# ADA mini-m new style iwagumi



## IwannaGoFast (Jan 11, 2011)

Hello Everyone!

I'm new to this forum but I think I'll be staying over here. I frequent the other forum, but this one seems a lot more focused on aquascaping, something I'm very interested in. Anyhow, this is my hello and here is the most recent tank I've set up.

I decided to go ahead and buy an ADA tank before the price increase happens. After much pleading with the girlfriend, selling 2 existing tanks and a nice steak dinner, I went and bought a mini-m from Aqua Forest in SF.

Sorry, no equipment spread picture, my GF will kill me again if she sees how much stuff I bought haha

ADA mini-m
archaea 27w clip on lamp
paintball co2
archaea super co2 diffuser small
zoomed 501 canister with aquatic magic 10mm glass pipes
I plan to hook my 2232 ecco to the tank so I can use an inline heater.

Plants: Eleocharis sp. Belem
Staurogyne sp. 049
Limnophila sp. vietnam

Fish: undecided on fish, open to suggestions, would need some that are ok in colder temps since I may not have a heater
shrimp: Super Red cherries. Would love to keep CRS, but no no with the seiryu 

Enough chit chat, time for pics. Pics are with my iphone, so not the best. I need to get a better camera...

I spent a lot of time figuring out a hardscape and I finally found one I liked









Then I realized I didn't have enough space in the tank itself (should've gotten an mini-L) so I redid the scape









I had grown out the belem hair grass in another tank before buying my mini-m. Since it took over 3 months to get a thick carpet, I didn't want to have to wait for it again, so I transplanted the grass from one tank to the other. I cut it into pieces, like a brownie, laid it on top of the new aquasoil and kinda pressed it down a little. Seems to have worked out so far and I'm seeing new growth already.









I also reversed the clips for the light so that I can adjust it without sticking my hands in the water









I'm trying out the new iwagumi style where there is a small bush of stem plants in the front and the rocks more towards the background. It's supposed to represent a forest in the foreground with mountains in the back. 









After a couple of days, I decided the scape could use some work, so I redid it. I added more AS to the slope so I could put the outer most rocks higher up.









The tank is currently cycling right now, and I'll be adding fish pretty soon.

Thanks for looking! I'd love some critique and comments so that I can improve as an aquascaper and hopefully one day be able to enter something into one of the competitions.


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## Jeffww (May 25, 2010)

I think you have too many plants or rather the staurogyne isn't going to have much place to go. Additionally the stem plant should be in the back instead of the front if it should be there at all. Otherwise nice start. Adore your rocks and grass...mine is still shedding its emersed leaves.


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## TLe041 (Mar 20, 2010)

Having never previously heard of this "new iwagumi style", I'm not a fan of the stem plant being in the foreground. It's too distracting. And it'll block everything when it grows to its full size.

Also, you should consider staggering the location of the stones rather than just line them up in a straight line along the back. It'll look much more natural this way.


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## DarioDario (Nov 14, 2008)

Tip: find another iwagumi setup and try to replicate the position of the rocks or even better find a photo of a mountain scape and recreate it. I look forward to the progress of your scape


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## IwannaGoFast (Jan 11, 2011)

Here are the new iwagumi style layouts that gave me the inspiration for this aquascape. At first it was strange to me too but it grew on me. Sorry, I don't have a scanner and couldn't find these pictures online so I took a pic w/ my camera, but you should still get the general idea



















The description in the book of ada goes:
"In this iwagumi layout, we challenged to make a new way of expressing perspective. In the past, there were many Iwagumi layouts, expressing a mountain range in the far distance. The decisive difference of this aquarium layout is the arrangement of large-leaf stemmed plants in the foreground. Describing objective in the near larger, and the one in the far distance smaller is the basic technique of expressing persepective in paiting. Here we make a thicket of plants in the foreground, and the mountain range in the far distance by Ryouh Stone, and expressed a natural perspective"


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## TLe041 (Mar 20, 2010)

The reason that layout works is because the tank is probably a 120P or larger while yours is only a nano. The stem plants are suitable in scale in that tank but looks out of place in yours.


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## GitMoe (Oct 10, 2010)

That new style is kind of a Dutch/Iwagumi hybrid. I agree the scale of your plants are off. Honestly a ball of moss (maybe Fire or Spiky) might give you a better forest foreground to scale in the smaller tank. But honestly its your tank and do whatever you like. You're the one who has to see it everyday... lol.


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## IwannaGoFast (Jan 11, 2011)

Yes, I agree it is a very forced perspective and may not be for everyone but hopefully when it fills in you can get more of a feel for it. The Stems in the first layout I posted (the one with the cardinals) have extremely large leaves compared to the tank itself. Which is why I chose the limnophilia is because it is a smaller stem plant, with smaller leaves. And hopefully it'll fit in better with the smaller scaled tank. What I like about this stem in particular is that it actually used as a carpet plant in some other tanks.


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## IwannaGoFast (Jan 11, 2011)

Anyhow, here's a small update.

I trimmed and replanted the limnophilia so it looks a little more bushy. The lower leaves are dying off but the new growth is super green, good contrast to the darker hair grass.

My staurogyne tropica sp 049 isn't doing too well. I grew it emmersed so the old leaves are dying away.

And yes, I need to clean my lily pipes










Top down view to show the rock layout


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## doubleott05 (Jul 20, 2005)

they refer to this type of scaping as the new "perspective type" of view or scape.


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## IwannaGoFast (Jan 11, 2011)

update:
Added a mini branch of driftwood w/ some fissidens attached to complete the forest look









close up of the fissidens









This tank is going to be co2-less for a while. I sold my paintball regulator to someone, so I gotta wait until I get some parts to hook up my old azoo regulator.

In the mean time, I had to cut my lighting, and since I had the light lifted as high as it could go already, I had to add some window netting to block the light. From what I'm told, this cuts the light by 30%


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## IwannaGoFast (Jan 11, 2011)

Alrite, so update on this tank.

I switched the light to LEDs, 4 cool white xp-g and 2 royal blue xp-e LEDs ran at 350ma using 2 rapidled moonlight constant current drivers. It gives me a nice color, around 10000k, I found just the cool whites to be still too yellow for my tastes.



















Here is the shot I sent into IAPLC, i placed like, 1300th. A little disappointing but I wasn't expecting anything so its cool to know how I stack up compared to the rest of the world. I'm going to let the tank grow in a little more and resubmit to AGA









Thanks for looking!


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## JustLikeAPill (Oct 9, 2006)

Yeah, I don't think the perspective style is suited for nano tanks, but as long as you weren't last then it's all good! Keep up the good work!


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## tokyo (Apr 23, 2010)

I'm not an experienced aquascaper, but here's my $0.02

I don't think there is anything wrong with the scale of your stem plant's leaves. But I feel it should be shorter and bushier. Short enough to see your "mountain range behind them.

For me, what throws of the scale is your hairgrass. It is too tall for the perspective you are trying to create. I think something smaller and more uniform like HC would have been a better choice.

Right now it appears more like the start of a "jungle scape" than an iwagumi. But if you switched out the carpet it would really accentuate your hardscape and present an appropriate perspective.

Just my 2cents. Take it with a grain of salt.


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## IwannaGoFast (Jan 11, 2011)

Thats an interesting idea tokyo. I've been wanting to do HC again for a while... maybe it's time for a rescape. probably after the AGA contest though, I want to see how it does in it's current state.


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