# Silver lining after the storm



## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

My early attempt at iwagumi never bounced back after Hurricane Ike knocked everything out of balance. I got tired of battling the hair algae outbreak and tore everything down :frusty:.

On the bright side its a chance to rescape! I decided to try my hand at mound type layout. Here is the link to the web album. I call it Rebirth. I welcome your comments and critiques http://picasaweb.google.com/bunbukuphs398/Rebirth?authkey=JgCdTEPJMF0#

The notable thing about this layout is that the virtually all plants and wood were acquired from APC members (see captions). Its not fully planted out yet there is a little bit of space set aside on the right near the mound for some hygro "roirama" from another APC member.


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## TNguyen (Mar 20, 2005)

Great job. You don't have to use Hurricane Ike as an excuse to redo a tank.  Just buy more tank. :wink:


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

I like it. Bunbuku, you'll get more input on your tank if you link the photo here. If you don't know how, just ask. It's pretty easy to do.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

That's really gonna be nice. I agree with Bryce. Stick your px directly into the thread. Great job!


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## HoustonFishFanatic (Feb 26, 2007)

Great start ! I like the wood placement.


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## Paul Higashikawa (Mar 18, 2004)

That's gonna be one sweet layout when it's done! More pictures in the future

Brotha Thanh, time to put those empty ADA tanks you been accumulating to work!

Brother Bush, maybe we should all follow suit and post our tanks post Ike as well

Brother Luis, when are you gonna post another layout like you did before?​


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

Bryce and TexGal - thanks for the comments. I tried to upload using the attachement but max at 5. I can't seem to successfully post thumbnails directly from Picassa either. LMK how you do it.

Thanks for the comments NASH bros! I am still learning and its a lot of fun. So far I have only seen davemonkey and The old mans pics in the post-Ike era. How about it guys - as Paul said post yours!:ranger: Luis, I know you have that waiting room tank and the crypt tank that I am sure are _absolutely_ stunning by now!

:mrgreen:Thanh, I already have an aquatic plant fertilizer collection - that at least I can hide in the garage. A collection of planted tanks is not easy to hide!

This is the 2nd time I have used stem plants in my short time in the aquascaping hobby. I have had *no* trouble with algae at the outset compared to the iwagumi setup, it really amazing. This time I took Mike Senske's advice (plant relatively heavily from the start), together with limiting the photoperiod to 4 hrs (150 watts of MH lighting for a mere 60-P) and making sure my drop checker with 4 dKH solution is yellowish green throughout the photoperiod.


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

Looks good. Must have missed something, but which is the new setup the 1st or 2nd pic.


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

houseofcards said:


> Looks good. Must have missed something, but which is the new setup the 1st or 2nd pic.


They're the same set of pictures. The mods suggested I insert the pictures in the post rather than using a URL to my Picassa album. Attaching small versions of the pictures from the web album was the only way I knew how accomplish this.

Does the riccia in the back left look familiar? It's from you! This time I managed not to kill it this time (not using Excel bec of the moss). I have a little space to the mid-ground to the right of the central mound reserved just for the Hygro roirama you are sending .


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

O.K. I was referring to the 1st pic in the set that shows just the hardscape and the second pic that shows different hardscape and plants. I see the Riccia glad it's still green from shipping LOL. Your roirama should come today as well as Blyxa.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

The best way to place photos into the actual text is to use the icon at the top of the text box that shows a mountain against a yellow background. Once you click on this, you'll see a box where you can enter the URL (web address) of the photo.

You can host your photos here at APC's photo gallery, on photobucket (the one I use), picasaweb, or any number of other photo hosting sites. Once you have the URL, just enter it into the box.


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

BryceM said:


> The best way to place photos into the actual text is to use the icon at the top of the text box that shows a mountain against a yellow background. Once you click on this, you'll see a box where you can enter the URL (web address) of the photo.
> 
> You can host your photos here at APC's photo gallery, on photobucket (the one I use), picasaweb, or any number of other photo hosting sites. Once you have the URL, just enter it into the box.


I tried entering the URL to the pics in my Picasa web album did not work . I will have to give the alternative ones a try.

Edit:
Test










Photobucket worked ! HoC - your riccia!


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

A little aquaporn, or ummm pearling....I thought the HC on my previous iwagumi pearled (same lights) a lot but these stems are crazy:madgrin:.

Rotala sp. "green" from lowcoaster









Rotala colorat from AaronT









Rotala nanjenshan from HoustonFishFanatic









UG, about 4 days after planting - at least they have not melted!









Final shot till next weekend....









That's all folks. Thanks for looking!


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

While not all happy plants are pearling plants, all pearling plants are happy plants.

Don't think about that for too long.

Looks great Bunbuku.


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

_Photobucket worked ! HoC - your riccia!_

Well of course your riccia is pearling. It was pearling when I pulled it from my tank. [smilie=b:

Tank looks great!


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

Bryce and HoC thanks for the compliments!

HoC your roirama are there too but I did not do a closeup. BTW I know you use shower sponge net to tie down the riccia. What to you secure them to so that the look like they are "growing" out of the substrate? - like you had in your pics.

Though its been 2 weeks with all those stems and water 1/3-1/2 changes every other day, I still have ~2 mg/L NH3. I will have to postpone adding fish/shrimp for another week - at least it will give the UG some time to get established.


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

Actually I use regular hairnets. They usually come in a pack of three of $1. I did try the shower sponge a couple of times but I like the hairnets for a few reasons. 1. You can wrap a stone with the hairnet and tie it. You don't need any zipties or anything else. 2. When you stretch the hairnet over the stone it pretty much disappears and it's not as noticeable when you first put the riccia covered stone in the tank, while the sponge is very noticeable. The tank in the F/S thread that the substrate is covered is done with flat rocks and hairnets.


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## apistaeasy (Jul 16, 2004)

I love the look of your MH over the 60, so open!


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

Thanks Erik! Nothing beats being able to work on the tank with the lights on, especially with my 40 yo eyes!

BTW some of you Bylxas are in there to the left the mound. They really got tall - kinda like auberti. I planted a few of the Ranalasma in the back - had to give the most away to NASH members because your portions are massive!


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## TNguyen (Mar 20, 2005)

Plants are looking happy!

If you want your riccia to look flat, use the method that Houseofcards suggest with ADA riccia stone. You can use other rock too. I got tired of looking around and for a bag with 10 pieces. hey. I think I'm getting lazy.


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

TNguyen said:


> If you want your riccia to look flat, use the method that Houseofcards suggest with ADA riccia stone. You can use other rock too. I got tired of looking around and for a bag with 10 pieces. hey. I think I'm getting lazy.


My plan was to have a little quarter sized islands of riccia in the foreground. I got some riccia stone but the while its flat, the color of the stones are really too much of a contrast against the black Amazonia II. If I have a light sand foreground that might work better.

I think when I trim the riccia this weekend I will try tying some to small chunks of black lava rock with black hairnet.


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## apistaeasy (Jul 16, 2004)

Bunbuku said:


> I planted a few of the Ranalasma in the back - had to give the most away to NASH members because your portions are massive!


Be careful with the Ranalisma rostrata b/c it'll easily overtake UG.

I'm excited to see how the R. rostrata grows in Houston tap, I'm glad you distributed it to NASH members.


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

apistaeasy said:


> Be careful with the Ranalisma rostrata b/c it'll easily overtake UG.
> 
> I'm excited to see how the R. rostrata grows in Houston tap, I'm glad you distributed it to NASH members.


Yikes! I only planted 4 rosettes but I'll definitely keep an eye out! I understand the UG is slow to start. I am not using tap water. Houston water is hard. Since I only the one 60P and the 6 gallon betta tank, I use RO/DI water that I reconstitute with Kent R/O right to 150-200 uS.

On a side note, I though I'd post the pre and post hurricane pictures of my old iwagumi.

The afternoon before the hurricane. Big water change, waiting and hoping for the best......









5 days after power was restored. Pedro's "iron" embers all survived, amazing! All the Amano and tiger shrimp perished as did my foreground. This picture was taken after a large water change and removal of the melted HC. A few weeks after this I got a massive hair algae breakout on the blyxa, newly planted HC from GWAPA that defied Excel, CO2, shrimp, oto's and manual removal. Time to start from scratch again.









The insurance guy was not impressed. Anyone sell aquascape insurance?


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

3 week update! Emboldened by Ghanzafar Gori and AaronT's posts here http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/general-aquarium-plants-discussions/57960-pruning-timeline.html, I trimmed back the colorata which had already reached the surface 4 days ago.

Some rescaping was also done. I looked at the original version and I felt the perspective was obstructed by the wood. Some pieces were removed and the rest were rearranged.

I also felt that the nanjenshan on the left though doing well created an imbalance. So these were removed and replaced with colorata trimmings.

Front of new rescape









Right side - Hydrocotle verticillaris seems to be doing very well. 









Left side - you can see where the colorata trimmings went. Some of the UG plugs melted . Not sure why.


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## apistaeasy (Jul 16, 2004)

Your UG plugs will probably continue to melt for quite a while, until they finally establish themselves after 4-6 weeks. UG is one of the most temperamental, difficult plants I've seen - just make sure you give it plenty of CO2 and a good dose of lighting.


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

apistaeasy said:


> Your UG plugs will probably continue to melt for quite a while, until they finally establish themselves after 4-6 weeks. UG is one of the most temperamental, difficult plants I've seen - just make sure you give it plenty of CO2 and a good dose of lighting.


I purchased the aquatic form of UG from CPN in hopes of avoiding this but I guess I will just have to wait and see.

The HC I got from Oriental seemed to have gone through a similar process and looks like they are recovering. The HC from my iwagumi which came from FAN did not go through as dramatic a melt phase. Maybe Oriental grows them emmersed?


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## apistaeasy (Jul 16, 2004)

Almost all major growers do HC emersed.

I have a good friend who does UG as his personal specialty, and it doesn't matter if he transplants the aquatic form or not - he always gets melting for around 4-6 weeks (sometimes longer!)...UG is a weird plant. I've never had the patience for it. I hope you have excellent luck with it!


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

Hello everyone! Here are some pics of week 4 update.

Some Amanos arrived earlier in the week from Invertz Factory. Thankfully, they survived the cold snap. So far the only algae problem is some green spot algae on the glass. I went and got some otocinculus at the LFS to take care of the problem. Photoperiod limited to 4 hrs a day. Apart from the occasional trimming this scape was much less of a hassle maintain than the iwagumi - in that I have more room for error.

The Rotala green reached the surface 4 days ago but I was too busy to do anything about it. I finally hand time to do a little trimming today. Some minor rearrangement of stones and I added 2 small rhizomes of narrow leaf java fern at the base of the driftwood arrangement.









Post-haircut









New growth on the R. colorata 1 week after trimming. Not sure why the new growth is not as red. I am using ECA and Green Gain. Does this mean there is a deficiency?









A totally unexpected package came in the mail this afternoon! Thank you Invertz Factory! This time the weather cooperated. 









About 1/3 -1/2 of the UG plugs I put down on the left side of the tank melted away. These are some of the survivors. They're just sitting there. :bored:









Parting shot. I like the reflection on the bubble. 









The willow moss on the wood is growing in well. Can someone tell me how to trim it?
Thanks for looking.


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## HoustonFishFanatic (Feb 26, 2007)

:supz:Looking Good!


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

After the holidays, the Rotala's and hydrocotle were overgrown despite the lack of fertilization and the 3 hr photoperiod. It was getting too wild looking for my taste. Also the moss on the dw was overgrown.

The lower parts of the R. green in particular, started to look pretty ratty because light could not get thru the dense overgrowth. So I topped all the stems last week replanted. Moss was trimmed back aggressively. I also removed the hydrocotle on the right as they were getting out of hand. Substituted it with few stems of Elatine americana from bigstick. These shots were 1 week after the replanting.

Frontal









Rotala colorata and green 









Blyxa japonica









Elantine americana









Finally, the UG sending out runners!


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

Update after ~8 weeks. There was a small BBA outbreak on the dw, rocks and a few foreground plants. These were removed manually as much as possible, followed by 1 week of Excel 3x overdosing. Because of this I decided to change my ferts over from ADA to the Seachem line/schedule (what I used for my low tech tank). Photoperiod 4 hrs.

The BBA is mostly gone now. After a week I observed that the R. colorata began developing a nice red color which never happened with the ADA line. 









Also the foreground plants also started to really take off. Not sure if its because of the Excel or Seachem line, I did not control for those variables. Nonetheless, I was quite pleased!

























Also I got some more fish from Invertz Factory this past week.









Rasbora kubotai! They did not look like much in the beginning but then as they settled down, I noticed that they had a really nice subtle iridescent green color. I did not truly appreciate this until I looked down the long dimension of the tank.

From the front









Looking down the side


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## ShaneS (Jan 14, 2009)

I really like your tank, cant wait for things to fill in more. What is the green fine leaves plant 4 pictures up?


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

ShaneS said:


> I really like your tank, cant wait for things to fill in more. What is the green fine leaves plant 4 pictures up?


Thanks for the compliment! That's Elantine americana. I got it from the APC FS forum from bigstick120.


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

Looking good! The Roraima is sublime.


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## DonaldmBoyer (Aug 18, 2005)

Very nice, Bun!! 

Watch the Roraima! It will take over your tank if you don't keep it trimmed to the outline you want. It is VERY sneaky! I constantly have to prune it in my tank so it doesn't grow over the UG foreground; it will do the same in yours, and grow over the HC.

I love the rasboras!! Very delicate and pretty, and they compliment your set up very well!


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

Thanks for the encouragement guys!

Don - thanks for the tip about the roirama. Will definitely keep an eye out for its sneakiness!

The HC seems to like _both_ Excel and CO2. Incidentally, that thing that looks like a green mop under the diffuser on the left is the surviving UG from CPN. Its finally starting to show signs of coming out of hibernation. At any rate I try to keep all three foreground plants going for now.

As for the Rasboras, I thought I would stick with an Asian theme bec. of the Rotalas (save for the otos). I took a chance "blending" the two kinds of fish. I am glad you like it!


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

Did you say you bought the fish from Planet Inverts?


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## TNguyen (Mar 20, 2005)

Those baits look pretty cool.  The plants are looking awesome. Way to go bbk.


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

houseofcards said:


> Did you say you bought the fish from Planet Inverts?


Gak! #-o :doh:Moderator please edit!

Sorry about that! I meant Invertzfactory (niko and milalic). Great guys! http://www.invertzfactory.com/stocklist.htm


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## milalic (Aug 26, 2005)

nice fish and tank


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

I have let this thread go for a while. The setup is now approaching 5 months. I topped and replanted the stems at least 3 times. I got rid of some stems to minimize the number of species I am keeping in this tank and did some minor rearranging of the hardscape.

Current scape 10 days after a major topping/replanting. Moss was getting out of control on the dw because I did not tie it down well the first place. This made it necessary to remove all the moss, retying tightly, then trimming down really short with curved scissors. 









The HC never really looked that good from the start. Since the UG was taking off I removed some of the HC to make room and am letting the UG slowly eat the rest:croc:!









Ludwiga sp. "Guinea" to give a touch of red.


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

Update! Had an issue with the canister flow rate slowing down due to gunk in the impeller assembly. This resulted in the UG melting (fast!!) and a outbreak of GDA. This was treated by thorough servicing of the filter, 50% water change daily and addition of carbon pad to remove the excess organics. After ~7-8 days water was crystal clear again. But I plan to keep the carbon pad on board for another 2 weeks just in case. UG melting stopped in its tracks at its recovered nicely.

Still have a lot to learn with trimming skills, but I least I got over my fear of killing the stems by overtrimming. The pics below are 3 weeks after the defeat of GDA.

Exuberant growth









Rotala reflection









Ludwiga guinea looks great and is growing so fast I had to I gave a bunch away to a club member.


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## HoustonFishFanatic (Feb 26, 2007)

Looks nice. Keep up the good work.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

here's this tank again. i had meant to go look for it. it looks fantastic!


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

Thanks for the kind comments! This is my longest lived setup so far, its been going since 11/2008! I came close to throwing in the towel when the GDA broke out but I decided that it was important for me to try learn had how to defeat it if I could.


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## cpark188 (Jul 25, 2008)

Bunbuku said:


> Thanks for the kind comments! This is my longest lived setup so far, its been going since 11/2008! I came close to throwing in the towel when the GDA broke out but I decided that it was important for me to try learn had how to defeat it if I could.


Surely. you have won the battle. Keep it up.


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## clearleaf (Oct 4, 2008)

This looks great, could we get a full tank shot?


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## jciotti (Aug 14, 2007)

Looking really good my friend.


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