragile than the XPs.

I'll let you know over time how it does.

I love the spot you found for that tank, it does fit perfectly. That tank and stand looks to be in mint condition, does he have anymore to get rid of? You're going to have a real nice set up when it's complete.

As for the eheim filter, I think the ecco line is the bottom level filter from eheim. I think when you hear people raving about eheim cannisters, it's the higher priced units that they're talking about. That filter will do a fine job at filtration but won't be silent and will be a pain to clean compared to the nicer eheims. (you've already observed that tho) At 50%off, it's a great pick up regardless .

Can't wait to see this tank complete, it's gonna look great!!!

Here's a picture of how it looks now. I keep changing the rocks around -- can't get it quite right -- I'm trying not to have that stacked shelf look, but it's not working! I'm finding it really difficult to use the height of the tank without having rocks all across the limited amount of space on the bottom. I wanted to leave an open space to add a few shells. I'm planning to stock this tank with either J. transcriptus or N. leleupi and possibly some shellies.

I still need to add the filter and have a Stealth heater that I might swap with another tank.





Any opinions or advice are welcome. My feelings won't be hurt by some constructive criticism. I know that this won't be the final setup, in fact I'm going to go stick my hand in the tank again right now.

yea its hard to get the non stacked effect but its almost like you just have to put rocks on each other with out looking and stuff i would make it more like a reff but i would have it against the back of the tank and have the back help support some rocks and that will leave the whole front of sand and have like just a tunnel that is like two rocks and a top piece or some thing if you want i can get pics of my tank set ups if you want some thing to go from

Wow, it's lookin really good!!!

If you're gonna have shellies, don't go with leleupi. Everything I've read suggests that they'll pull the shellies out of their shells to get to the fry, not very friendly towards shell dwellers. Shouldn't have any problems with the J. transcriptus tho

Derek, pictures are always welcome.

Mike, thanks for that info.

I think it is looking really good so far. What kind of sand is that it looks very white in the pics.

The sand is mostly a tan colored pool filter sand with a little bit of leftover Quikrete medium sand (which is white) mixed in. The light makes it appear whiter in the pictures than it looks in person.

I added some transcriptus and stappersi to the tank. (At least that's what they were labeled as. The knowledgeable guy that is usually there wasn't in the day I went in.)

You might be able to see some in there.


They are coming out more now. There already seems to be a pair forming (I have four) and they have been chasing all of the other fish away from the left side of the tank.






The shellies are really entertaining, filling in shells, emptying out shells, over and over again.




I hope I get lucky and have a pair of each species. My luck has been all male with most of my purchases.

awesome shots!!! nice tank

great shots Betty!!! They look like stapp's to me. The fish look great as well as the tank, will be lookin forward to more pics

looking good and yea them are some strapps

Very nice setup and great looking fish. My shellies do the same thing filling in shells that they are not using. Inch for inch shellies have to be one of the coolest fish the way the defend their shells from bigger fish.

A little update: I had to move two of the transcriptus out because they were being constantly chased around by another one and were looking a little ragged. There is another that is not being chased, so I'm hoping that they will be a pair or at least good friends.

I'm a little surprised by the level of aggression. It's almost as bad as my mbuna.

The shellies are doing okay. The julies try to chase them, but they just posture in front of the shells and don't really give in. They sure are cute little things.

They are some awesome lil fishies!!! (don't tell them they're little tho, they won't believe you )

These are the two that were removed. They are getting along well. Would this compatibility mean a male/female pair or could it also be that they are two females? They are pretty small and I wouldn't expect that they are of spawning age yet.

I have babies!

I just noticed them this evening at the entrance to the cave that the parents have been hovering around. They are so tiny and up underneath some rocks so pictures are not coming out, but I'll keep trying.

congrats betty

This is the clearest I could get. There is one up against the bottom of the gray rock that is hard to see and a couple inside the cave that are blurry and the one that is on the outside by the parent.

After years of keeping fish that eat their own babies, this is exciting for me.

AWESOME Betty!!!

Congrats on the spawn, the picture turned out real well. I know how hard it is to get a fry pic, especially when they're sooo tiny.

Lookin forward to watching these guys grow

that was fast betty