# 60g Journal (First attempt at Iwagumi:Early stages)



## slickwillislim

I am somewhat of a beginner in aquascaping. I have read about the golden rule focal points and any other aquascaping material I could get my hands on. This will be the first tank I started from scratch for an aquascape.

I have only had one tank and It is doing pretty well so I decided to take on a new tank and try to do as many things right from the start as possible. To do this I knew I would have to do a lot of research and be patient so I could get enough money to buy it all. It has taken me about 6 and half months just to get to this point. I had to rely on Christmas and birthday funds to get what I have, along with my monthly allowance. Currently All I have left to purchase is plants, fish, substrate, and a co2 tank. The last two I just have to be patient since I think I know kind of what I am getting. I started this thread just incase I wanted to enter the APC contest and a journal helps your score. I also started this journal so I could receive advice from all of the more experienced members of APC&#8230;

This is my 60g aquarium just set up. I bought it back in January but due to school and my budget I have been buying items for it. I started off with buying a 60g from my lfs. I only later realized that a huge glass brace in the center of the tank wasn't normal but I guess I can deal with it.

I also bought a stand built for it because it was on sale and I didn't know if I could find a stand that fit a 60g. Also my parents didn't want something that looked crappy (me DIY) so they helped pay for that. I also bought the 40w fluorescent light they sold with a glass lid for an extra $10 how can you say no to that. I also bought an xp2 for 69.99, which was pretty good since the store I bought it form usually has the xp2 for over 100. I decided to use it on my 29 and wait to get a stronger filter for the 60g.

Here is the plan for this tank:

Lighting: 4x54w Tek fixture with 4 GE starcoats. I also bought a Coralife digital timer/power strip to control it.



Filtration: Eheim 2217


Heater: Eth inline 300w heater

Tank: 60g I don't think it's a brand name, I think it's locally produced

Co2:I have a regulator and needle valve that was given to me by a fellow member of SCAPE. I am still deciding what size tank to buy. A 5, 10, or 20.

Feeder: Lifeguard automatic feeder with hopper. I don't think I will use the hopper unless I set it to go every other day since it dumps out a lot of food.

Background: This I think will be blue or black. I haven't chosen yet but I am leaning towards blue so it looks like a blue sky above the rock and low plants.

Lid: I don't plan on using my lid. The only time I have suicidal anything is when my oxygen gets to low in my 29 and the shrimp jump. (I actually found a shrimp still alive 30ft outside my room and down a hallway. I cant find him now so I think the fish might have killed him but he was still moving when I put him back in there.)

Doser: This is in its early planning stages but I think I am going to use a Tom Aqualifter to dose directly into the same hole I put in for the co2 with a tee and a check valve. This is in its early planning stages but I cant see why it wouldn't work.

Fertilizers: Dry, excel if needed for algae, flourish or TMG for micros I am considering TMG as soon as I finish my bottle of flourish.

Reactor: It's a basic 2" piece of pvc I used a twist piece at one of the ends with some Teflon tape so I can remove it and clean the reactor if I ever wanted to. I built it so the CO2 mixes with the water and is then pushed into the reactor I hoped this would increase the contact time and break up the bubbles better when they hit the wall of the reactor. (I don't know how well this will work but there is a first time for everything.) If the image is on its side I am sorry I will try to fix it.










I had a few problems wit connecting the reactor (1/2 pvc) to the ETH (5/8 tube) back to ½ in PVC and finally back to ½ tube. One problem was I couldn't find any 5/8 to ½ adaptors at home depot. Instead I just slipped the 5/8 tubing over the ½ in PVC and added some glue. I happened to find the proper parts needed for the ½ connections in the sprinkler section. These include the ½ threaded nipple and the threaded PVC to tubing adaptor.





This is a picture of my tank being filled and tested to make sure it and my PVC didn't leak. I had a few problems with the reactor. After a second coating of Teflon tape and a tightening it all seemed to be operating perfectly. I don't have a co2 tank yet so I have the input just going back up to the tank.





A couple days later I emptied it out and dried the tank. I decided I would try some rock placements in the tank. I just so happened to have a lot of foam in the garage and cut a piece to fit the tank so the rocks would scratch or chip the bottom glass. While I was trying different placements one of the rocks slipped and it took a little chip out of the front pain of glass. I don't think it's enough to affect it structurally so I will just leave the tank how it is.

Layout: I have spent months trying to figure how I am going to set up the tank. I made numerous sketches mostly imitating tanks I had seen in the past and combining attributes I liked. I eventually realized that I really liked the rocky iwagumi style tanks. I love the tanks that look like a mountain range or other natural scenes. I also liked the winner of the 2004 ADA contest a lot but I don't think copying or imitating that would be possible.

I am a beginner and don't really trust my own sense when it comes to aquascaping. I always end up with something I don't really like. I think an iwagumi would at least give me a chance to try something different.

Inspiration: I browsed the ADG gallery, ADA gallery, APC contest gallery, and a few other sights looking for iwagumi style tanks that really attracted my eye. I like the two on the bottom here a lot:
http://www.adaeuro.com/gallery.asp?g_id=2
The three rocky ones on this Web page:
http://www.adaeuro.com/gallery.asp?g_id=2#
Top left:
http://www.adaeuro.com/gallery.asp?g_id=5#

There where many others I liked but these where the easiest ones for me to find again.

I really like the look of dwarf hair grass and am determined to include it in my plan. I think I will include some Blyxa japonica because I have seen it look really nice.

I think it needs something else along with the dwarf hair grass as cover though. I was thinking glosso but I don't know if I want to pick it all apart to replant it.

I think I will have the blyxa near some of the rocks like some of the rocks are rising out of the Blyxa.

I guess I have some time to think about it since I don't have any substrate yet or a co2 tank.

Does anyone with previous iwagumi style tank creators have any advice on making this better I am all ears. I want to make sure I make the slope pretty steep and Start off with some stems to keep the algae away but is there something I am over looking. Should I start off slow with the fertilizers watching plants for signs of deficiencies or give them everything and hope they out compete the algae?


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## John N.

Any updated progress on this? It looks like you got some nifty equipment, and plumping there. Did you decide on the aquascape?

-John N.


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## slickwillislim

I am getting the substrate this weekend hopefully and maybe the co2 tank and some plants. I should have an update pretty soon. It will most likely have some stems to help break it in but the hardscape should be finished, hopefully, before the end of this weekend. 

I appreciate the interest. I am kind of new to this planted tank set up so I am taking it slow. My last tank I rushed and made a lot of mistakes and wasted a lot of money. I think patience is a very helpful trait when it comes to the aquatic plant hobby so I am excersizing as much of it as possible. Any pre setup suggestions are always welcome.


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## DJKronik57

Instead of glosso you can try HC (if you can find it and afford it!). That's what I'm using for my iwagumi tank, although I only have a tiny piece of it. I'm dosing minimal ferts and watching every day for algae, and no problems so far. A little bit of green on the substrate here and there, but that was left over from my old layout. I'll let you know what my experience is. Right now I only have a tiny patch of HC and some dwarf chain sword in there, and both seem to be thriving. No fish or inverts yet, I don't want them to disturb the hills before the HC has a chance to spread and prevent it from sliding down!


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## slickwillislim

I would like to try hc but at the moment I only have a small amount that was tangled up in some micro tennelus I got at the last scape meeting. 



Update:I have encountered some delays in getting some substrate and dont know when I will have everything running. Thanks for the advice. 

I am thinking of including micro tennelus with the glosso if I cant find enough dwarf hair grass.


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## turtlehead

Ever need more of that tenellus? You know who to ask. I'll be following this thread.


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## slickwillislim

Here is an update:

I finally got my hands on some Soil master and decided not to move my fish tank from its current location. Here are some pictures of the empty tank filled with water testing the plumbing for leaks for a few days. Then I emptied it and it sat for a couple weeks. Until last week when my local target supply called up to inform me that my order had come in. I just got their regular red stuff since I plan to cover the substrate with hair grass anyways.

I decided to use Dwarf Hair grass since Overfloater was selling it in the swap and shop forum. I should be here this weekend. I am planning on using primarily dwarf hair grass with some micro tennelus and some Blyxa japonica near the rocks. I will put some of my rotala rotundifolia in to help it cycle and maybe some fast growing stems from the LFS like anacharis or some hornwort. I have some salvinia minima but I don't think its enough to really help the tank cycle. I want to have a lot of plant mass since Iwagumi's tend to be difficult because of lack of plant mass. When Everything starts to grow in more I will probably get rid of the floaters and Rotala rotundifolia. I stole some tank water to keep the mulm and peat mixture wet while I waited for my plants. I accidently suckind some stems so They are in there but with no lights on they are just lying there.

The soil master was pretty light for its size. I decided to rinse it according to turbomkt's advice. The stuff was pretty dusty but nothing like I would expect from a baseball clay surface. I ended up washing 3 batches in the big bucket. I added the substrate into the tank using the smaller bucket since it fit in the tank so the stuff didn't fall as far. I would have taken pictures but I didn't have a free hand and I thought it was pretty self-explanatory.

After I put in all the rinsed substrate I left if or a day. I kind of realized that I wanted to add some peat and mulm under the Soilmaster Select so I moved it all to one half and held it back with some Styrofoam while I added the peat and mulm. I also had some plant tabs from Aquariumplants.com that I about a few months ago. They seemed to not harm my 29-gallon so I figured they wouldn't hurt. I then moved the substrate to that half and covered the other side with the same stuff. Do you think this is an appropriate amount of substrate I only used about 40lbs I guess I didn't realize how light this stuff really was. I see tons of air bubbles in the substrate.

Now I have 60lbs of this stuff sitting in my garage. I wanted some extra and figured I mine as well redo my 29 since it is still growing in. I guess I can add it to my nano instead of the regular gravel that's in there.

The hardscape is just my first idea. I have more rocks and I can move them in any direction. I have no idea what will look good after the hair grass fills in since I haven't really done any planning before. I had a couple more ideas but I didn't have time to take pictures. I was thinking two rocks pointing towards each other one bigger and the other less vertical. I tried it that way but the rock I was using had a funny color on the perfect side so I flipped it over. That's the rounded rock. The other rocks where basically dropped in. I don't really like how linear it looks. I would really like some suggestions on how to create depth with rocks.

I don't know if you can see it in the pictures but I did mark off the golden rule lines. I also read a little about the art of iwagumi, which traditionally is the arrangement of 3 rocks that symbolized three Buddha's or something to that extent. (I apologize if this is incorrect I forget where I read this or I would go back and check). I don't think three rocks would be enough in such a long tank so I started with this.

The background is a piece of blue fabric. I would have preffered a blue plastic background but I couldn't find one at petsmart so I decided to try this. I have to fix it a little since it has some ripples but I think the color will look pretty good.

I decided to move the filter tubing so It wouldn't travel as far and prevent kinking.

I am going to try out an auto dosing system on this tank using a tom aqualifter. If it works I will probably by another one and have one fore the macros and one for the micros, To eliminate the problem with Iron and phosphate bonding.

The co2 tank arrived and its sitting under the tank. I have to find some time this week to go fill it up and make sure the regulator I was given (thanks Greg) and the needle valve work.

I am probably getting a school of cardinals and maybe a school of rummy nose or some tiny rasbora. I will include some amino shrimp if I can find a good source for a bunch. Do you think cherries would do fine in this tank. I might include some to add some color to the tank. I think the amano's and some ottos will help with the brown algae(diatoms and some furry type) that I am experiencing in my other tank.

So what do you think? How should I move the rocks to improve the illusion of depth and create a more visually pleasing aquascape? Do you see any problems in my plan? Do you think an all grass tank will look fine?





















I have been busy with constructing a room out in our family room area that you see in the picture of the tank so this was on the back burner. We are building a movable wall to allow my room to be shrunk when we are having a party or if It gets in the way of a game of pool. I won't bother explaining any details since it is pretty unusual but when Its done and my tank is done I will definetly post some pictures.


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## turtlehead

HC is too expensive for students like you and me ... But yes, if you are doing Hairgrass, just use a school of Cardinals, if you trust me, a school of 50 or so cardinals will match the rock color and the hairgrass color VERY very well. If you found a black cloth it would bring out the colors even more and add a lot of depth to it since it is a dark color. As for the root tabs, if it worked once, then it should work again, no problem. For floaters, you don't need them once you have the foreground spread, since hairgrass will feed mainly from the roots, just don't too much water column dosing. You might have to watch your lighting time though, since it is only raised by the legs, the light will be more intense. I really suggest you use only two bulbs from the start and then after a few weeks kick it to a midday burst if the plants aren't doing to well. Amano shrimp are really vicious and will attack the algae like nothing, the Cherries are smaller and add some color, so you decide. The cherries also go well with the whole layout color. As for the rock arrangement, great job on the right side, I really like it. I would suggest you make a HUGE slope on the left side with that tall rock on it's side. The huge slope adds the effect that not all the rocks are about the same size, an effect you would want in an Iwagumi layout. When I say HUGE slope, I mean it cause it will decrease dramitically after your tank ages. Also add some medium sized rock all around, since it looks a little bare. And just one side only, you don't want to make things look too even in a layout like this. Don't add rocks that are too small since the hairgrass will cover it up anyway, if you do add small rocks just add them to the base of the slope if you decide to make one to try and hold it up. As for planting, I would only use hairgrass by itself, but tennellus and blyxa would help to add a sense of depth too. I would plant the blyxa at the places where there are gaps between the rocks and the tennellus around all the rocks.

Nice rocks btw, where did you get them? Hope this post isn't too long and hard to understand. Just do what you feel is right.


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## slickwillislim

I am not possitive what you meen by the slope. Do you mean have a alot more substrate on the leftside sloping to the right and front. I think this is a good idea. The background is something I just had lying around the house. I like the blue because it reminds me of the sky. I also like black. I have a feeling I won't know what I like best until its complete. I am thinking of mixing in the tenellus with the dwarf hair grass at about the 1/3 mark in a half circle sort of shape. I kind of want it poking up above the dwarf hair grass. I am envisioining the reddish grass on top of the pretty dark green dwarf hair grass. I am hoping this turns out good. 

I think the cardinals will look pretty nice as well. I think I will set up the tank and get it going if I get some algae problems that a few ottos can't handle and I can't figure out myself I might go with the amano's. I like the idea of cherries only because I might end up with more than I buy. I was hopping I could get a few babies out of the four I bought but one of 2 of the 6 shrimp I bought died in my nano. I am pretty sure it got to hot for them since it was hot out and they are close to the oven... 

The floaters are not something that looks appealling to me but I agree that they will be neccessary untill the foreground grows in. I just remembered I could include some ranunculus inundatus but I rethought that because it might clash with the grasses to much.


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## Overfloater

You can use your lighting fixture with all four bulbs from the start. Reduce the photoperiod to 7-8 hours to control algae. 

Use plenty of CO2. Don't be afraid of it. 

Amano shrimp and otos are your friend. I would highly suggest the amanos over cherries as they get quite large and are very hungry 

I am using 3M colorquartz in my iwagumi setup right now but when I redo the tank in a few days I am using an all ADA substrate. I fully expect to see a large improvement in the growth of the HG. The colorquartz is an inert substrate and works well but I think hairgrass is a heavy root feeder and will appreciate the ADA product.


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## slickwillislim

If I get enough plants in there then I might try all four bulbs for 7 hrs. I was planning on pumping the co2 pretty high to start. I haven't used pressurized co2 before. What kind of bubble rate am I looking at? 2bps? Or how many per minute?


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## redstrat

The required bubble rate depends on a lot of things. Surface aggitaion, plant mass (maybe negligable but i'm sure its different in a heavily planted tank vs lightly planted), diffusion methods, water surface area, ect... anyway I woudl guess it would be between 1 and 2 bubbles per second. A better method for telling the required ammount of co2 is to test your Ph and KH values regularly for the first couple hours and days of running your CO2 system. this is less of a concern if there are no fish in the tank. just make sure your KH is above 3 degrees to start with and try to follow the Co2 Table with your values of Ph and KH to achieve roughly 30ppm, usually you can go a little higher than that without a problem but it seems a good number to shoot for.

by the way the site I linked to for the CO2 table is kinda old so their views on the proper ammount of CO2 are a little outdated... I have had CO2 values near 50ppm with minimal adverse affects to the fish, 30ppm is perfectly fine for fish.

As far as bubbles per minute, 1 bubble per second = 60 bubbles per minute, 2 per second = 120 per minute, I woudl guess you would be happy with something in this range but definately consider your PH and KH because this will give you a better estimate for how much CO2 is dissolved in your water.


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## slickwillislim

I know all about the kh to ph but I find it isnt that reliable. I just try to get one point below the outgassed water. I wont have any surface agitation and the plant mass will probably be less than the average heavily planted tank because it will be all low foreground plants and no stems. I Have two charts that show about what your link showed. I was just curious if 2bps was to fast to start with, Since there won't be any fish in it initially I think I will shoot for the 2bps. 

How long does a 5lb co2 tank last at about 2bps. Couple of months. Six months what are we talking here.


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## turtlehead

Will, a newer and more accurate method of guaging CO2 is start it until your pH drops one, so say you have a pH of 7.8, once it drops to 6.8 you are fine and that will mean you have about 30ppm of CO2 running. Start it at 1 bps though, then work your way up. Which reg are you using though?


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## slickwillislim

slickwillislim said:


> I know all about the kh to ph but I find it isnt that reliable. I just try to get one point below the outgassed water. .


This was me trying to explain I was going to use the method you just described. 

Yah I am using an old regulator with a regular old needle valve. I am going to make my own bubble counter so It can be inline, or buy one of those cheap plastic ones.


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## redstrat

Thats great all I was concerned about is you were actually testing to see approximately how much CO2 your really getting into the water and how its affecting the tank vs. just using a bubble rate that somebody says to use because it works for their tank.


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## slickwillislim

Ok thanks. I kind of realized every tank was a little different. I was just asking for a range to start with. Thanks for the advice on measuring the co2 concentration. I think I will stick with the method turtlehead described. It worked for my 29g.


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## turtlehead

Please post more pictures once everything is setup. Where did you get the rocks btw?


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## slickwillislim

Oh sorry. I being a cheap highschool student spotted some rocks on the side of the road on my way back from Mammoth Mountian (ski resort) and I got out and grabbed some rocks. I am pretty sure its illegal but it was just out in the desert. There was miles of this stuff.


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## turtlehead

HAHA, I did that at a lake before, it's not just you. Being a student sucks... even with the part time jobs.. Hope you brought home some more rocks for your scape. It's always better to have more.


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## slickwillislim

Yah I have more rocks than I put in there. I was planning on breaking them apart to have medium or small rocks but these things are tough. I took a hammer and chisel to them and could only chip of pieces. I thought a pourous rock like this would be easy to break. I cant find our sledge or I would use that. Do you think the back of an axe would work.

I would buy rocks if they sold rocks I like. Well maybe. 

The rocks in my profile are the same stuff.

I just finished shifting the soil and am slowly filling it up so it doesnt shift. I really angled the substrate It may look a little extreme but that is because I know it will settle when I plant it and just over time. I still have to arrange the rocks. Maybe I will get lucky and break one of my rocks. I have to take some more pics with the rocks I will probably post pics tonight.


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## xcooperx

any pic update! im also want to do the iwagumi scape, but im gonna use glosso and some riccia.


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## slickwillislim

Here are some new pics of the rocks. I dont really like it that much but I do like the high point in the back left. Gettting the Soilmaster that angled and smooth was pretty time consuming. i have a new appreciation for sloped tanks. Every time I touch it slides a little. I want ted to changed soe rocks around but stopped for fear of having to redo the gravel.

The soil master goes right up to the edge of the water.

I just took down my nano because it suddenly killed all but one of my shrimp and didnt want to put the amano in my 29 because I was afraid my apistos might pick at him. So I did this whole thing with a little shrimp flicking around. Stupid I know but Once he was in there I couldn't find him long enough to catch him because the water was cloudy. I hope the poor guys alright. I put him through hell leveling that gravel. He must have jumped out of the water 4 times. I seriously think I should have just kept him in a bucket.


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## slickwillislim

I chose not to use glosso because It starts to cover itself pretty fast and I dont want to keep replanting it. Riccia is a pain in the but. It is nice when tied to rocks but you have to trim it and then you have all that riccia crap floating around. I have always loved the field of grass idea. I could have a completly flat tank with just a field of hair grass and I would love it.


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## gabeszone

Looking good! I like the rocks, and the slope. Cant wait to see you plants!


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## xcooperx

whats the plant that you gona use? HC? oh can i put any rock that i can bought on my LFS or there is a specific rock that i should use

ABout the glosso, yeah its a pain when you have it on that large aquarium, but i think its just fine if you only have a 20L.

Nice Rocks you have there, but i think some are too large and not balance


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## slickwillislim

As I mentioned I am going to use dwarf hair grass, e. tennellus micro and some blyxa japonica. Thats the plan. 

Rocks can't help you too much I through pretty much any rock in my tank. As long as it doesnt react with an acid.

Yah I put them in there real quick for the picture Now I dont like them. Especially hte big rock on the left. I like big rocks since there will only be low plants. TO bad my biggest rock is shapped kind of funny.


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## turtlehead

Better especially with the slope, but the left is still missing something maybe one more rock near the middle on the left or a couple medium sized. Great job! Hope the amano is fine. I really think the big rock is fine, since it adds texture and shape to the scape. If it didn't look taht way, your scape would look plain and it would seem that all the rocks were identical.


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## slickwillislim

Yah I have more wierd looking rocks if I need them. I will attemt to break some of the rocks tommorrow. 

I like the slope but I think the rocks need some adjusting I will play with them see what I like.


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## DJKronik57

As a tip from someone who just did a sloped iwagumi with rocks, it is much much easier to play around with the layout without water in the tank. You can slope the substrate how you want it, place the rocks in, move them around, etc. without causing major landslides. All you have to do is make the slope a little more extreme than you want, and once you add water, it will soften up on its own. You just have to be careful adding the water.

Also, the rock layout looks just like you plopped the rocks in (which you did, to some degree, I know) which is rarely how you see rocks in nature. I can tell you were very gingerly trying to arrange them without destroying the slope. Almost always, a rock is half buried in the ground due to sediment build up and erosion. You say your large rock is shaped funny, so why not bury it so it makes a new shape? Why break the rocks when you can make them smaller by burying them. Half burying the rocks will also greatly help in preventing your substrate from leveling out as well. All substrate, once submersed, will eventually level out unless it has obstacles (such as rocks or plant roots) to keep it from leveling.


An iwagumi takes a lot of patience and is a big learning experience. Just wait until you have your first algae bloom!


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## slickwillislim

Yah I did that slope with only a tiny bit of water in it. I guess I shouldnt have filled it with water until I decided where I wanted teh rocks. I didnt realize it would slide so much under water. I am going to redrain the water and hopefully catch my amano and try the rocks again. I like the sunken rock look and the big rock comes to a point where its in the sand so I think it touches the bottom. I will have to rearange it.


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## slickwillislim

I emptied the tank caught the amano. I think He is till alive I cant find him in the bucket I put him in but he should still be ok. I took some time to split one of my rocks. I actually started by drilling it with a masonry bit. Than I took a chisel and partial sledge to it. The second rock I did the same thing and I first bent the metal ancient scredriver I was using. THan I found an old sharp chisel like tool and I chipped off the tip. Finally I decied to use some big screws. The first one just ended up mangled and the second one just bent. I gave up slpitting the second one.














After giving up on the rock. I decided I would try to rescape the rocks. I actually like the left side of the tank. The right... It needs some smaller rocks... I guess I will be at a different rock tommorrow. So what do you think of the left. To much, or to little of anything. My plants are going to be pretty simple so I think I should really get a solid hardscape. After spending some time with the left side I really have a totally new appreciation for any sloped iwagumi I see. I havent really used any of the principles behind the actual iwagumi rock arrangment. I have two groups of rocks and I dont like the left side at all. I kind of like the center two rocks. If you didnt notice I got rid of the biggest rock I had. I think it looks better. What do you think?


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## turtlehead

A little better on the left, but I still think one medium sized rock is missing next to that big one on the left. The left now looks like a straigh line across, try to mess with the rocks on the right a little more. You're getting there. As for smashing and shaping rocks, a hammer is a great tool  It works like a charm everytime hehe..


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## slickwillislim

My hammer didnt do much. I wacked it with all my might all I could do was chip tiny pieces. This is heavy rock so it doesnt really surprise me how hard it is to break. It is all air bubbles though... 

I see your point. I can see what you mean I will a bigger rock over there tommorrow. I lost my source for dwarf hair grass so it might be a little longer until its planted. I am going to go look at aquaspot and aquabotanic...


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## turtlehead

Or you can create a smaller slope on the right too. aquariumplants.com and aquabotanic.com are nice sites.


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## slickwillislim

I bought from aquarium plants. I have a small amount of hair grass that grew form about 6 blades that survived. I guess I should check them out too. I was considering the second slope aswell. The tank seems to big to do one slope for the whole thing. I will try some stuff tommorrow.


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## slickwillislim

I rearranged the rocks a little and I tried to slope the back left a little. I think its an improvement. I still see some things after taking the picture. I now have to convince my parents that it wasn't one of my plant related purchases that caused fraudulent charges on their credit card...


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## turtlehead

The rock on the left of the right side is awkwardly postioned, try truning it around, side to side or whatever. Otherwisw I think you may have the basics of Iwagumi scaping down. Nice.


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## trckrunrmike

You should get many little rocks and put them around the bigger rocks to make it seemm ore natural


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## slickwillislim

Blyxa japonica 2
Echinodorus tenellus (Dwarf Chain Sword) 2	
Egeria najas	1	
Eleocharis parvula (Dwarf Hairgrass)	5
Rotala rotundifolia 'Green'	1
Rotala sp 'Nanjenshan' 1

I decided to try Aquaspot. I liked the idea of getting some free hc, and they have a very nice plant assortment. I got the Egeria najas to float to help with the start up. I go the Rotala's because I have collectoritus and my 29 needs some more stems. I hope I got enough hair grass. I already have some growing in my 29g but it isn't all that much. I think I will have plenty of the blyxa and the e. tennellus.

I wasn't planning on using excel but if I do is it going to affect the Egeria najas as much as it affects the Egeria densa? My guess is it will. I got it because it was 1.99 for 10 stems. Cheaper than the crappy stems at my lfs that I was going to through in at the startup.

The other thing is my mom decided to buy the plants for me. I don't know why I think she felt guilty because I didn't go to a camp like my brother and sister... even though they both went to Cross country camp which seems like a punishment to me.  If I had known this ahead of time I might have gotten more plants.


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## turtlehead

I don't know if you should expect much from aquaspot... and the summer heat. But if it all falls out, I can send some rotala your way. One of my favorite plant sp.


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## slickwillislim

The extended forecast at yahoo for my area was in the 70's so I figured it would be ok... 

Thanks for the offer of Rotala I assume you mean green or maybe you mean both? I hope it come through ok. I was just adding them to save on future trading or buying and compact it into one order.


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## turtlehead

green, colorata, pink, vietnam, goias, hipprus,...... a lot... haha. Prepare for the next meeting.


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## Steven_Chong

Dude, it looks like this project could turn out really awesome!! 

I wish I was better at giving lay-out advice, but I think you'll be fine.

My plants from aquaspot came in great last friday, so I'll cross my fingers that your'll come in great too.

I wish I could get to those SCAPE meetings . . . I don't have a car. >.<


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## turtlehead

A lot of people can give rides green


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## Steven_Chong

Ah really? I joined but haven't been active in scape-- where can I find out meeting info/ride info?

--and not to hijack the thread (though I guess that's what I'm doing . . .) I tend to think grass scapes can benefit a lot from having at least some plants like HC/elatine/glosso, because each level from shortest possible (glosso) to talles (eleocharis vivapara) adds to giving a tank "depth."


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## turtlehead

Green, I think we are going to have on at a lfs this month, the details are unclear and I am unclear, but if it goes under way I'll start a thread or someone else in scape will to help you and get further details,I'd like to meet you in person. I'm a big fan of your sketches and scapes.


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## slickwillislim

I am still thinking about the planting. I have some ideas but what you mentioned has been on my mind. I was planning on the grass being short enough in front that it would be ok. I have parvula coming I have the Eleocharis acicularis then it will go into the micro sword acicularis mix to full tennelus. This interspersed with Blyxa japonica among the rocks if I can make them work. 

I don’t visualize in my head well and my artistic abilities are extremely limited. I use stick figures, none of those fancy aqua sketch abilities for me. If the front seems too high maybe I can work the HC into the front. I really don’t have a tank set up for the HC at the moment. I took down my nano and I am not going to set it up until I am in my new room. Which probably wont happen until the end of the month. 

I also have Ranunculus inundatus and some Hydrocytle sithurpoides or something like that. My 29 has a small patch of baby tears, dwarf hairgrass, Micro tennelus(courtesy of turtlehead), blyxa japonica, hydrocytle sithurpoides (sp?), tiny bit of hc, Ranunculus inundatus. If I hadn't killed off my glosso on vacation I would have a large portion of the foreground plants available to the hobbyist. All due to my collectoritus. I think I am going to keep a collectoritus tank and use my 60g as a scape tank. Hopefully with all these plants I can pull together something decent looking.

ps. I also moved the rock on the left a little bit. I will take pictures when I plant the plants which should be middle of next week.

edit:Has anybody grown microsword. It looks interesting maybe I can work another grass into the tank. It looks pretty interesting but I think I will probably use what I have already ordered and have.


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## Steven_Chong

wow-- pretty awesome collection there dude. Seriously, just use whatever you want. I think this is gonna be awesome.


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## slickwillislim

Yah I would love too use all of the plants and probably will the only problem is I dont have all that much but it is all growing slowly but steadily. I have pretty low light at the moment to minimize algae problems and to see if the plants survive. THe only plants that seems to want more light is the crowded portions of Rotala rotundifolia, the Blyxa, and the Ranunculus. All the others just slowed a little these three slowed down alot. 

I think I lost the baby tears though. I was floating it in a bucket with some other plants for a couple days and I guess it was two long because most of the plants melted. Oops. I only have a couple stems of both the HC and HM. HM or I think its HM its one of the babytears has too big of leaves for my liking though. I think It would look fine as a bushier midground plant or something like that. 

The only othe foreground plants that I still kind of want are Rotala goais which really isn't a foreground persay and some Elatine triandra. The only problem is I dont have enough foreground to plant them all, so I decided not to go after them. The marsilea(sp?) species also look interesting but they don't sound like they grow fast enough for my liking. Even now my tank looks pretty wierd with all the different patches growing. 

Another ps. I just noticed you(turtlehead) mentioned goias. Maybe I can get a stem or too at the next meeting. If you want some of anything I would gladly trade it for another foreground plant to add to my collection. How much of a difference do you notice between regular rotundifolia, green, colorata, and pink. I think A tank with all for could really look interesting.

edit. Oh yeah I have some floating riccia too, hah i had a tiny bit of dwarf riccia too. Both of these where nearly eradicated because of my Excel dosing. They always end up caught up in all of the plants half dead...


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## slickwillislim

I hope you can make it to the next meeting. I have seen quite a few of your sketchs and they are all really nice and quite inspiring. I can't wait to see the progress of your new tank. Looks prettycool.


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## turtlehead

Goias can be a foreground, in fact with the tek lights it will be a foreground. The tallest it grows in medium light is around 3 inches. It creeps like crazy in high light. I'll see what I have by the next meeting. As for the rotundifolia, green, colorata, and pink comparison. Rotundifolia has leaves that are a little more compact when compared next to green and colorata, other than that, it's barely noticable. It aslo has a orange coloration. Green and Colorata are very similar, when the conditions are right, the Colorata will turn DEEP red like blood. But if the conditions aren't the Colorata will just have a red stem. Pink leaves are very compact, and grows slow, but not as slow as Goias. The rest grow very fast. I found it hard to get the pink out of the Goias and if there was water flow directed to it, it melted away the next day. BTW, I have all these plants in my 10g scape


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## slickwillislim

I just finished uploading the pics after planting the tank so here is an update:

I finally got the plants for my tank. The order went pretty well. I only got it today and it was sent Monday.

The plants arrived in pretty good shape. The only plant that was basically unsalvageable was the Blyxa japonica. I got two orders of this and I could only salvage 2 firm stems that still smelled pretty bad. The HC was damaged but I would say 1/2-1/3 will probably make it.

I got one substitution on the order and that was the Egeria najas. Instead I got some Gymnocoronis spilanthoides. This plant is pretty massive for a stem plant. I hope it sucks up the nutrients because that's why I wanted the Egeria.

The Eleocharis and the Rotala Green where probably in the best shape. The Rotala green surprised me because it looks like submersed growth and it was in good shape. The Nanjenshan is in what I assume is its emersed form and should pull through fine.

I planted the Eleocharis parvula in small bunches and I ended up with about an order and a half left over. Instead of planting the rest I decided to put it in my 29 and steal all of the Micro tennelus instead of just a few plants. Right now the tenellus is floating. I will finish planting it tomorrow.

Soil master was quite a challenge to plant in after using play sand. The plants don't stay in nearly as well because the soil master is so light. I hope the soil master soaks up more water and sinks better.

I filled up the tank really slowly and it came out crystal clean.

I planted some stem plants to help break in the tank. I also added some Salvinia minima. After looking at the tank picture I think I need some more plant mass but I don't want to diturb the plants so I will probably float a bunch of Rotala rotundifolia. I just don't want to get the Rotala green mixed in with the regular rotundifolia.

After a few hours a bouple stems of Rotala green started floating and some HC and a few hair grass clumps. I guess I will be planting tomorrow too.

I still need to fill up the co2 tank because I have been busy lately.

The filter started blowing the hc away so I turned it down a little I am sure it will slow down when the bacteria clogs up the filter a little.

I am pretty pleased with the ETH heater. It kept has kept the temp pretty stable and I haven't noticed the clicking sound some people have complained of.

Now I have to get the auto doser to work. Get co2. Get fish.... and... Hopefully enjoy a nice iwagumi style fish tank.

Here are some pics of the plants when they arrived and my planting jobs. I also took some quick pics of my 29 with the parvula. I just found a dead apisto in the 29 so I am going to do a 50% water change tommorrow and hopefully I wont lose any more fish. I found the fish stuck behind the filter output I think it might have gotten stuck since I had to lift it away for the dead body to be removed. The 29 is not finished planting I am going to plant the for bottom right still and the back right too.

Please forgive any errors It has been a long day.













































[IMG=http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/6046/img7850pw2.jpg]


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## guppy

The mush reminds me of mashed spinach. But looks like a good start Will hope to see your tanks progress. Oh and if you want blyax I can spare you some just PM me...


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## Steven_Chong

Assuming that one huge stem plant is just a temporary nutrient-sucker, I have to say you picked some really great plants will (or maybe I'm just saying that because a lot of those are plants I like). In honesty though, I think you'll find that the R. Green grows so quickly you won't have to worry about nutrient sucking . . .


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## turtlehead

Back in actionm the plants look well and so does your smaller tank, hope the larger tank grows out nice.


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## slickwillislim

I am going to remove all of the stem plants. I picked the two rotalas because I want to try them later in my29 when I scape that. The big leafed stem plant is a substitution for the Egeria. It is supposed to be a fast grower so I don't care since thats why I got th Egeria. I am floating some plant mass to hopefully prevent some algae. THe co2 tank is going to be filled tommorrow hopefully. Then I have to find some ottos and amanos. Then some rasboras or tetras. Maybe my yoyo loach too so I can try and breed my apistos in my 29. How heavily should I dose in the begining. I dosed 10ppm no3 and 2 ppm po4 along with 10ml of flourish. I hooked up a two liter of diy co2 just to see how effective the reactor is and make sure there are no leaks in my co2 connections. 

I also turned the intake for the eheim around so the long end is on the outside. Thats how high the slope is in the back left.

I am surprised at how powerful the eheim 2217 is even with the ETH and reactor. I had to point it upward instead of its position in the tank because it was blowing some plants around. I also turned it down a little. I assume it will slow down soon with the bacteria and gunk but I am pleased with its power at the moment. 

Guppy:The Blyxa did remind me of mashed spinach until I opened it up and I nearly puked it smelled pretty bad. 

Turtlehead: Yah the 29 needs some work but it is coming along. Thanks I accidently had my filter on the 29 off for a few days. :doh: I noticed I had some hydra or I think they where hydra. Then I noticed a dead apisto and I thought that was odd. So I started checking things and to my amazement my filter was unplugged. I didn't notice because I had a powerhead in the tank growing some bacteria for the 60. I don't know where I got them from but I didn't notice until I had already put the micro sword in the 60.:doh:


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## slickwillislim

I got the co2 hooked up yesterday. It was pretty easy to setup. I am just using a regulator and needle valve though. No solenoid or ph controller. I have quite a bit of pressure needed to get the air into the reactor. I hope my tropicana bubble counter can hold the pressure. So far no leaks I could detect with soapy water so I hope it stays that way.

The regulator was given to me by a scape member back in june with a needle valve. I hope I can grow some nice plants so I can give some plants back to make up for all the cool stuff I got from scape. 

I will take some pictures when I notice a difference so I can keep track of progress. The big leaved plant Gymnocoronis spilanthoides already sprouted some leaves and roots. Hopefully these are enough plants to keep algae at bay I only have the lights on for 7 hrs or so so far and thats only 2 bulbs. I have to set the timer but The coralife power strip looks time consuming so I have been putting it off.

No I am looking for fish. I am thinking three lined pencil fish along with the more traditional cardinals and rummynose.


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## webcricket

Any updated photos? I'm planting some Eleocharis parvula in one of my tanks and I'm interested to see how it's filling out in your tank. I love the hardscape you have, that slope is great!


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## slickwillislim

1 month and 1 week or so in it is filling pretty nice. I have been battling hairy brown algae since the first week and have yet to kill it off. I haven’t taken any pictures of it filled in more because I haven’t managed to kill off and remove enough algae for it to look decent. I could take some pictures if you want but I am still working on eradicating the algae. 

I cut the light down a lot so I will see if the grass will still grow and the algae will hopefully grow slow enough for me to suck it up before it gets bad, or miraculously someone discovers a cure. I have tried a black out came back, all sorts of fert regimes about one every week if it wasn’t making a difference. Now I am trying a complete layer of floating Salvinia minima and the Gymn.... spilanthoides.

I replaced the foreground with more Eleocharis parvula but it isn’t close to being filled in I just planted it a few days ago. I have the HC that survived growing emersed hopefully I can grow enough to incorporate it into a future scape. 

I also added some ottos and amanos 5 of each. Only 3 ottos survived the first couple days. 

Due to lowering the lights my Rotalas seem to be dieing back, I think I will move the nanjenshan and green to my 29 to float and rebound a little. I will fill in the back portion with trimmed tenellus. 

I also had a problem with my replacement blyxa. It started growing back fine but it also suffered when I lowered the light. I may move a few to my 29 to see If I can get it to grow a little faster so It can catch up with the rest of the scape. 

I cant believe how much harder it is to get this tank going compared to my 29 that I slapped 2x65w cfs and DIY co2 no ferts. All I got was gw and then I added some dry ferts it had no serious algae except for bga when I let the nitrates bottom out. This was about a year ago and I have learned a lot since then and with all that learning and planning I still have algae problems 5 or so weeks in......

I plan on getting a school of rummy nose from my lfs whenever he can get a healthy batch.


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## slickwillislim

Here is an update on my tank. I tried to post last night but I couldn't get on APC:

I just finished removing a lot of Salvinia minima. It covered the whole top and was about two plants thick. I let it grow this thick to imitate a black out without losing sight of my tank and watch the progress of the algae. It did a good job of lowering the light level and sucking up all of the nutrients. The only plant that seemed to suffer was the Blyxa Japonica. I had high hopes for that group of Blyxa and it all melted away.L As soon as I removed the floaters and stems this afternoon everything started pearling. The tennellus was streaming bubbles all over the place. I couldn't tell if my reactor was putting out bubbles because of all the o2 bubbles flying around. A good sight after the brown crud I had been seeing.

I am happy with the setup so far. The filter has been working great and so has the reactor. I haven't had any leaks in the system and nothing has broken yet. The lights are far brighter than what I need. I took all of the pictures with only two bulbs on. With four I couldn't get my crappy point shoot camera to focus right, suffice to say it is bright.

I took out the stem plants and replanted the back corner with the micro tenellus. I also changed the foreground to dwarf hair grass because most of the HC I had died. I don't have enough to grow out in time to fill in when the other plants fill in.

The dwarf hair grass is filling in rather nice. The back part is starting to blend a little to early for my liking. I wanted the Eleocharis parvula and tenellus to blend together but I don't want either one to take over the other. It will still be a while until it fills in completely since I just replanted the front portion.

I bought 5 ottos and 2 died rather quickly and the 3 others have been in there over a week and seem to be doing fine. I found two amano shrimp dead. I bought five and can only find two swimming around. I don't know how I killed them. I don't think it was two high co2 because I turned it down while I was doing my pseudo black out. Nutrients should have been low because I was dosing pretty heavy but I was taking out a handful of Salvinia on a daily basis.

Fish wise I think I might go with a big school of small rasboras. A fellow APC member suggested that Rummy nose might be too big an active for a 4 foot tank, or atleast in a school as big as wanted. I am still looking at the other tetras but if I can afford a nice school of dwarf rasboras I think taht would look nice.

Here are some pictures. Some are from weird angles because I was bored.


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## JaySilverman

Get a black background on that asap


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## slickwillislim

I was thinking about that but I didnt have anything big and black laying around. Thats a piece of cloth my mom had laying around. I was also thinking about trying a light blue or a white with different lighting effects. I will see what looks best when its all done. I think Black would probably look the best though. Thanks for the suggestion.


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## slickwillislim

Here is an update for week 11. I put in a few small blyxa plantlets and added some Java Fern, E. tennellus (emersed, probably green fat version), and some Rotala wallichii I just bought.

I got the tennellus and the wallichii at All about fish at the last scape meeting and this is about a 1/3 of the wallichii and half of the tennellus. The tennellus will probably stay if the blyxa dies again, which I am hoping won't happen. Due too my current slow growth with Blyxa japonica I decided to try a Java fern I had in my 29 in its place...

Over all I think THere is too much focus to much to the left. The wallichii is to powerful for this green tank, IMO, Maybe if it was a little more centered I could use it as a focal point. But that far to the left it just seems distracting...

What do you guys think. To heavy on the left. Do you think a nice patch of a different tennellus or a big bush of blyxa or how it is or perhaps just the grown in java fern.... I can't decide hopefully someone will have a good suggestion.

As side note I plan on photographing the final project with red tennellus but at the moment I am fiddling with the lighting to pretty succesfully drive off my brown algae and it turned back to green.


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## Steven_Chong

Looks like it's really filling in dude-- no algae either.


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## slickwillislim

Welll... Thanks for the compliment, but I do have brown algae problem but it siphons off easily when I lower the lgihts for a few days. You can also see the gsa on the back right glass. I am to lazy to reach and scrape it off. I also have algae all along the edges where I didn't want to send the mag float for fear of pulling up my hair grass. If I can get control of my brown algae I think I can really get some growing going and redden up my tennellus.

Steve: Nice meeting you at the scape meeting. Hope you can get your tank how you want it before you leave for Hawaii.


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## turtlehead

Healthy grow, good job. But the fern seems lonely on one side.


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## gf225

Hi William,

Great journal, I can't believed I missed it up 'til now.

Your rocks rock!! I’m now on my third set in my nano Iwagumi and no doubt I still won’t be satisfied with them in a few weeks! 

How long did you take to come up with your rock composition? 

Is your brown algae forming fine “cloud balls” amongst the hairgrass near the substrate? This is what I am experiencing but as you say, it siphons up real easy. I’m hoping it is just the tank maturing and it will disappear on its own accord soon enough.

Keep up the good work, I look forward to following your progress. :thumbs:


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## Tankman

Hey William, nice but I'd loose the Rotala wallichii and the Java Fern.. Just my 2-cents worth  
Really nice rock arrangement tho


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## slickwillislim

Yah i am not a big fan of the wallichii but I am lazy so It will remain until I find something I like better. I would like to balance the right with the left a little but I am not sure how. I dont want to start digging around because my hair grass is trying to spread. 

I think the java fern isn't that bad. It kind of contrasts the colors but only a little, it blends with the grassy plants but it adds a darker tone and a little height. Anybody got some ideas for a replacement plant that will draw less attention or how to place a dueling java fern or another plant to the right to balance a little...


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## gf225

How's the brown algae William?


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## slickwillislim

Here are a couple pics of what it was like after a couple days of not siphoning of the crap. Right now I have the top covered with floating plants and it seems to be keeping it from coming back. My plan is to slowly cut back on the floating plants as the tank matures.


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## slickwillislim

Ok. Its a few months in. I just removed all floating plants from the tank and will hopefully keep it that way. I think I conquered the brown algae.

I am now having slight problems with all the other algae including cladphora but hopefully with high co2 and a good fertilization regime I can get the best of it.

As you can see from the photo the plants are still growing in. I had a weird die off of a couple patches of Eleocharis parvula. They are too small to be from a lack of light.(I had a lot of floating plants) I really am concerned because I have no idea what caused it and I had to pull a couple little patches to remove the dead hair grass.

The green neons are all doing great they are swimming around and tend to school most of the time.

The Rocks are getting a little brown algae and seem to be ageing pretty well.

I am using a black background that is a heavy black material. There are some water spots on the back glass but I was to lazy to reach back there to get them.

I got some E. tenellus at All About fish in long beach because I thought it was the short wider green version. Instead I think I got some type of bigger Echinodorus grass. Perhaps angustifolius but I really don't know. It doesnt get red and it grows pretty big compared to E. tenellus

I replaced the regulator with an Azoo regulator. It now has a solenoid that lets me control the co2 more and make it last much longer. I am also planning to attach a manifold and hook up my 29g and my Mini M to this same tank.

I also borrowed my parents new camera. Its a Canon G7. It is pretty sweet. I haven't had a chance to read up much about it so my pictures are pretty crappy. I tried the manual focus a couple times but I would focus on the center rock and the edges would get blurry. I preferred the automatic zoom with me adjusting the the brightness.(forgot the photo term I am a newbie ). This camera actually comes with an aquarium setting but I think its meant to reduce glare and warm up the picture a little which is something I don't need and it didn't seem to help on the view finder. I don't know how much of a difference you will see because I usually just use image shack to shrimp my giant jpegs and I assume a lot of quality is lost. I also only cropped two photos because I am lazy. Sorry.

I managed to get some decent shots of the tanks and some mediocre shots of my Apistos. I couldn't get my mail Bitaeniata to flare up for the camera. He flares for me but runs away from the camera.(The apistos are in a 29g tank two feet two the right of this tank)...

Aquascape:
Overall I like how the two grasses look. Together~. I had envisioned the tenellus growing taller and I guess I will have to wait for it to thicken up some more before it does that.

The foreground hair grass was trimmed but that was because it grew some long leaves during a black out. I don't really like the mowed lawn look so I am trying to keep the trimming to a minimum so it looks more natural.

I have only one problem that can't be solved by waiting for it to develop. The left front Hair grass is thickening up much faster than the rest. I think this is because of my blinds letting some filtered sunlight hit that side front of the tank. While the right side was covered with floating plants.

I guess I was pretty stupid when I was placing my rocks. None of them really look right with the grass this tall and a couple of them are now invisible.

I guess aquascaping is all about learning and evolving. I kind of wish I could swap out the tenellus for the hair grass and the hair grass for HC but I made this choice and I will stick with it until I think its complete. Rocks should be much larger in a hair grass scape. If I make an hc iwagumi in the future I think I will use proportionately a lot more rock. It looks ok in person but all of the smaller rocks effects are lost.

Pictures:



Here is one from as high as the tripod would go. This shows the patches that died off. A couple to the right of the Big rock on the left mid. And the back right center.



Here is one in black in white because It was one of the filters. I tried all of the color filter options and this is the one I liked the best.



Here is an example of what my camera wanted to do. It has no contrast at all in the grass. Since this camera puts out Jpegs instead of RAW I figured I would try and get the colors right on the camera. The old powershot elph S230 had no control over aperture settings and what not so this was a bit getting used too.



Here is a random pic of a small patch of BGA on a piece of grass.


Here is a random photo of some more Blue-green algae and some greenish probably thread algae and a little brown algae on the glass that accumulated after I stirred it all up to siphon it off.


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## daykinmade

regardless of the algae, looks pretty darn good to me,
nice work, way to stick with it


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## John N.

Wow! What a fantastic tank. It's a shame that the rocks disappear under the plants, but then again it looks very natural too. It's hard to believe that all that growth came just in a few months. Besides the little bit of algae, it's clear that your doing it right. Well done aquascape!

-John N.


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## slickwillislim

Thanks. Its been worth it. Half of the fun of this hobby is setting everything up and the challenge of getting it right. If all I wanted was a pretty tank I would probably buy hundreds of plastic plants. 

Of course a beautiful, algae free tank would be pretty nice right now.


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## slickwillislim

Here is another update. Its pretty much finished. I am going to let it grow a little more but the only patches are from me pulling hairgrass out with the algae. This tank has been battle after battle with numerous types of algae.

I am still battling the persistan BGA that you can see small pieces of throughout the tank. I did two 50% water changes while physically removing as much algae as I could just to get it to look that good.

For my first attempt at a planted tank from start to finish I think its pretty good. I think I have learned a lot and am currently pondering what I will do with this tank next... but for the near future I am just going to let it fill in maybe just try some HC in the foreground...


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## Overfloater

Very nice work. Now that you have learned and had experience with algae in this type of setup, I'm sure in the future you will have less trouble and greater success.


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## houseofcards

Looks very good. Simple, but with nice contours. 

On the photography side did you use the same camera and/or editing that you did on the previous full shots in January?


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## slickwillislim

Same camera. I only edited it to look more like my tank.ex. the pictures looked a little yellow. I tried not to change it to much. My tank also looks a lot better than it did in January. Those January pictures where taken right after a blackout and the Eleocharis parvula wasn't nearly at its best. It still has some patches from me battling algae but it looks a lot better. IMO

This was also the first time I have sharpened a picture and I think I might have gotten a little carried away.  

The camera a Canon G7 so if I could only practice more I am sure I can get even better pictures. I used the same camera both times. I only shrunk these down two 800x600 just to see if they turned out better.


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## OldManShiver

Really enjoyed your documentation. It's great that you stuck it out, because this is a very nice looking tank. Give yourself a pat on the back!


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## abbottd2

*yes*

Very good - great job!!


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## slickwillislim

Thanks for the compliments!


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## strange_screams

can't wait to see more, I think its filling in nicely
thanks for journal, i think it will help me


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## slickwillislim

I finally redid this tank. The hairgrass was getting to thick and the tenellus/ angustifolius where growing taller and spreading to far in the tank.

I am trying something a little different with this one. I have a kind of hill of substrate in the middle. I noticed some iwagumis had this hill like structure and thought I should give it a try.

This was my first try at the hardscape and its ok. I redid the whole tank and replanted it with glosso all in one night so anything would have looked good when I was done.

I planned poorly and found out to late that I had to go on a college viewing trip and thats what forced me to rush the redo. I might not have time to replant all that glosso for weeks because AP season and State testing is coming up so the hardscape will probably stay basically as is for a while.

I would love some suggestions on the rocks. I am having a hard time visualizing this tank complete even though its just glosso, so any advice will help.

http://picasaweb.google.com/William.Reksc/41007


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## slickwillislim

I changed it and changed it and I am trying this scape right now.

My tank a couple weeks ago:

















My tank tonight:









My newest scape is my best attempt at copying Amano's scape on page 95 of his first book. It uses black rock instead of the petrified rock he uses. Myine also has a lot more points and texture while his had lots of lines and softer edges. I hope this tank looks decent, and I hope my glosso finally fills in how I want it too...


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## nevada

hmm...I like the previous arrangement better than the new one somehow. Its looks more in a flow.


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## slickwillislim

Previous being the one with the hairgrass?


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## slickwillislim

This is ten day later. The glosso grew up because of the way I planted the glosso straight into the substrate instead of angled. They are starting to bend over and creep the way i like but its not perfect. So far I only have a little algae on the glass and I can deal with that.










Larger version:


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## Phaturkey

i love the new hardscape, but the biggest rock looks a little too "out" for me.

I am not at all an expert though, and im sure you have TONS more experience then me by now.

And reading your journal is very interesting and should help with my future iwagumi setup, thanks!!


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## slickwillislim

Thanks, I am glad you like the hardscape.

What do you mean by out. It stands out to much. Is to far out of the substrate. Sticks to far towards the middle of the tank... It doesn't take much experience to tell something doesn't look right.

Its not perfect but I am leaving on the 7th so I will have to rescape when I come back anyways. I just hope some of the glosso is alive.


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## ed seeley

I really love the rocks and the way some seem to be standing up out of the substrate.
The only negative thing is I feel that the rocks are a little too evenly spaced out and they should be a little more 'randomly' spaced, like they are 'randomly' sized. There's no area of substrate without rocks and no rocks seem to be very close together. They just look a little too carefully spread across the base IMHO.

I really admire your restraint in just having the one type of plant - I could never do it, not enough self discipline!


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## slickwillislim

I see your point and thats probably because I did try and spread them out evenly. The left front corner will be pretty bare but so is the back right corner... 

I tried to group them in threes. Of course they all don't look like groups of three but Thats one element I tried to include. One big one medium one small. All throughout the tank. This gave a little to evenly spaced feel as welll.


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## snow_mani

Great journal and tanks! I have really enjoyed reading your journal. It was very interesting to read about your progress and I especially liked that you have shown us the progression of your tank, the different layouts, the different plants and the different problems. So many people only show the perfect photos of their tanks... and none of the problems! I look forward to seeing more. Well done!


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## slickwillislim

I got around to taking a few pictures finally. Its not what I really envisioned and I am not very happy with it but I have had no algae for weeks and I am in shock. The problem is the HC kepts getting stirred up by my loach and snails, and the glosso keeps growing up as much as out.

If I had enough HC I would plant the whole thing with it and get rid of the loach. The hardscape is not my favorite either but I can't say I hate it to much.

I am waiting for this to fill in and complete itself so I can swap out the SMS for aquasoil and probably go for a more traditional scape, maybe even a little dutch... I haven't decided.


By slickwillislim


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## valice

slickwillislim said:


>


What actually caught my eye in this photo is your 29gal!
Do you have a link of that tank?


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## slickwillislim

Thanks, I had a few problems with the 29g after vacation, my apistos just died mysteriously and my Java fern melted away a couple months back. Since when is java fern the only plant that melts in a tank?

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...27552-my-slightly-redone-29g-56k-warning.html


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## valice

Don't despair with the Apistogrammas. They somehow, died for all sorts of reasons. But very often is due to internal parasites or bacteria. They love worms. But those are the things that always kill them, even the UVed ones.

many of the Apistogramma keepers here in my country refrain from frozen bloodworms where possible. Maybe just a treat or something.

Anyway, that's a digression. Great layout on the 29gal. Preparing something like that too. Thanks for the inspiration.


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