# 60cm Iwagumi layout



## zig (Jul 3, 2005)

Hi everyone this is an Iwagumi layout I have been working on, yes another one, seems to be quite a few presented here on APC lately, nothing ground breaking going on here layout wise or planting wise but thats ok with me ive been wanting to try an Iwagumi layout for quite a while so here it is, this is my first attempt at such a layout also my first time using aquasoil, this setup is up and running now for 2 weeks.

Tank specs

24x12x12 54L or 14 gallon tank
ADA amazonia aquasoil
Filtration eheim 2211
Lighting 2x24W T5 8 hours per day
CO2 1-2 BPS
Dosing K from KHSO4 and just started dosing macro KNO3 and PO4 in small doses

Eleocharis parvula
HC
E.tenellus

Probably going to let this get a bit wild looking but will see how it goes, no algae so far but early days yet for this setup. No fish or shrimp in this tank yet will add them later.

Final rock layout









Layout from above showing rock positioning









The tank today



























All comments welcome, thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my layout


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## Yzfr6 (Apr 28, 2006)

That looks awesome!! Where did you get the rock and what kind is it? It really make this tank....


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## vtchica (Jun 8, 2005)

I agree, great looking tank! Those rocks are simply amazing...


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## figo (Dec 28, 2006)

The arrengment is perfect but I think that the focal point is exactly in the middle, why don't you try to move the bigger rock a little bit to the right, to brake the center?

That's all, Congratulations, fabulous tank.


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## Steven_Chong (Mar 17, 2005)

It's not incorrect to have a rock in the middle (and the focal point is the tip of the rock, not the rock itself). I think the rock arrangement is fine as it is-- though if I were you I'd work for a bit less symmatry. But, you know it's already a very solid iwagumi.


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## DonaldmBoyer (Aug 18, 2005)

I agree with Steve.....it is very beautiful the way it is, but the rocks are almost too perfectly spaced apart when you look at it straight on. But you could leave it, and still looks fantastic!


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## turtlehead (Nov 27, 2004)

Pretty nice, reminds me of my own. Great use of Seiryu rock. ADA ALL THE WAY!


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## John P. (Nov 24, 2004)

Very nicely arranged.


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## Dave Spencer (Mar 4, 2007)

How are you getting on with the AS Zig? I have an Iwagumi at the same stage as yours, but Ammonia is still very high. Any thoughts of getting Amanos and Otos in there are way off.

The Aqua Soil Amazonia powder I have is doing some pretty strange things.


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## Yoshi (Apr 7, 2007)

I love how these "small" tanks (<20G) seem so LARGE!

I bet you could pass this off as a tank with 2x - 3x the water volume if you wanted to! I admire your aquascaping. Show us some pics when you finally get some planting done.


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## zig (Jul 3, 2005)

Thanks for the replies and the helpful suggestions to improve the layout everyone, appreciate it.

The rocks are known as mini landscape rocks here in Europe, you can buy them from a couple of places online, although buying rocks this way has its pitfalls, the first order of rocks I recieved were HUGE, my second order was more successful and I received a nice choice of rock and different sizes, although you need to order quite a few kilos this way in order to have a good choice, much better if you can see them in person unfortunately good aquascaping material does not exist in the lfs around here.

Yes I was aware the middle rock was very centered and pulled the eye as a focal point, I tried many layouts before I decided on this one, I had the 3 main rocks more to the right hand side in the aquarium at one stage, but found it very hard to achieve a balance on the other side with the layout, the more I played around with the rocks I kept going back to the centre for the main rock, it felt right for the rocks at my disposal to have it there, I can also see what you mean by the layout being symetric Steven, I tried to achieve an organised randomness to the layout but maybe I need to do more work here for this and future layouts, I may tweek this layout a bit more but its quite difficult without major disruption to the tank as it is, as a discipline I usually just concentrate on a front view for any hardscape, if it looks good from the front eye view it will generally look good from any angle IMO. Im hoping when the plants grow in it will add a lot to the overall final look of the tank.

Dave........I dont have an ammonia testkit just doing lots of water changes for now and running activated carbon in the filter, the only slight problem is some of the HC has melted at the bottom of the stems, but its not a major issue I am also seeing good growth as well, I think the melting problem is common with new aquasoil for certain plants, in my case its very slight, no algae yet but expecting diatom algae to show up pretty soon and will introduce perhaps 2 ottos at that stage but continue with water changes as well.

Thanks again to everyone for the suggestions.


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## hedson_25 (Sep 20, 2005)

how is doing that tank?


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## zQ. (Dec 15, 2006)

Any update ????????


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## gf225 (Mar 26, 2005)

Yeah, come on Peter.... Stop fiddling and get photographing! The closing date is August....


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## zig (Jul 3, 2005)

Sorry chaps don't subscribe to this thread so do not always realise there have been replies, apologies to Hedson25 you posted quite a while ago, anyway here's an update.

Decided to change this layout around, can't say I was entirely happy with the central layout of the original posted here so moved everything to the left hand side, this was a major task and I eventually decided to strip the entire tank down simply because it was easier, there were large holes in the substrate where the larger rocks were buried very deep so the substrate needed to be shifted around quite a bit to fill these gaps and reposition the rocks and it was definitely easier to just start again, its not a big tank so no big deal replanting again, so this layout has been planted 2 1/2 weeks now and this is how it looks today.

Just added the first fish tonight, some Otocinclus affinis the diatoms have started kicking in, growth has been excellent in the tank with no other problems only visible algae is the diatoms, have increased the photoperiod to 9 hours at 48W.

Let me know what you think, thanks for lookin


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## DonaldmBoyer (Aug 18, 2005)

God......just amazing, especially in a few weeks when the foreground will have filled in and the rest of the plants have grown a little bit. This could be one of the best iwagumi's I've seen! Very "Ireland-y" too! Well done!


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## figo (Dec 28, 2006)

Great!!! I Like it a lot

The new arrengment gives a totaly diferent perspective, and it looks bigger than the original scape.


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## zQ. (Dec 15, 2006)

Yeah ! Very nice but the HC looks not so gud.


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## DonaldmBoyer (Aug 18, 2005)

zQ.....he said he just re-planted and re-scaped everything two weeks ago. You HC wouldn't look very good either if you had to start from scratch, man!  Give the tank another two weeks, and the HC will look wonderful, I'm sure.


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## arowanaman (Jun 14, 2006)

indeed this tank is increadible. I see it being a very well ballanced aquascape with much potential when filled in very good job.


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## zQ. (Dec 15, 2006)

With this rock scape,a sloppy substrate will better,but just in my opinion.


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## zig (Jul 3, 2005)

zQ the HC is doing fine, I'd say the next couple of weeks will make a big difference to this scape, it will fill out an awful lot more, im hoping the left hand side where the rocks are will fill in a lot more with the grasses, already the e parvula is growing out among the HC and this is what I want, I will just let it grow "sloppy" and then selectively prune it, but for now just let it do its thing and grow wild.

Thanks for the comments folks


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## zig (Jul 3, 2005)

Hi everyone (4 months later )

I never finished this thread, Im very sorry about that folks, but this tank was entered very late into the ADA competition and I literally didn't get a chance to post them here first of all because the tank was not ready, so better late than never I guess:smile:

This tank was ranked position 204 in the International Aquatic Plants Layout contest 2007.

Just a quick recap on the spec for this tank

60x30x30cm tank (24x12x12 inch)
Eheim 2211 filter
2x24W osram T5s (cheapo lamps basically)
Lighting 9 hours per day
Pressurised CO2 @ 1BPS via glass diffuser
ADA Aquasoil amazonia
Fertiliser routine PPS PRO with TPN for trace

Plants 
HC
Eleocharis parvula
E tennellus

Fish - Danio choprai or Glowlight danio

Here are the final photographs for this layout.

The reworked hardscape













































Danio choprai









Thanks for looking everyone, and again, apologies for not posting these shots a good bit sooner.

Regards
Peter Kirwan


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## Yoshi (Apr 7, 2007)

Your tank has progressed a long way and turned out beautifully!

I love the aquascaping even more than before... the layout is perfect in my opinion! Great job

One question though, how come I can't really see the 5th rock on the very very right (the small one pictured in the 1st picture of the hardscape)? Was it removed or is it just covered up by the plants?


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## zenkatydid (Sep 24, 2007)

oh, so beautiful! i love the natural, wild look it has, and the way the plants blend together at their edges. really lovely.


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## Chuppy (Aug 5, 2007)

It turned out to be very nice! lovely tank.


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## Dantra (May 15, 2007)

Zig, your tank looks amazing in its simplicity. Its looks like an undisturbed part of nature found its way into your tank. Nicely done. :thumbsup:


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## renaud (Oct 15, 2006)

good evening 
your aquarium is really beautiful
I like the uneven one, who arrive at low, has before right. 
simplicity and beauty


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## zig (Jul 3, 2005)

Thanks everyone!

Yoshi I'm not sure why I took the rock out, I probably didn't want the rocks spanning the width of the tank again like in the previous hardscape before I revamped it, or more than likely I figured it was to small and would have gotten covered over pretty quickly once things grew in.


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## arowanaman (Jun 14, 2006)

very impressive I like the use of tanellus as the hill plant.


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## MARIMOBALL (Jun 20, 2007)

Zig congrats on your ranking in the contest. The rock is Amazing I like the clean bright green look of your tan. Its very peaceful looking.


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## pasd (Aug 26, 2007)

What an awesome looking tank. I like how you changed the position of the rock from the first scape. Is the mix hairgrass and HC foreground easy to maintain?


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## bhg (Feb 26, 2007)

nice


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## gf225 (Mar 26, 2005)

One of the best Iwagumis this forum has seen. Period.

Well done, Peter.


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## Steven_Chong (Mar 17, 2005)

Were these photos on A.essentials before? Obviously great work dude! 2 things I'd say though-- I think the HC could be tamed (evened out) a bit more, and the shading in the upper right corner is possibly distracting. I'd like to see a photo with just plain white to see if it looks better.


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## zig (Jul 3, 2005)

High praise indeed George!!! no pressure for the next one then!!! (joking, thanks George) 

Arowanaman thankyou, I have to admit to seeing one or two of your own tanks around here naw seriously though one of your 10 gallon layouts is one of my all time favourites, you set the bar high.

pasd, no, the separation between all the plants here was pretty clear when I planted, some overlap was inevitable though once things grew in but I suppose thats needed for a more natural look, it was a very easy tank to growout and maintain, the E tenellus just needed some gentle persuasion/guidance to grow in the right areas but that was all I needed to do really, the rock choice and getting the hardscape right was the hardest thing really about this layout IMO.

Hi Steven, No I didn't show these photos anywhere else before they were posted here. I was under pressure with the photos, they were literally being taken just hours before the deadline for ADA submissions, very last minute job, but I do agree though, attention to detail could have been better. This layout doesn't exist any longer so I can't do any more photo's I'm afraid, I have a new layout in the tank now, another Iwagumi layout, not sure its as good though. Thanks for the critique appreciate it. 

Thanks to everyone else for some great comments!


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## af2373 (Jul 9, 2004)

awesome looking tank!


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## aquaquang (Jul 2, 2007)

awesome tank!
i think it will look natural and even better with slopes


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## Paul Munro (Aug 5, 2007)

Where could I get rocks like that???


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## zig (Jul 3, 2005)

Paul Munro said:


> Where could I get rocks like that???


Paul Munro, try the link below, they generally have them in stock. The rocks are known as mini landscape rocks.

http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=11_239

Regards 
Peter Kirwan


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