Setting up 29 Gal (1 Viewer)

[g3x5]

I am in the process of setting up a 29gal. ive been out of the hobby for two years but ive been reading up on the books i had and whatnot to refresh my memory.

anyways, my question is, do i need to buy an air pump and a little air stone to aerate my tank since the tank does not have an overflow for a sump? or will just having a maxijet pump point up to break the surface water do the trick?

 

[Scott]

do i need to buy an air pump and a little air stone to aerate my tank since the tank does not have an overflow for a sump? or will just having a maxijet pump point up to break the surface water do the trick?

That's gonna depend on how heavily stocked your tank is. You can get away with moderate surface agitation but the more critters you have the more O2 you're going to have to put in the water. What do you plan on stocking it with?

 

[g3x5]

I planned on doing maybe two clowns, bicolor blenny, a goby coupled with a shrimp and maybe another small fish. No corals just live rock.

If that's too many fish should I get one of those clear tube stacks and stick the airstone in it to keep the microbubbles from
Going everywhere?

 

[mario8402]

you dont need bubbles, but you need surface movement..
I had a penguin 350 for filtration, an aquac remora skimmer,and 2 koralia power heads in my 29 and it was doing great when I upgraded.
Here is a pic of mine from 9-3-07

 

[Scott]

The Penguin filter was creating enough agitation that you didn't need bubbles.

g3x5 - What do you plan to use for filtration? That could be the key to your answer.

 

[g3x5]

i have an emperor 400 that im gonna fill with rubble. and use LR as my main source of filtration

 

[Scott]

The spray bar onto the biowheel should provide enough O2 exchange just keep an eye on your fish for a bit and you should be fine.

 

[mario8402]

air bubbles cause exessive evaporation in my experience and really cause a mess in terms of salt creep and getting all over your lights

 

[Scott]

air bubbles cause exessive evaporation in my experience and really cause a mess in terms of salt creep and getting all over your lights

Agreed, but if you're using a canister filter they are a necessary evil. That's why I asked about his filtration plans. I think he'll be fine.

 

[g3x5]

im not gonna use the biowheels on the filter so i think the jets splashing back on the water will do the trick.

I have another question. me and my gf work odd hours from 12-8pm. so we always leave our a/c off in the house to keep electric bill low. but the apartment does hit 86+ during the day which i dunno if that would cause a problem for the tank. i do might have a solution to keep the water in the 70s if you guys think it might work.

I have a water cooler right next to the tank that i can run 10-15 feet of tubing inside the 40*F water chamber, run water through the tubing with a maxijet or something and back to the tank. you guys think that might work? i know its probably going to make my water cooler work a little more but that shouldnt be a problem.

 

[mario8402]

I used to keep my apt at 73 degrees in the summer when I had my 29gal.. temp swings were alot more frequent when I had that small tank. I think it would get too hot if you left the ac completely off depending on your lights and equipment.... also, you might cool the water through that water cooler, but if its constantly running then its going to put out more heat.. more heat is more heat in your apt with no AC which means the amb temps are going to go up so it would almost negate itself imp... youre better off leaving your ac on imo or use a fan to evap cool which the ac is off, but you will be topping off alot.

 

[Scott]

+1

I don't think it's a good idea to leave the AC off with a tank in the house but you can try running a fan across it.

 

[g3x5]

i dont really have much of a choise on the a/c, if it stays on even at 80* i get a $300 electric bill.

i think im gonna try the watercooler thing see if that works.

 

[mario8402]

look for a different provider?
sorry bro, just trying to help out.. I dont think you will be happy with the heat that the cooler is going to put out , plus whatever lights you are going to run.. if you are already at 86 degrees with no tank, chances are you're going to break 90 with all that equipment running and be humid as hell to boot..

 

[g3x5]

yea i guess you are right, didnt think of it that way..

i did switch provider to champion energy as thats the cheapest rates i found at $.13/kwh i was paying almost $.17 a month ago. sucks though cause i just moved here from Tulsa, OK and i was paying $.06/kwh there.