60P Iwagumi - First Try

[TexasCichlid]

Starting my journal for this tank. Whenever I tell my wife that it's "Iwagumi" style, she looks at me and asks if I said ooeygooey. Now she just thinks it's funny. Oh well.

Up to 15 Espei Rasboras, 5 standard oto cats and 1 dwarf gourami. Also a few amano shrimp and a couple nerites and a few PFR.

edit -- Added PFR's back Jan 2013 to help with scavenging stuff out of the carpet. Very large blyxa trim and replant in progress. Current growth rate is 10 stems of blyxa grows into 200+ stems of blyxa in 3 months time.

http://youtu.be/1Zu7Z5huTWw

Finnex Fugeray
ADA 60P, slightly used
6L Amazonia New, Normal Type
2L Amazonia New, Powder Type
Seiryu type stones from PC1
Eheim 2075
Hydor 200W
eBay lily pipes ( 17mm )

5# AquriumPlants.com CO2 tank
Victor HPT 272
Burkert solenoid
Ideal 52-1-12 needle valve
JBJ style bubble counter
Sera Flore 1000 Reactor

Latest Picture




Initial Planting






Original Hardscape



Inspiration/Goal for the tank

[Geniusdudekiran]

Nice! Love the scape.

[Li@m]

Your doing very well for your 1st Iwagumi scape. keep it up.

[h4n]

Wow!! I like it!!
Is the light t5ho or PC?
I can't wait to see it fill in!!!

[TexasCichlid]

T5ho

[myjohnson]

Nice start!

I'll be following along. Plan I do the same set-up shortly here.

[talontsiawd]

I am a huge fan of the "mountains" on both sides, rather than a center focus on the hardscape. I really think you nailed the hardscape, though it may bit a bit hard to keep the HC low enough to not cover them.

I have seen your inspiration tank so many times. It's a great tank but I would consider skipping the blyxa on your scape. The reason is you have a really good layout that mimics mountains (in my eyes). Putting anything that grows taller in back will diminish the scale of them, making them look small. They look very "powerful" being the tallest part. I know it's your tank, just giving my opinion.


Anyway, very nice, I have seen this journal a few times, just haven't had time to comment. Look forward to it.

[TexasCichlid]

Thanks for the comments. I have also been considering not adding Blyxa for that very reason. I think it might mess with the scale too much.

[orchidman]

hardscape looks great! i love the inspiration you have too!

[mahko]

Oooo very cool. I'm currently doing the same thing, first time and all. It'll be nice to follow this and maybe take some notes

[Geniusdudekiran]

Update...?

[beedee]

looking really good man! once the hc fully roots, and fills in, trim it really low, get that nice and tight carpet!

[TexasCichlid]

Filled up the tank today. 2028 filter output is not as much as I expected. Also, my two month old Catalina 2x24w apparently has a dead bulb. Hopefully just a bulb. I plug it into my digital timer and the timer makes a clicking noise over and over with no light on. Plug it directly into the wall and no light still. Weird. How long should I wait to trim the HC after the switch? It was already getting pretty tall.

[bitFUUL]

Lookin' good! That HC will need a lot of CO2.. I see the drop checker, but no diffuser. Injecting?

[TexasCichlid]

Originally Posted by bitFUUL

Lookin' good! That HC will need a lot of CO2.. I see the drop checker, but no diffuser. Injecting?

Inline diffuser. Drop checker is a solid yellow right now. Difficult to me to count bubbles per second, can't keep up with them. Figure that is good for the transition.