25L Iwagumi Journal *UPDATED*

[Callum]

So i'm setting up a 25L Iwagumi. I just need a little help on ideas for the hardscape! If possible, could you tell me which one you think looks best? Light is a little dodgy.
Here are some pictures of the different styles:


1.
IMG_4060 by callum fish, on Flickr

IMG_4061 by callum fish, on Flickr

IMG_4062 by callum fish, on Flickr

2.
IMG_4063 by callum fish, on Flickr

IMG_4064 by callum fish, on Flickr

3.
IMG_4065 by callum fish, on Flickr

IMG_4066 by callum fish, on Flickr

The ugly eheim internal filter will be gone shortly (being replaced with an external).

Plant-wise i'm looking to get a nice Eleocharis Parvula carpet (original, hehe) or maybe HC?
Any suggestions for plants, rock work, lighting etc.. are much appreciated. I will be keeping this journal updated so stay tuned to see the development of this tank!

Callum

 

[spyder]

Re: 25L Iwagumi Journal

The large rock on the right, Rotate it 90 degrees clockwise, to stick up and give a little height. TGM has an Iwagumi guide that explains the rocks used and positioning. Quite an indepth guide.

I'm not sure if it's my eye's, monitor or the pics but the rocks don't seem to pop from the substrate. Darker substrate or darker rocks would help but if you gonna carpet it you shouldn't see much of the substrate anyway.

 

[Callum]

Re: 25L Iwagumi Journal

The large rock on the right, Rotate it 90 degrees clockwise, to stick up and give a little height. TGM has an Iwagumi guide that explains the rocks used and positioning. Quite an indepth guide.

I'm not sure if it's my eye's, monitor or the pics but the rocks don't seem to pop from the substrate. Darker substrate or darker rocks would help but if you gonna carpet it you shouldn't see much of the substrate anyway.

Thanks i'll check it out...
And it's the pics.. looks much different "in real life"

 

[nayr88]

Re: 25L Iwagumi Journal

Yeah the rocks are reeeeaaallly merging Into the gravel! They or new rocks need to be less flat aswell
.

Do you have you ferts sorted mate? What will you be dosing?
Are you using any root tabs or undergravel nutrients?

 

[Callum]

Re: 25L Iwagumi Journal

Gonna use dry ferts and I'm gonna use API root tabs. In real life the rocks don't look nearly as merged but I guess I might get my hands on some ADA soil.
Ah well, it's my first attempt at an iwagumi, it's not gonna be perfect straight away!

 

[nayr88]

Re: 25L Iwagumi Journal

Ofcourse not, so I'd advise against the Ada substrate no need for it, get yourself some colombo flora base tons cheaper and good stuff.

Ei is a good choice and I can see your using co2 so that's a good one too, decent light and good flow will really complete the must haves.

 

[Callum]

Re: 25L Iwagumi Journal

*UPDATE*
Father Christmas chose wisely and decided to get me some Colombo Flora base (looking good!). So I thought i'd do a little update on the tank.



IMG_4067 by callum fish, on Flickr

Putting the flora base in

IMG_4068 by callum fish, on Flickr

Spreading with a WHSmith triangle ruler

IMG_4069 by callum fish, on Flickr

And decided on hardscape

IMG_4074 by callum fish, on Flickr

IMG_4075 by callum fish, on Flickr

Sorry for the poor lighting, still waiting on Santa to deliver another clipon.

Also waiting on dry ferts but mini pressurised CO2 is ready to go. I'm going to use an internal Eheim until i have the money to buy a Hydor external 300L/H (being only 16 i don't have much money to spend )
My brother got me a CO2 glass drop checker so that's one more thing off the list...
Plants are yet undecided apart from Eleocharis Parvula. Can anyone recommend other plants to go in?

I can't help but feel i could use the height of the tank more, so i might take the flora base out and put some tights filled with aquarium gravel to boost the height of the substrate. What do you guys think?

Anyway, that's all i can think of for now but more updates will come soon!

 

[spyder]

At this stage I would sit back and work out any tweeks to rock placement. Easier now than when planted and flooded

Here's that guide I mentioned, maybe worth a read if you didn't get around to it.

http://www.thegreenmachineonline.com/ar ... troduction

 

[Callum]

Very helpful, thanks. May have to invest in some larger stones.

 

[nayr88]

I reckon hairgrass all Over the back, then moss slate across the front that way you can run the co2 really low and will last you longer

Looking good though mate

 

[warman98]

I think that the Parvula at the back and HC in the front, just check you have a good CO2 distribution for the HC.

Looking forward for progress

 

[Callum]

Been spending my Christmas evening fiddling with the hardscape (thanks to reading TGM Iwagumi Introduction). I've found a scape which i quite like the look of. I'm also thinking of using the Amano moss technique (chopping it up and smearing it in the cracks of the rocks). Took a couple of pictures once in position (substrate still needs a little work):


IMG_4076 by callum fish, on Flickr


IMG_4077 by callum fish, on Flickr


IMG_4078 by callum fish, on Flickr

Thanks for looking, any tips or comments much appreciated

 

[Callum]

Just realised how similar the scape is to the one in the guide

 

[Antipofish]

Hi, Did you know that the small bags of florabase have smaller granule sizes. Should not matter if you hope to cover it all though, but sometimes I feel the larger granules look too big in a small tank. Rockwork definitely looking a lot better now the rocks are pointing out of the substrate more. Looking forward to watching this one progress

 

[Callum]

No I did not know that :I but I plan to cover everything so should be ok

 

[nayr88]

I reckon hairgrass all Over the back, then moss slate across the front that way you can run the co2 really low and will last you longer

Looking good though mate

I think it's going to cost you an arm and a leg rePlacing the small co2 bottles if your going to go for 3 bps of co2 from the little cans, I think slow it right down to 1 bubble per 3 seconds and then dose some liquid carbon.

 

[Callum]

Ferts arrived today

 

[doobiw55]

How's progress going? What co2 system are you using?

Tom

 

[Callum]

Little update.
Yesterday I bought a fluval 205 (I know this is a little overkill for a tank so small but I was able to get it cheaper than the Hydor Prime 10 so I thought why not?) So I will have to get a couple of inline taps to reduce flow if the filter doesn't come with them anyway. Since the last update I've got a drop checker, dry ferts for EI dosing and another light (now 22W total of lighting). Still left on the shopping list: CO2 solenoid, atomizer, phosguard, purigen, timer plugs, CO2 proof tubing, bubble counter and of course the plants. I'm not going to have the tank running until I get everything I need. In the future I may also invest in an external heater. I'm not bothered about buying such powerful and expensive equipment for such a small tank as if I tear it down I can always use the equipment on one of my larger tanks. Today I might buy the solenoid and the atomizer, then I'll be pretty much ready and the rest of the stuff on the shopping list will be for "fine-tuning" the set up. If anyone has anything on my list that they can sell me that would be perfect. Plant wise I'm still a little undecided. Would definitely like to get an Eleocharis parvula carpet as my mate would be well jealous and I can get tropica pots locally. As for livestock I was thinking yellow cherry shrimp, a shoal of Normans lampeyes and some ottos. But I will have to do more research in to th compatibility of these first. I'm also tempted to go for lily pipes as I've made so much effort to have "invisible" equipment. I will not be buying them though, I will make my own using a heat gun and some plastic tubing as mikeappleby did in his journal.
Thanks for looking.

 

[Callum]

How's progress going? What co2 system are you using?

Tom

CO2 system is a fluval 20 kit I had lying around. Will be running with an inline atomizer in my external filter.