# Blyxa Iwagumi-esque in a ADA 45cm: From Start to Finish



## iointerrupt (Feb 16, 2007)

I've always like journals, right up until the last post which leaves you hanging, wondering how the tank turned out. So for mine, I decided to save up all the pictures from start to finish, and publish it all once. So here we go:

*Week 0: In The Beginning...*
2007-05-24








Sometime around May I decided I wanted to setup an Iwagumi-like tank. I had originally been thinking about getting an ADA Mini L (~7 gallons), but when I saw that ADG had received 45cm tanks in, I jumped on the chance and went for that. The 45cm has basically the exact same dimensions as a standard US 10 gallon tank, which gives you more options when buying properly sized equipment for it.








For the substrate, I went with a thin layer of peat, followed by 2-3 inches of Flourite, all capped with about an inch of black sand. I spent an afternoon collecting the hardscape stones from the local creek, and spent another two evenings playing with various layouts until I settled on this one.

One goal for this tank was that it be viewable from both the front and right sides (due to its placement in the room), thus the 'L' shaped foreground area.








For the foreground, I decided I didn't have the patience for slower growing HC, and went with _Glossostigma elantinoides_. The center area is all _Blyxa japonica_, as I've always liked it and wanted to give it a shot. The back left corner is _Eleocharis parvula_, which I was hoping would grow tall enough to hide some of the equipment.

My first shipment of Blyxa had melted into unrecognizable goo, and the glosso was in poor shape too. I planted the glosso, and then ordered replacement Bylxa before planting that.

Here we can also see the light fixture, a Current-USA NovaExtreme X2. The 20" version only comes in a saltwater configuration, with a 20watt 10K T5HO and actinic bulb. I swapped out the actinic for a 10watt 10K T5NO (couldn't find 20" T5HOs anywhere), which gave me a total of 30watts, 3 watts per gallon. Lighting period was set for 10 hours.








Finally setup and running, no filter yet, but a powerhead with a sponge from another tank on it making due. Also threw in some fast growing hornwort for nutrient sponging while the tank broke in. Livestock at this point is about a dozen little _Trigonostigma espei_.

It may not look pretty, but I was glad to have the tank up and running finally.

*Week 1: The Die Off*
2007-06-01








One week later, and my fears about not being able to grow glosso are coming true. At this point I ordered 2 more pots of glosso, hoping the die off was just due to the damage from the first shipment (it was). The Blyxa and hair grass have been holding steady, shedding old growth but not yet putting on any new growth. I added about a dozen _Caridina Japonica_ (Amano shrimp) and three _Otocinclus affinis_ for algae patrol.

On the left of this picture, we see the beginning of Flourite creeping up to the surface of the sand. I fought this for awhile, trying to keep the sand clear, but every day more and more would show up on top (I blame the shrimps).

The equipment got upgraded to a ZooMed 501 filter (not much flow, but good media capacity), and a Rhinox 2000 CO2 diffuser (slightly too big for a 10 gallon tank). The CO2 is pressurized, set at around one bubble every two seconds.

*Week 6: The Come Back*
2007-07-03








And just a month later, suddenly the tank looks like I had imagined it (despite the bad picture). The replacement glosso took hold and made a wonderful carpet, solving my problem of Flourite coming to the surface of the sand.

The Blyxa finally finished adapting to my not-soft-at-all water and began growing. The hair grass also settled down and started to spread, although not putting on much vertical height like I wanted.

Fertilzer dosing for the tank is a slightly modified Estimative Index. I do a 50% water change once a week, followed by a single dosing of PO4. I then dose the other macros two days a week, and micros another two days a week. Just a little bit leaner then full EI. The only algae is a bit of green dust algae on the lower regions of the glass, which I've never been able to beat, but which stays in check with the occasional cleaning.

*Week 7: The Early Finish*
2007-07-12








I believe at this point in week seven, the tank was in it's finest hour, except I didn't know it at the time. The glosso had filled in just the right amount, the Bylxa was at just the right size and color, and the hair grass was the best it was ever going to get. Had I known, I would have taken more then just this picture. I suppose it is one of those things, you don't know what you are looking for until you've gone right by it, then you can easily look back and go "oh, it was back there".

*Week 9: In The End...*
2007-07-29








Which brings us up to now, when I finally got around to taking some real pictures of the tank with the equipment removed. I'm two weeks late though, as the Blyxa has now started to get too big, and the glosso has become all consuming. But better late then never.








Although I'm not a big fan of the _Lamb Chop Rasbora_, they do school well, even more so when scared.








About halfway through completion, the tank had to be moved to make room for an ADA 60-P , which made it much more difficult to view right hand side (the sacrifices I have to make!). Which is unfortunate, as I believe it turned out to be the best angle.








With the final photo shoot wrapped up, I still can't decide if it is a true Iwagumi layout of not. Either way, I'm more then pleased with the result.

Now I can start looking ahead to future options for the tank. Ripping out the hair grass and planting in a taller variant might be nice. I believe I can get the Blyxa back in check with a big pruning and replanting. But how to stop the rampaging glosso, I simply do not know.

So maybe it is time to start thinking about a winter aquascape, with some of that nice slow growing HC....


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

That's a really great tank and a good journal too. Like you said you need a taller plant in the back, maybe Eleocharis vivipara if you want to stay with the hairgrass option! I think you can keep the Glosso neater by giving it a really good trim back to near the substrate, but I'm sure someone who's grown it better than me can give you better advice on that.
Please post more pictures when you get it moved and altered.


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## vicpinto (Mar 27, 2007)

What happened to weeks 2 through 5?


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## gf225 (Mar 26, 2005)

Sweet 'scape and sweet journal. Thanks for sharing.


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## hedson_25 (Sep 20, 2005)

nice it seemed fisrt that the rock in front would block the view but it didn't greate job


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## iointerrupt (Feb 16, 2007)

Thanks everyone.

Trimming the glosso down to the substrate sounds like it would work, although I think I'd need some type of miniature lawn mower to do it. Maybe just the smallest scissors I can find.

I checked through my picture archives for anything from weeks 2 through 5, but there was nothing. Normally I only take pictures when the I'm happy with things, and weeks 2 through 5 I was probably quite unhappy while waiting for the plants to settle in.

The hardscape certainly did turn out differently then I had imagined. I had planned them to be bolder elements like in the early pictures, and was worried that black stones on top of black sand would be too much black. But all that thinking was wrong in the end.


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## Chrom0zone (Jun 4, 2006)

Very nice. Thank you for sharing, great pics.

My 2cents; I would have made a sloping grade front to back to give it more depth.


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## Squawkbert (Jan 3, 2007)

^ agreed on both comments - baseline level shot makes me think "Wabi-gami"


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## dirrtybirdy (May 22, 2007)

Chrom0zone said:


> Very nice. Thank you for sharing, great pics.
> 
> My 2cents; I would have made a sloping grade front to back to give it more depth.


I agree with chrom0. regardless your tank is very nice


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## Leonard (Mar 4, 2007)

Nice!
As you said the Glosso and Blyxa was too untrimmed. I belive it would be better with more surface circulation in the tank, it would look more fresh! Then It's also important that you don't cut away the surface in the tank in the images. I was a little bit of frustrated while looking at your nice tank, when you had missed some important details 

In total a very nice Iwagumi!


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## Erirku (Oct 5, 2004)

What are your tank spec's? Thanks


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## rs79 (Dec 7, 2004)

How did you train all the fish to point in one direction in the photo in week 9?

Good trick.


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## Anti-Pjerrot (Mar 12, 2006)

> How did you train all the fish to point in one direction in the photo in week 9?


Theres one that don't


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## Leonard (Mar 4, 2007)

you say: "Ohh, watch there is an elephant!!" then al the fishes turn around at the same direction


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## iointerrupt (Feb 16, 2007)

The tank certainly does lack depth, something I'm not very good at. If you look at the substrate setup picture, you can see I did in fact slope it a bit, but not nearly enough to work. If I added more gravel to the back, I'd start to worry about substrate depth. Would 5 inches of Flourite cause problems?

I would have liked to had more surface movement in the final picture, but didn't really have the tools to do it. Next time I'll try to get something setup for that.

All the tank specs I interwove through the original post, as I thought it would make them more interesting to read as part of a narrative, rather then all grouped together in one big clump at the top. But for those in a hurry: 10 US gallons, 30 watts of T5HO lighting, Flourite & sand substrate, Pressurized CO2 @ .5 bubbles per second, and EI-like fertilizer dosing.

For choreographing the fish, the Elephant trick really does sum it up. Right before taking the picture, I'd wave my hand by the side of the tank, and the fishes would all school up for protection. But they would only stay together for a few brief seconds before breaking apart, so I have to snap the picture pretty fast.

And for the ones that refuse to go with the pack, you just threaten them with erasure in Photoshop. That'll get them back in line.


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## iointerrupt (Feb 16, 2007)

*Week 14*
2007-09-05

Despite my best diplomatic efforts and pruning operations, the glosso contiuned it's land grab. Having completely conquered the hardscape, it turned it attention skyward and began growing straight up.

​
Having failed at appeasement, I decided my only option left was to go nuclear. Twenty minutes later it was all gone. Two hours after that, 1/100th of the original amount was repopulated. I'll have to live with the fallout, but I'm sure in a month it'll be back to it's old appearance again. Been looking for Eleocharis vivipara to replace the Eleocharis parvula, but haven't found it anywhere yet.

​


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## Chuppy (Aug 5, 2007)

Great looking journal/tank... Yeap that's a BIIIIIG nuclear lol


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## chadly (Dec 19, 2005)

Looks good! very simple. I like blyxa myself. The glosso was a little out of control, kinda took the rocks out of the mix completely.


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

Throughout the tanks life, did you ever trim the glosso back by cutting or did you just do the one nuclear event LOL?


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## Lady Elizabeth (Oct 28, 2004)

very cute tank... good job... but where did all the glosso go?


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## iointerrupt (Feb 16, 2007)

When it was still growing in, I would trim the glosso to keep it's shape nice and flat. Clipping off anything that started to grow upward, or that was crowding excessively.

Once it got up to the level of the rocks, I performed two or three complete mowings of it, to try and keep it low. But then it got so thick the bottom leaves died off, and I was worried that if I mowed the top off, I'd have a rather ugly patch of glosso left over. So then I just let it go.

I planted three vertical stands of it in my cichlid tank, just to see how it would do. The remainder of it is a softball sized ball floating in my outdoor tank, for which I have no plans for.


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## iointerrupt (Feb 16, 2007)

*Week 37*(I think)
2008-02-08

It isn't exactly an Iwagumi anymore, and the Blyxa has gone into hiding, the shrimps have been moved to a different tank, but since I didn't touch the hardscape I still consider it the same setup:

​
Took a bit longer for things to grow back in to where I was happy with them. After pruning out the Glosso the Blyxa decided to die back. There is some left but the hair grass is overwhelming it now. I also decided to finally do something about the lack of height and grew out a nice patch of Rotala rotundifolia in the back.

​
I finally learned how to hold the glosso in place with a combination of selectively pruning out of place runners and periodically just shearing the whole top off the thing like it was a hedgerow. Previously I worried this would result in ugly glosso, but it does not, and it grows back fast anyway.

That said, it still overwhelms my original hardscape, which results in a rather visually boring layout (atleast to me).

Time flys though, as I had alluded to in my original posts, I had only really planned to keep this tank setup for maybe three months. It has been over nine months now, and I'm ready to try a driftwood layout in it. The AquaSoil is sitting waiting to go, just needed to take this, the final picture:


(For the curious, I did a quick Photoshop job on this last picture to give it a nice background matte).​


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## Tankman (Feb 19, 2006)

SWEET MAN... i like the background very much!


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