3 stone Iwagumi

[daejra]

Hi everyone 🙂

I have just set up my first ever aquascape. It is an Iwagumi-inspired setup in a 42 litre aquarium. I'm very pleased with it!

I am doing a dry start at the moment to let the carpet fill in. Started 21/01/24, a week ago exactly, everything is looking good so far.

Substrate: Tropica powder aquasoil
Plants (all from Tropica 1-2 grow):

• Micranthemum Monte Carlo
• Eleocharis acicularis mini
• Lilaeopsis brasiliensis
• Helanthium tenellum 'Green'

Once I flood the tank I'll be adding some taller hairgrass in the right back corner + Cyperus Helferi or Vallisneria nana to drape along the surface from right to left.
Planning to stock it with Blue Velvet Shrimp and a small school of Neon Tetra further down the line.

Light: SunSun ADE 400C LED Light 18 W

Tech plans:

• ordered the AllPondSolutions 400L/H external filter (seems like an overkill for a small tank like this from what I've read on here, but the tank has a thick metal rim so a HOB wouldn't sit right, and I didn't want an internal filter to take up space)
• CO2 diffuser + dyi yeast setup
• 50 W heater for the neon tetra

 

[Bradders]

I love the imposing look of the large rock on the right! It's shaping up to be a super little aquarium.

 

[G H Nelson]

Looks promising @daejra
Get some floating/surface plants.....and implement the Tutorial below!
You can always remove them at a later date.

Using stem plants as a filtering aid at Start Up!

The subject of using fast-growing stem plants as part of a filtering aid has cropped up a few times recently. This idea has been around for a long time so not new, it has benefits, especially for a new setup. 1. Improves water quality. 2. Reduces excess light. 3. Reduces diatoms. 4. Reduces...

www.ukaps.org

 

[daejra]

Thanks for the tip @GHNelson! I was considering doing exactly that + turning the lights for no longer than 5 hours a day initially to prevent algea. Also frequent water changes to begin with seems to be what most people are recommending, so planning to do that too.

 

[daejra]

1 week of growth update.
23/01 (2 days after planting, left) vs. 31/01 (right).

Light is on for 12 hours a day; I am airing it out daily for about 15 minutes, for the rest of the day it is covered with a glass lid. Before planting I filled the tank with water to just below substrate level.
Monte Carlo is growing nicely, both hairgrass and micro sword are sending out runners. Helanthium (top right corner) had some drying on the tips of some of the leaves so I started misting it -- it is taller than other plants and is sitting directly under the light, so maybe that is causing the issue? Other plants are staying moist. The Helanthium had some yellowing when straight out of the pot already, so maybe it just wasn't as healthy to begin with. Not too concerned though as still looking good.

 

[daejra]

2.5 weeks of growth.
10/02: Monte Carlo and micro sword are still growing well, hairgrass is growing too but pretty slowly. Helanthium is not drying out anymore, but also does not seem to be growing much at all. A bit of algae showed up today on the upper face of the tallest rock, thankfully none of it is on the soil/plants. I'll clean it off to prevent spreading. Planning to flood in about 2 weeks.

 

[daejra]

4 weeks of growth:
Pretty much ready to flood! Very pleased with how everything has grown (maybe besides the helanthium which is still temperamental to say the least..)
I'm building a dyi co2 reactor and I need to add a small upgrade to that, once that's done I'll be putting the water in.

 

[daejra]

Dyi CO2 ready for flooding 🙂

 

[mlgt]

How do you control the amount of co2 using this diy method? Interested 😀

 

[Bradders]

I have heard a mixture of black magic and voodoo. (I could be wrong, of course. It was on Google after all).

 

[daejra]

How do you control the amount of co2 using this diy method? Interested 😀

I have heard a mixture of black magic and voodoo. (I could be wrong, of course. It was on Google after all)

Pretty much lol, I don't think you really can, but I am no expert. Some people claim you could try to put a needle valve on the outlet to limit the flow, but you'd be risking the bottles bursting under excess presssure. You mostly have control over the amount of the yeast/sugar/water in the mixture; but the rates at which CO2 is produced fluctuate (with temperature, amount of alcohol already produced in the mix, etc).

My plan is to have it running after I flood the tank to give the plants the best chance of survival while they adapt from emmersed growth & monitor the ph while the tank cycles. If it swings too much I might ditch it altogether before adding in livestock. It is not super efficient though, so I doubt there will be a problem with too much CO2.

 

[daejra]

Flooding day!

Time has finally come 🙂
I received & planted the last remaining plants yesterday -- some taller hairgrass & a bunch of cyperus helferi for the right back corner -- so it was time to flood the tank!

Here is the tank with the new plants right after filling it up with water:


I added some floating plants (amazon frogbit) to take up nutrients from the water column as @GHNelson recommended:


The filter provides a healthy bit of flow & surface agitation which gently pushes the frogbit around, really enjoying the look of it! Wasn't planning on keeping it forever since it takes away from the puristic Iwagumi aesthetic in my opinion, but I might be changing my mind! The filter is really quiet which is great as the tank is in the bedroom (otherwise I would be risking divorce 🙃), very happy with this too.



I placed the CO2 diffuser in front of the outlet lily pipe to help disperse the CO2, seems to be doing the job 🙂


... and here it is today, a day in:



Very happy with the outcome! I am praying to the fishtank gods to spare me from algae disasters and melting... The plants stayed healthy throughout the dry start so I hope this gives me a decent chance of success.

Light are on for 6 hours/day, heater is on 21 degrees, dyi CO2 is on all the time, but dies back at night naturally because the room gets colder. I am planning to do 30% water changes 3 times a week for the first few weeks to prevent algae, then go to once a week after that.

Should I trim the carpet right away? I read some conflicting information so now I am holding back.

 

[daejra]

1 week after flooding update

All the plants growing well, no melting at all! Very happy so far.

There is some algae growth on the rocks (it was already there prior to flooding), I try to brush it off when I do water changes to stunt the growth. I hope that the shrimp will keep that in check once I introduce them. I have raised the light today further from the water surface to reduce the intensity slightly to hopefully minimise the algae spread.

I am going on a week long holiday in a week's time, so I am a bit worried there might be an algae bloom due to no water changes throughout that time.. hopefully it will be fine.

Doing 30% water changes every second day for now, light is on for 6 hrs a day.

 

[daejra]

Trimmed the Monte Carlo carpet for the first time yesterday to even it out, it is growing nice and dense 🙂
The plants that were doing less well during the dry start (helanthium and hairgrass) are looking much healthier now since putting the water in.
Frogbit is growing like crazy, I have to trim its roots every few days as they end up reaching the bottom of the tank.
Going away for a week on Friday -- will do a bigger water change before that and trim the frogbit again, hopefully it will be still alright when I am back!

 

[daejra]

The inhabitants have finally moved in today! Two amano shrimp and 9 green neons. Everyone is looking happy and settled🙂

 

[AlStu]

Looking amazing! I personally love the atmosphere that the trimmed roots give

 

[daejra]

Looking amazing! I personally love the atmosphere that the trimmed roots give

Thank you! I like it a lot too, seems to make the fish feel safe 🙂

 

[G mac]

Impressive and looks great.

 

[bazz]

Nice to see floating plants on a Iwagumi, good for the fish, good for the ecosystem, can be temporarily removed for photographs and basically just looks so much better/natural. To me anyway.

 

[daejra]

9 month update
Hi all! It has been a while since I have updated -- so here is what has happened to the tank within its first 9 months. Overall the tank has been a great success and has maintained a healthy appearance with minimal maintenance.

I have kept a schedule of weekly 30% water changes and frogbit root trimming; other than that I very occassionally trimmed the monte carlo carpet. I have abandoned the DIY CO2 system after roughly the first 2 months, since the plastic bottle caps were cracking under pressure and needed replaced too often. While the CO2 was running the plants were growing at a very fast rate, and specifically the monte carlo carpet needed frequent trimming; once the CO2 was cut off the growth slowed down, but all the plants remained healthy, hence reducing the required maintenance -- a great outcome if you ask me!. I have kept the original 6 hr/day lighting schedule as a preventative against potential algea outbreaks. No fertiliser dosing whatsoever.

As far as livestock goes -- all 9 of the original green neons are still happy and healthy, but sadly I have lost the amano shrimp (died after molting -- has it happened to anyone else? what to do to prevent it?), I now have one new amano shrimp. I feed the tetras a mix of flakes and frozen brine shrimp. A population of seed shrimp has appeared in the tank quite early on -- the neons seem to be sometimes feeding on the seed shrimp but with little interest. The seed shrimp are feeding on the rotting frogbit leaves so I just let them be, as far as I understand they are not a problem for the tank.

For the most part I had no algea problems at all, although recently (as of this/last month) I have a bit of green filamentous hair algae growing in the tank which I remove manually when I change the water. I suspect the nutrients from the aquasoil have been used up by now (frogbit got pale, helanthium yellowed a bit and some leaves started dying) so the plants grow slower and get outcompeted by algea. I hope to add some plant nutrients in to try and help with that problem, might also introduce more amano shrimp. Any advice on how to deal with the hair algea welcome! Either way it has been managable to keep it in check with the weekly tank clean.

Oh yes, and I broke the glass inlet tube.. whoops!

May 2024 (5 months):



September 2024 (9 months):
Exuce the untrimmed





Amano shrimp:

Broken filter inlet..