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Just wanted to share some pictures of my new 29G. There are some pretty bad reflections in there, and I obviously have to improve my technique from aquarium photography, but I hope you will get an idea.

This is a tank I had originally planned on putting 6 zebra plecos (L46) in, but since I can' t find any right now, and have pretty much spend the money I had set aside on other fish related stuff, I have put 6 otocinclus in this tank, together with 10 hatchet tetras and 10 neon tetras. Not the most exotic stuff, but an nice peaceful yet active tank in my office. It seems that the otos can play all day in the currents created by the UGJ and power head



The tank, heater, stand and canopy are from Walmart. Filter is a 2nd hand Eheim 2217 from eBay, which powers a 6 jet UGJ system. I also have a AquaClear 301 powerhead in there for aeration (although in the pictures it might still be a Walmart powerhead, which I returned - louder, less powerfull, and more expensive than the AquaClear).

The background is made from slate, which I siliconed directly onto the back glass. The glass in the gaps between the slate is covered with silicone and black T-grade 3M Color Quartz, which I also used as substrate.



The UGJ system is made from 1/2" PVC piping from Home Depot. It is covered with silicone and Color Quartz, which nicely covers the pipe that goes up to the surface and is connected to the 2217 in rear, left-hand side corner. However, you can still see the outlets of the jets, and I think I will take them out and dye them with RIT dye once I get a chance - learned that trick too late



Decoration is bogwood and slate rock (same as for background). Some of the rocks are currently used to weigh down the wood, and will be removed once the wood soaks up some water and doesn't float as badly. Plants are all Java Fern (Windelov and regular). I have since added some Java Fern in the top, right-hand side corner.

Pictures with fish to come soon, including close-ups of otos to help ID species

Is that slate or flagstone? It looks more like black flagstone (a hard form of limestone) to me. If it is, your pH and hardness will obviously climb.

If it is flagstone, OK, so you keep Tanganyikan catfishes instead. That would be an excellent tank for Lophiobagrus spp. or Phyllonemus .

The tank looks fantastic though.

Well, I was calling it slate, because it's thin sheets of rock that could nicely be glued to the rear glass of the tank. I am no geologist and English is my second language, so I have never heard of flagstone, and you are probably right. It's pretty soft, and reminds me of sandstone - no sharp edges.

At any rate, it does not seem to affect my water parameters much - or it is overpowered by the wood. pH of my tap water is 8.6, and it sits at 7.4 in my tank, even after a fairly large water change I did after the cycle. GH of my tap water is 8. In my tank it rose up to 9 when I was cycling the tank - no water change in more than 4 weeks. It sits at 8 right now. While we are at it NH3 and NO2- are both at 0, NO3- is at 5. I am pretty happy with these parameters, especially since I don't have to add any chemicals to achieve them other than declorinator. I think it's more important to have consistency rather than trying to replicate the exact values from the fish's original biotope - or do you see a problem with the fish I am currently keeping?

BTW - I'll check out the Tang species you are recommending, because I am not familiar with them. I am just planning on a large Tang setup, mainly with cichlids though.

Frank

Some more pictures. The main difference between the two is that the first one is taken with a 50mm standard lens, and the second one with a 17mm ultra wide angle. The perspective given by the latter makes you feel like you are almost in the tank. My next step will be to use off camera flash - just got the required cable - which means you might actually be able to see fish in my pictures, not just colored streaks