what you think of a 29g Tall tank?

[Lunchbucket]

i have a 29gal tall tank at home that has a stand and all for it. just would have to make a hood w/ like 2x 36w PC's in it.

you think this would do ok as a mantis tank? wouldn't have to worry about the dsb taking up tank height. only bad thing would be gas exchange. i would have a HOT filter to house the heater and a prizm skimmer just to keep the water in check w/ the heavy poluting from feedings

suggestions? just thought about it since i had all the stuff laying around.

later
Lunchbucket

 

[orkspace]

I actually had a 29g with 2x36w PCs ... seems like it would be great as a mantis tank.

 

[Lunchbucket]

cool!!

i have:
tank (aga glass...this a problem??), stand (not pretty but it will do. i did that fake wood grain kit on some laminate particle board), ballast, endcaps, 36w 6500k, 36w actinic, www.purearagonite.com sand (like southdown...this bad?), soon to have a prism or a PM HOT-1 skimmer. thinking the prizm to take some of the nasty polutants out before they harm the water quality.

i will have to order:
a heater (ebo jagers rock!), an ac hot filter 300 prolly to house heater and for flow, need a power head???

will get a piece or 2 of LR and a plumbing fitting for it to hid in...what size pipe? 2"?

think i have most of this figured out but you see anything i am missin?

what about clean up crew? won't they be slain by the mantis?

if you could just help w/ a few minor details...that would be great

thanks
Lunchbucket

 

[orkspace]

I'm using a PM HOT-1 on my 29g (put it on the tank on the 24th). It seems to be doing extraordinarily well -- a huge improvement over the BakPak II that I had been using before. My 29g is an eel species tank however; you would probably do quite well with a Prizm or modified sea-clone. Also, the PM HOT-1 is quite tall (sticks up something like 6-8 inches over the back of my tank).

Algae-control is going to be an issue in your 29g. The mantis is going to chow down on a standard cleanup crew. And those 72 watts of PC lighting are going to really encourage the algae to grow. And if I remember correctly, your mantis will probably prefer a slightly dimmer tank.

If it were my tank, I would do three things to control the algae:

1) Reduce the lighting. I bought a simple AGA 20w normal output canopy and replaced the bulb with a 50/50 (Hagen PowerGlo). The dimmer light will (in theory) not provide as much fuel for the algae to use. The light should also be sufficient for shrooms. You'll probably also get some pretty nice dark purple coralline algae growth.

2) Fill the tank with caulerpa. I have a 6g eclipse with a G. platysoma on my desk in the office. I was having pretty nasty diatom algae outbreaks, which required me to clean the aquarium every other day or so. Not cool. Since I put a bunch of feather caulerpa in the tank (like 2 months ago), I haven't had to clean the acrylic at all. The water quality also seems to have improved.

3) Go with a nice DSB. While a mantis will certainly eat any snails or hermits, I don't think that they'll really dent "critter" population that makes a DSB work.

For a mantis-hiding place, maybe try a 12" or so length of 2" (inner diameter) black PVC. Another thing that might be need would be to make a cut-away mantis burrow with flexible tubing. Dr. Caldwell has posted instructions for these cut-away burrows in the mantis forum; search a little and you'll find 'em. I also don't think you'd need much live rock.

You might want to try a titanium WON heater from PA. None of my three shrimps has ever shown any interest in bashing the aquarium heater (although many do) ... I went with a Tronic heater with a black plastic guard. Never had any problems.

I would also add a powerhead or two for circulation.

Hope this helps!

 

[moviegeek]

Here's my $.02 worth:

Don't worry about having a glass tank.

The cut-away burrow idea is great. Next time I move my tank, I'm going to try this out. If you do it, please share pictures

If you decide to use PVC for a burrow, I can recommend the black 2" size. I've got a 10" length buried under my sand, connected to two 90 degree elbows up to the surface. It works great with a 5" mantis. I did this for two reasons:
1)So I can cap the burrow with the mantis inside while putting my hands in the tank for algae scraping and pruning (which you will need to weekly if you go with the PC lighting)
2)To see if a healthy live sand bed would develop. My mantis still digs in the sand, but infrequently. If you use a very fine grain sand for your bed, you really might want to try either a PVC or flexible tube burrow.

If you want to grow Caulerpa, one 20 watt light on a 29 gallon tank probably won't cut it. I had 2x28 watt PCs on my old 20 gallon tank, and I never noticed any timid behavior from the mantis due to bright lighting.

Sounds like you have taken the time to put together a successful setup. If you add the skimmer, use a deep sand bed, and have some macros growing, you shouldn't have too much of a nuisance algae problem on the glass. Keep us posted and take some pictures when you get the chance!