Reestablishing my 29G tank. Need suggestions

[Auburn RSX-S]

Hey guys. I'm new here. Back about 4 or 5 years ago I got a 29g tank and setup a decent freshwater tank with it and raised about 3 fri of convict ciclids. It was all fine and dandy and then I moved and decided I wanted a reef tank so I did that for the last 3 years and just now moved again. Unable to dedicate enough time/money into the system to keep it going like I wanted it to, I donated everything in the tank to our church's 250g tank and have decided to go back to fresh water for a while.

Anyways, I've kept my Aqua C remora protein skimmer in case I decide to setup another reef tank in the future as well as all the lighting and my refugeum and power heads.

At the moment, for lighting, I've got 2 VHO 75watt super actinics and 2 55 watt power compact 10K daylight bulbs. Is this too much light for a freshwater tank or will it matter? I can disconnect one of each bulb if needed. I don't know whether I want to have real or fake plants at the moment. Woudl that be too much light for real plants?

Also, there's no substrate or rocks or anything in it right now. It's just an empty tank. In the past I used the gravel from walmart's fish section and didn't have any problems with it. I was thumbing through my Dr. Fosters and Smith catalogue and noticed a few different types of gravel substrate for fresh water tanks.

Here's the page I was looking at.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/NavResults.cfm?ref=3532&subref=AT&N=2004+113555

The flourite says it's the best reccomened but the natural gravel pebbles look better and are cheaper. I was curious if there was an all around good generic substrate of choice? Or does it really not matter? I have no idea what type fish I'll have. Mabey some ciclids again or whatever else petco sells. Nothing too fancy. How much is recomended for a 29 gallon tank. It's not the long short 29g. It's the one that's about 30 inches across and 2 feet tall and about a foot and a half in depth. Someone said it was a pound of gravel/substrate per gallon of water the tank can hold total.

Also, regarding filtration, woudl I be able to use my protein skimmer for filtration or do i need to go pickup a hang on back style filter? If I need a new one, what's a popular model that isn't too expensive? I used to have a penguin 150 but sold it when I went to salt. Should I just get another one of those? Or is there something better for my tank for $30 or less? Are the under gravel filters that great?

Last question, would my tank benefit from putting the powerheads in there? They're both maxijet 1200's. Or does freshwater plants not need the extra current that corals require?

Thanks for any help, answers and suggestions!

 

[Jericho]

I would only use the PC lights, and that would be a lot of light for the tank but not a bad thing expecially if you have live plants. You just need to get fish that are not afraid of light.

As for gravel if you do fake plants it does not matter what it is as long as it is fish safe. So go for the look you want, if you do live plants take a look in the live plant area and see what they recomend for planting your tanks. As for how much to add, if you are not doing a UGF (under ground filter) then just put about an inch or so of gravel, or enough to hold the plants down. I would not do the pund of gravel to gallon, I would say that is like an inch of fish per gallon. It would be way to easy if it were ture and it can get you introuble if you try to reduce your tank to exact numbers like that.

As for filters I would personaly satay away from a UGF. I have had them explode on me and kill off the tank. They work great for a while but they are a time bomb, some never go off but when they do it is bad. I am not that familiar with a skimmer but if it filters the water and had some sort of media that will grow your benificial bacteria then it should work. But I am sure that somebody with more knowledge wil correct this.

 

[reiverix]

At the moment, for lighting, I've got 2 VHO 75watt super actinics and 2 55 watt power compact 10K daylight bulbs. Is this too much light for a freshwater tank or will it matter? I can disconnect one of each bulb if needed. I don't know whether I want to have real or fake plants at the moment. Woudl that be too much light for real plants?

The actinics won't do much for the plants so might as well take them out of the picture for now. The 10k bulbs will do fine for plants and that would give you ~3.7wpg. It's not too much light for plants by a long shot (think about the sun) but it is getting into the higher range used by most people. Before using that amount of light I'd seriously read as much as you can in the plant forum about lighting, ferts and CO2. Just remember that the more light you put in the tank, the more nutrient uptake there is.

The flourite says it's the best reccomened but the natural gravel pebbles look better and are cheaper. I was curious if there was an all around good generic substrate of choice? Or does it really not matter?

I would recommend a good substrate for plants such as flourite, eco-complete or onyx sand. You can do a mix with plain gravel to save some cash. That said, there's more than a few people who keep stunning tanks in plain gravel or sand.

Also, regarding filtration, woudl I be able to use my protein skimmer for filtration or do i need to go pickup a hang on back style filter? If I need a new one, what's a popular model that isn't too expensive? I used to have a penguin 150 but sold it when I went to salt. Should I just get another one of those? Or is there something better for my tank for $30 or less? Are the under gravel filters that great?

Keep your skimmer packed in the basement. It won't be of any use in freshwater. As for filters, it depends on what kind you are looking for. Cannisters and HOBS are popular. I prefer cannisters in planted tanks. Eheim, Rena and Fluval seem to be the most common. Under gravel filters are always a hot topic. People love them or hate them. I've never used one so I can't comment on that, but some pretty knowledgable people on this forum use them so that counts in their favor IMHO.

Last question, would my tank benefit from putting the powerheads in there? They're both maxijet 1200's. Or does freshwater plants not need the extra current that corals require?

I use powerheads in a few planted tanks. Some plants, like bolbitis, grows great for me right in front of a powerhead. I've been trying ammania lately and found that the best growth is in calmer water. I suppose it depends on the plant type.

 

[Auburn RSX-S]

thanks for the replies guys/gals. I might keep one of the actinics in there because of the extra color it brings out (just depends on if it looks good enough or not). Looks like I'll just use the pebbles for now and mabey a bag of the flourite in the future if I do live plants. And from a price stand point, another penguin 150 looks like it'll be going back on.