Critique my aquascape My First Iwagumi Scape

[ricardodarmali]

Day 6 update:
Cycling still in progress, but it looks like it's almost there, done water tests for the fourth day, and got below readings:

• pH in the range of 6.8
• Ammonia 0.0
• Nitrite is currently of 0.25
• Nitrate +/- 80 ppm
• Water change 30% RO water
• TDS reading 141

Cheers!

 

[ricardodarmali]

Day 7 update:
Cycling is at last showing a full cycle has been made! Planting time tomorrow, plants are on their way! Today water parameter tests result:

• pH 6.8
• Ammonia 0.0
• Nitrite 0.0
• Nitrate +/- 40 ppm
• No water change today
• Seachem stability dosing 5 ml (1 capful)
• TDS reading 159 ppm

Cheers!

 

[ricardodarmali]

Hey Ricardo, if I put bushy rotals at the back, I would do this. Just play with those beautiful rock forms! But that is your great hardscape, I m sure, you will do a cool planting. 😁

@Yanee I decided to make some rough sketch on your planting suggestion, will try to apply this tomorrow while planting

 

[Yanee]

Wow Ricardo. I absolutely love that. Looks so cool. Please take some pictures meanwhile planting!(that scape.it site is great to get some clue )

 

[ricardodarmali]

Day 8 update:
1st day planted tank! Still do water parameter tests as usual:

• pH 6.8
• Ammonia 0.0
• Nitrite 0.0
• Nitrate +/- 40 ppm
• Water change 10%
• Seachem stability dosing 5 ml (1 capful)
• TDS reading 147 ppm

Plants:

• Micranthemum 'Monte Carlo'
• Glossostigma elatinoides
• Eleocharis parvula 'mini'
• Rotala blood red (emmersed form)
• Rotala rotundifolia (emmersed form)

I will keep the journal on. @Yanee

Cheers!

 

[ricardodarmali]

Day 9 update:
2nd day planted tank, water parameter tests as follows:

• pH 6.8
• Ammonia 0.0
• Nitrite 0.25
• Nitrate +/- 20 ppm
• No water change today
• Seachem stability dosing 2.5 ml (1/2 cap)
• TDS reading 173 ppm

Plants:

• Micranthemum 'Monte Carlo'
• Glossostigma elatinoides
• Eleocharis parvula 'mini'
• Pistia stratiotes x4
• Rotala blood red (emmersed form)
• Rotala rotundifolia (emmersed form)

Cheers!

 

[ricardodarmali]

Day 10 update:
3rd day planted tank, water parameter tests as follows:

• pH 6.8
• Ammonia 0.0
• Nitrite 0.0
• Nitrate +/- 20 ppm
• 30% water change
• Seachem stability dosing 2.5 ml (1/2 cap)
• TDS reading 141 ppm (after water change)

Plants:

• Micranthemum 'Monte Carlo'
• Glossostigma elatinoides
• Eleocharis parvula 'mini'
• Pistia stratiotes x4
• Rotala blood red (emmersed form)
• Rotala rotundifolia (emmersed form)

Cheers!

 

[Yanee]

Great job with plants, Ricardo. I think you will get a cool colours and shapes, rotalas are on perfect place!

 

[ricardodarmali]

Thanks @Yanee ! It looks like they are well on track, will monitor the plant growth on daily basis My blood red rotalas are a bit slanted towards the front of the tank though..

Day 11 update:
4th day planted tank, water parameter tests as follows:

• pH 6.8
• Ammonia 0.0
• Nitrite 0.0
• Nitrate +/- 10 ppm
• No water change
• Seachem stability dosing 2.5 ml (1/2 cap)
• TDS reading 163 ppm

Cheers!

 

[ricardodarmali]

Day 12 update:
5th day planted tank, water parameter tests as follows:

• pH 6.8
• Ammonia 0.0
• Nitrite 0.0
• Nitrate +/- 10 ppm
• 30% water change
• Seachem stability dosing 2.5 ml (1/2 cap)
• TDS reading 143 ppm (after water change)

Planning to do daily water parameter tests until day 14th, and after that I guess I can slack off a little bit thinking to monitor once in two days.

Cheers!

 

[ricardodarmali]

Day 13 update:
6th day planted tank, water parameter tests as follows:

• pH 7.2
• Ammonia 0.0
• Nitrite 0.0
• Nitrate +/- 10 ppm
• No water change
• Seachem stability dosing 2.5 ml (1/2 cap)
• TDS reading 154 ppm

Cheers!

 

[ricardodarmali]

Day 14 update:
7th day planted tank, water parameter tests as follows:

• pH 6.8
• Ammonia 0.0
• Nitrite 0.0
• Nitrate +/- 10 ppm
• 30% water change
• Seachem stability dosing 2.5 ml (1/2 cap)
• TDS reading 121 ppm (after water change)

Cheers!

 

[Wookii]

Planning to do daily water parameter tests until day 14th, and after that I guess I can slack off a little bit thinking to monitor once in two days.

That's a very fast cycle! Once you're reading zero ammonia, I wouldn't bother with any further testing, it doesn't really provide any benefit. Just concentrate on obtaining plant growth, as your plant mass is quite low.. Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see any mention of what fertilizer you are dosing? That will be more important than the Seachem Stability which you can probably discontinue now.

 

[ricardodarmali]

Yeah I guess Seachem Stability helps after all! So far, I haven't encounter any algae issue (not even diatoms - I guess Pistia helps to absorb excess nutrient in water columns as well and they have been growing quite well in size) and so I hope it will continue as is, with the regular water change schedule that I am planning and doing.. And yes I will follow your suggestion to cut the water parameter tests to probably once every other week or even month! It has been pretty stable over the course of these past two weeks so I think at least I am doing something right to be on top of the maintenance routine and so I will cut down the Seachem Stability to only add it after large water change.

Now as for the plant growth, the rotalas are growing quite fast, and submerged leaves are seen to propagate so my plant mass starts to increase as well (will upload update photos later on this week). And yes, you don't miss any! You're right that I don't do fertilizer... yet, as I am trying to convince myself of the review I read over YT regarding Neo Soil Compact and they themselves have been promoting in their website - good growth with no added liquid ferts for at least the first 3 months after planting. Subsequent to the first 3 months, the nutrition will start to decrease and by then I should have added liquid fertilizer.. Thinking to get Tropica specialised, or do you have any other recommendation on how I can go about it @Wookii ?

Oh forgot to mention that I put 6 hours of photo period for the past one week (after planting on Dec 30th to today), with 60% intensity on the Twinstar 600s.




Cheers!

 

[ricardodarmali]

Day 18 update:
11th day planted tank, growth-wise quite ok, in my opinion it looks like where it should be.. Water parameter tests as follows:

• pH ~7.6
• Ammonia 0.0
• Nitrite 0.0
• Nitrate +/- 5 ppm
• No water change - tomorrow is the WC schedule
• TDS reading 137 ppm
• Photo period 6 hours at 60%, ramp up period 1 hour, starting from 3% (moon light)

Cheers!

 

[dougbraz]

Nice looking tank!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ricardodarmali]

Thanks mate! @dougbraz

Day 38 update:
31st day planted tank, rotalas have been growing ok, glossos are fine, monte carlo are a tad too slow, I always have to remove melting monte carlo here and there, but here is the state as of today:

• Added 3 SAEs, 1 oto and 4 RCS in the past 2 weeks
• No ferts whatsoever, all relied on Neo soil to provide nutrition
• Algae is under control, no persistent algae up to today, diatoms are feeding the SAEs and oto
• 6 hours photo period
• 2 bps CO2

Cheers!

 

[ommmartin]

the scape looks fantastic so far...keep going!

 

[Yanee]

Hey Ricardo, how is your scape now? Plants growing fast?

 

[ricardodarmali]

Hey Ricardo, how is your scape now? Plants growing fast?

Hello Yanee!

Yes they are growing ok, still no ferts added so far, it should be enough for another month without ferts they say. Here is the state as of today 😊

I am happy with how the glosso have spread over the entire front areas, but my monte carlo are tad slow, thoughts?