Well I figured I should start a thread for my 29gal that I am setting up now. Here's a few pics starting out...

This is the tank as I got it used and free.


Here's a pic showing it cleaned up a bit. I vacuumed the old gravel out, wiped it down and did some scraping with a razor blade. There's still a few stubborn areas which I will get the vinegar out for.


Here's some of the equipment and decor I bought for it. The big piece of driftwood may be getting swapped out for a smaller piece currently in my 75gal.


That's it for now. I'll be updating as i go along.

Wow thats cool.

Tank looks good so far and a good choice in equipment for it.

OH to keep the sand from clouding up your water take a solo cup fill it with the rinsed sand, submerge the cut in the tank water and dump the sand 4-5 inches from the bottom of the tank.

Thanks for the comments guys.

So today I added the Tahitian Moon Sand to the tank.



I poured it all into a 5gal bucket and filled it to overflowing with water. You can see the silt and fine particulates came to the surface and washed over the edge of the bucket.



Then I would dump out the cloudy water and stir up the sand a little with my hand to make sure I got all the fine sand out. I had to repeat this several times until the water ran clear.



Once I was done rinsing the sand I added it to the tank. The plate is in there so when I add the water it won't stir up the sand too much. Then I added water and the heater in there. For now I'm going to use a visitherm stealth 250watt heater because my basement gets cold in the winter.



The next step will be the filter setup and starting the fishless cycle. More updates to come.

Nice, and I see you got the azoo pump and surge protector mounted as well!

Surge protector yes...The azoo is for the 20L next to it out of the pic

I finished up late last night by setting up the Emperor 280 HOB filter and getting it running. I always cut a slit in the bottom of the supplied filter cartridge and remove the carbon. It isn't really necessary for everyday use and if I want to add it later to remove something from the water, I can.

I also added a 2x 24 watt T5 fixture.



Then I started the fishless cycle by adding ammonia to the tank. I used some plain old ammonia from WalMart. Be sure whatever ammonia you buy doesn't contain any surfactants, soaps, coloring or scents. You can see the ingredients listed in the picture below. If it contains anything other than these ingredients it's probably not safe for use in your tank.




I usually add a cap full of ammonia (2qt bottle) at a time until I reach between 3 & 5 ppm. Add a cap full then test...repeat until you reach approximately 5ppm.

That's it for now.

So I got some more setup done on the tank tonight. I boiled up some mopani driftwood on the stove to kill off anything that may be on the wood and also to remove some of the tannins before it went into the tank. Here's a pic of before...



and after...



I added one new piece of driftwood and I also added a piece of driftwood from one of my established tanks and a couple of rocks from the established tank as well.



It didn't look too great so I divided a couple of anubias plants from another tank and tied them to the new piece of driftwood.



I will be adding more plants eventually and painting the background (black I think) so the fish don't have to look at the wood paneling...lol. But for now I'm just waiting for the cycle to complete. Oh yeah...I also added some established filter media to the filter on this tank to hopefully speed up the cycle.

Wow nice! It will look more nice with fish!

That is looking so nice. You are doing an awesome job. It looks real natural. Sand is sweet too. Can't wait to see it occupied!

I see that rinsing the sand in the bucket worked for you as well. I'm loving the looks of the tank!!!

Thanks everyone for the nice comments!! The rinsing of the sand in the bucket did work out well...except my wife wanted to kill me because of the black residue it left in the tub...lol. I got to clean the tub afterwords.

Forgive me if this is getting boring at all but I thought it would be a good reference for a newb or someone not so familiar with tank setup and fishless cycling. That's why I'm talking about each step along the way.

So yesterday morning my water parameters were:
Ammonia: 5ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: 2.5ppm +/-

This morning's tests:
Ammonia: 2ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: 5ppm

So my bacteria are working their magic. I added a bit more ammonia this morning to bring the level of ammonia back up to around 3-4ppm. This tank should be ready for fish very soon.

Very nice.....SWEET!