Single Stone Iwagumi & ADA philosophy guide

[Francis Xavier]

So, I had a bit of a growing period in terms of aquascaping, work and so on. With so many new things to learn and try out, it was time to get back in the saddle after about a 2 month hiatus from my apartment. The setups I had going surprisingly grew in relatively fine, no algae or the like - just not very apt towards an aquascape. It was a bit surprising really since they probably went about a month and a half (or likely all randomly ran out of co2 the day I left) without any co2. Lends credence to the plant mass out competing algae theory.

In any event, faced with some scapers block, I decided to focus on technique and the challenge of using a single stone for an Iwagumi.

The reason why a single stone layout is difficult is that you need one stone that, by itself, can stand alone and make your statement. It has no support, no periphery you just have plants and a stone. So you need to pick a stone that speaks all.

For me personally, I wanted a return to the more minimal and to make a more simple statement.

Here's the hardscape in place:


Planting, filled Day 1:


Plants & Things to touch up on next water change:



Technical Data:
Aquarium: 3.5g
Lighting: 27w 8,000k bulb
Substrate System: Bacter 100, Clear Super, Tourmaline BC, Penac P, Penac W, Amazonia Powder Type

Stone type: Ryuoh
Plants: Riccia, HC, Marsilea Crenata, Hydrocotyle sp.

Week 1 Fertilizer Techniques: Brighty K (one squirt / day), Green Bacter (10 drops a day)

I'll share some of the techniques I've learned throughout this journal, the first of which is during the first week this layout will get a water change once a day with daily dosing of Brighty K and Green Bacter.

After the first week, it will be daily doses of Brighty K and Green Brighty Step 1 and water changes every other day / as needed. Hopefully Amano and Oto cats won't be necessary, but if the diatom algae outbreak occurs, then they'll be added after a thorough water change and hand removal.

Substrate system theory defined:

I'll take this moment to briefly describe the ADA philosophy behind the substrate system. The keyword here is that it's all about whole system health, a focus on the entire ecosystem - not just the plants.

Bacter 100 & Clear Super and what they do:

ADA describes Bacter 100 as over 100 different types of microorganisms - but what this really means for the substrate system is that you immediately turn your substrate into a secondary biological filter. You pre-seed the substrate layers (in tanks larger than a 5.5 gallon, using power sand is recommended) with this bacteria to help jump start the cycling, but more importantly to add bacteria that help the system stay healthy at large.

By giving your plant's roots direct access to a strong center of biological filtration, you encourage them to be healthier, more free from algae and increase the health, stamina, vigor and vitality of the plants. This helps enable them to outcompete algae and grow at better rates. This also helps keep the water more "pure" - and the more "pure" the water, the healthier the system.

Clear Super serves as a 'food' source for the Bacteria contained in Bacter 100 and enables the bacteria to grow quicker and stay healthy by not having them starved during setup and maintenance for lack of natural food sources.

In a Mini S/M size you should only need about 1/3 of the bottle of Bacter 100 & Clear Super, potentially even less: around 1/4th - which gives you room for 3-4 layouts total. Just gently spread both on the bottom pane of glass. Bacter 100 first, then Clear Super on top of it. Try to get an even spread across the aquarium

Tourmaline BC:

Tourmaline BC is a high purity / quality powder carbon source and goes in roughly the same proportions of Bacter 100 & Clear Super. It goes on top of these in the substrate system on the bottom pane of glass.

Tourmaline helps keep the water pure by absorbing organic pollutants (like plant decay from initial setup or from conversion from emersed to submersed growth forms) and is essentially powder forms of Bamboo Charcoal.

Penac P & Penac W

Before covering these further, let me first state that these are essentially the same as "vitamin" supplements that someone might take on the side on a daily basis. They aren't exactly necessary and obviously you'll live without it. For these it's kind of a preference thing and there's not really any 'science' to back them up. I threw them in because we had some extra laying around and a little bit goes a long way.

But just in case you are interested:

Penac W is designed to prevent the substrate from becoming anaerobic, it's essentially just something to throw in to improve the substrate environment as a whole.

Probably the better use of this product, or well something more measurable is that it can be added directly to the aquarium water in the case of an oxygen shortage in the aquarium: for example if you accidentally overdosed Co2. It serves to rapidly oxygenate the water.

Penac P is an additive for 'improving the soil,' by aiding in the ability for plants to spread their roots and grow healthier. It's just an additional supplement for aiding in the growth in aquatic plants.

Again, these two aren't exactly necessary, they're just like taking vitamin supplements. It's more of a "wholistic" thing.

Aqua Soil Amazonia

I probably don't need to explain much here - very high nutrient concentrated substrate that also lowers the pH. This is by far the work-horse of growing your aquatic plants.

Conclusion

As you can see, on day one the water is pretty clear, completely avoiding any 'cloudiness' issue or anything of the sort while not running any carbon or the like in the filter. This is achieved with a combination of using the substrate additives and very gently filling the water to not disturb the substrate too much.

[Fat Guy]

Awesome. Looking forward to watching this tank develop.

[TLE041]

Interesting scape.

Do you find your Ryuoh stones have any affect on the water parameters at all? In my Mini-M, the 10 lbs. of Ryuoh really buffers the water and increases its hardness quite a bit. Even with the RO water I add to the tank, My dGH is 11 and dKH is 7. pH is raised to 7.6-7.8.

[Francis Xavier]

Hey Tony,

I don't find the Ryuoh Stones I use to have much / if any effect on my water parameters. They are supposed to be inert, but I would suspect that they slightly affect water, as most rock tends to. However, my base water is also like 8.9 out of the tap - so using stones like Ryuoh never really had a noticeable impact.

I have been messing with be Soft for a little while on the layouts around the gallery though (which we don't use RODI on) and have noticed it's been a little easier to grow plants for us here.

[Francis Xavier]

Fat Guy,

I must say I have enjoyed watching you progress from the Edge to the Mini M. Your scaping skills have definitely improved!

[PaulG]

Love it. I've been cosidering a one rock scape for a while, will be interesting to see how yours develops.

[Francis Xavier]

Okay, so I've gotten to day two, and am actually keeping up with a Journal for once.

I have my lighting period set from 10pm at night to 6am in the morning (8 hour photoperiod), which I will probably bump up as the need arises - sometimes playing with an 8-10 hour photoperiod can help make things easier. Not all planted aquariums are the same. Right now I start on the low-side to judge how algae will occur in the aquarium. Preventative measures in the fight against algae is always the best way to go (preventative doesn't mean you won't get algae, you're pretty much always going to get it to some degree).

I did notice an interesting effect, and that is the effect of Penac W on the substrate in terms of oxygenation levels in the aquarium overall, I did perhaps go a little overboard in the dosing of it for this small size aquarium, ended up using double the recommended dosage by just simply putting in a more sizeable dosage to equal Bacter 100 & Clear Super levels:



As you can see there's quite a lot of oxygen in the system, that's just one side of the aquarium.

It's important, for planted aquaria, that the system reach a stable (i.e. cycled) point as quickly as possible to enable the growth of healthy aquatic plants and deter from algae. For this reason, I am doing a water change once a day everyday for the first week, taking it down to about this level:



And you can see, still clear water and going pretty good (the Marsilea is melting a bit hard in the back, dunno if it will work out in the long-term, as the batch we got was pretty well melted to begin with)



upon filling with water, I Dosed one squirt of Brighty K and 15 drops of Green Bacter (aids in replenishing Beneficial bacteria after a water change, as well as during the cycling process help's speed up the process of cycling. This Amazonia should be ready for Amano shrimp in about 5 days).

While filling the water - just do it slowly, try not to disturb the substrate too much, if at all. You shouldn't be blowing aquasoil around.

Let's keep this going and see how things continue to turn out! I have a shakey-mobile video of water filling, but I need to figure out a better way of uploading it for viewing.

[IWANNAGOFAST]

oh it looks great! Are you going to have the hydrocotyle spread all over the riccia in the front or just in the back?

[Francis Xavier]

IWGF,

My plan with the hydrocotyle is to keep it as a background plant - so the end goal is for it to drape a little over the main stone. I've been watching it's growth patterns for months now and I believe it will fulfill this role.

[kwc1974]

Interesting look, that is not the San Marcos riccia I gave you ist it?

I like that this scape is only with one rock proving you can find that one show rock and have a great scape

[Francis Xavier]

Hey Kevin,

That is indeed the San Marcos Riccia you gave me. I'm hoping it grows in well keeping that same color and size submersed!

[Francis Xavier]

The first week of this layout being up is almost over - and it's gotten a water change every single day. Once the next week starts, it will turn into water changes every second day. So, from Saturday -> Monday, Weds, Fri, Sun.

But as you can see here as well, the aquarium is going through a pretty intense melt-down phase. Except for the hydrocotyl in the back, which really needs no encouragement to grow, there's wholesale melting of the Riccia (which was semi-emersed), HC (which was totally emersed), and the Marsilea Minuta (which was totally emersed).

The Minuta was a lost cause - frankly it just came into the aquarium too late, given enough time they would bounce back as submergent growth was already seen, but the shipment of plants we get from our wholesaler is always a bit weak. If they aren't put into water almost immediately upon receiving them, then usually they are a lost cause. In this case they were shipped two day instead of one day, and then didn't see an aquarium until the third day.

So, the end result was the Minuta was mostly replaced with some of it already in the emerged form.

The HC is in a similar boat (having come from the wholesaler) - and may also need replacing. By and large it's just best not to keep rotting plants in the aquarium.

I must say though, that by and large packaging of plants we get from hobbyists is always 400% better than from wholesale sources and have much longer vitality before needing to be put into an aquarium.

However, this is normal and expected - KWC warned me that this Riccia would go through this phase before bouncing back considering it's original source, and it's nothing that I'm not prepared for.

In the mean time, still dosing 1-2 drops of Green Bacter daily and 1 squirt (1 mL) of Brighty K daily. Let's see how it keeps on going and bounces around. It'll be more careful removal of dead plant material in the next week is my prediction.

[Blice]

Sorry to hear about the melting . I don't know much about riccia so I'll be watching this thread to see how it does. How much co2 are you putting in the tank?

[Francis Xavier]

Currently about 1-2 bps.

The melting with emersed grown plants is normal, so it's nothing that I'm too worried about!

[plantbrain]

I think there's a lot to be said for starting with a simple element for scaping, then building on that carefully. This is a better teacher than trying to start with a complex idea/scape.