http://forum.aqua-fish.net/ A forum devoted to aquarium fish, plants, techniques and fish keeping as a whole. en http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=cal-hinders-a-new-member-29-gallon-tropical-brackish-community-tank#1 Hello everyone here @ aquq-fish. I have been a fish enthusiast for over 15 years. I have had many fresh, as well as salt water tanks over the years. I shut down 2 micro-reefs, and a 55 gallon river tank to move to Florida. I now how a 29 gallon freshwater project, complete with pictures and video online. I see that there is some sort of photo contest here so I would like to throw my hat into the ring. My current project is a 29 Gallon Tropical Brackish Community Tank. It is now fully stocked and planted. I have used reef lighting for the tank, to dramatically encourage the growth of the plants, as well as enhance the color of the fish. Due to this extremely bright lighting, I had to built a custom hood/lighting assembly for the tank. I used cured maple, but painted it black to match the furniture that it is sitting on. I will post some pictures of the hood soon on my website. It has two filters, and one of which has a bio-wheel. It is heated to 79-80 F. and the lights are on a timer for 10 hours a day. There is also a small moonlight in the center of the tank that is on 24 hours. The ph stays around 7.8 but I don’t really have to even worry about it. I keep the tank brackish, and do 20% water changes every two weeks, and change 1 of the 2 carbon filters at the same time. It is nice to have new carbon every couple of weeks. It is made up of mostly tetras. There are roughly two of each type. For instance there are two red fin tetras, 2 black striped, 2 orange, 5 neon’s, 3 cardinal neon’s, and three coreys, 2 plecos, and a few loaches. Of course I haven’t yet mentioned the host of ghost shrimp, (who were supposed to be food, but instead made themselves at home) and an algea shrimp or two, plus of course the multitude of snails that inevatibly come in every single moss ball EVER purchased. Then there are the fish that I forget the names of. Maybe you can help. On my website, http://www.calhinderscreations.com/10.html I have pictures of my fish. There is a group of 5 very small colorful fish that swim at the service. I was told that they would breed with female goupies by the shop owner. There is also the new loach I believe, that eats snails. He is black and white in color. I also have a black and white pleco that I can’t remember the name of. I was told he is pretty rare in the community. He also likes to come out more at night. I will get a good picture of him online ASAP. I also have about 15 1 min videos of the tank, around feeding time mostly. I am still working out the coding on my site to be able to upload videos, but I posted 4 one minute videos on youtube in the meantime. I posted some video of these mysterious fish (I captured it with my digital camera) on YouTube under Cal Hinders. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_KEnL3SCsY original post: February 21, 2008, 2:15 am CalHinders 2008-05-04 http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=cal-hinders-a-new-member-29-gallon-tropical-brackish-community-tank#2 Welcome here and await a message from me in a next few minutes . It’s cool to have someone like you here!!! jan 2008-05-04