29 Gallon Planted Tank Journal

[neontetraking]

Hi all, I've been away at boarding school for the last year, and I came home to a tank looking pretty rough. When I left, it was stocked with a school of bronze Corydoras, a couple Bristlenose Plecos, and a ton of miscelaneous guppies. It was sporadically maintained by my parents and siblings, but somehow when I came back, there were only two of the cories and the bristlenose plecos left. Most of the plants also died, sadly. When I got home, I got to work cleaning it and taking inventory of what was left. I got some more stem plants and an Amazon Sword, but it still looks pretty empty in terms of plants, which is why I am going to order more.
Also, I am going to wait to get more fish until late July or Early August, as I am going to be in and out of town frequently until then. I am just going to let the plants grow while I am gone.

(Ignore the floating stem plants, they were dug up by the cories and I replanted them right after this photo.)

 

[neontetraking]

I did a bit of a re-scape with the rocks in the tank, and then my Buceplant order arrived. I ended up with some water lettuce, jungle vals, wisteria, and another Amazon sword. Here is a picture of the tank as it looks now:

The Valisneria is a bit brown and wilted, but I'm hoping that now that it is planted, it will green up a bit and start growing.
I am going to let the plants grow for the next three or four weeks and then stock it with fish.
I might put some shrimp in in the meantime but not sure about that yet.

Preliminary stocking could include:
10-12 Bronze Cories (Already have 2)
Pair of Honey Gouramis
5-6 Otocinclus
Some sort of Neocardinia Shrimp
Either a pair of guppies to try to breed or a school of some sort of tetras

I am open to opinions and ideas on stocking though
not set on any of the above fish yet