gotplant's Iwagumi Valley NEW PICS 7/26/12

[gotplants]

This is my first ever Iwagumi style tank.

Equipment:
Mr. Aqua 17.4 gallon
2x 24 Watt Coralife T5HO Fixture
Classic Eheim 2215
DIY CO2
CO2 Glass Diffuser
CO2 Drop Checker
About 40lbs ADA Amazonia 1 and 2
15-20 lbs Seiryu Stone

Flora:
Hemianthus callitrichoides (HC)
Eleocharis Vivipara??
Ludwigia??

Fauna:
7 Cardinal Tetras (Soon to be 12-15)
3 Otocinclus
7 Fire Red Shrimp
1 Amano Shrimp



Here is my inspiration:




Dry Start Day 1 -













Dry Start Day 90 -

[mcqueenesq]

Awesome! What's your plan for flooding?

[gotplants]

I was planning on flooding it last month haha. If I flooded it long ago, it would probably be a full carpet. I'm now hoping to flood it by the end of the week once my DIY stand is finished.

[sayurasem]

What substrate is that?

[gotplants]

It's ADA Amazonia 1 and 2.

[gotplants]

Finally added water after finishing my DIY ADA style stand

[gotplants]

UPDATE 4/28/12

One week after filling the tank

[2in10]

Very nice start

[aweeby]

have you had much melting with the HC? That tank looks pristine!

[gotplants]

Thanks! So far I think only a 2x2 patch melted away but it looks like new HC is replacing it.

[monkeyruler90]

looks great!

[green_valley]

I failed dry start before. Do you know what's your temperature in there? and what's the humidity level?

[gotplants]

UPDATE 5/23/12

This is the first month after filling my tank. The last week and a half have been horrible. Got an infestation of snails, planaria, and cyanobacteria all at the same time.. Got rid of the cyanobacteria and most of the planaria seem to have disappeared. Snails seem to have stuck around...

[gotplants]

Originally Posted by green_valley

I failed dry start before. Do you know what's your temperature in there? and what's the humidity level?

Lol, had no idea my thread got back up until I posted the update. I have no idea what the temperature was or the humidity level. I pretty much just winged it. It was usually around 60-70 degrees outside at the time I was doing the dry start and I just put saran wrap and poked a bunch of holes in it. I misted it once every two days. I made sure the water level didn't get past the substrate because that caused plants to melt. I knew that because there was a small area of my substrate that was deeper than the rest and the HC that was under the water level melted.

[synaethetic]

Yet another streamlined HC filled, sleek and beautiful aquarium to make me envious.

Nice rockwork, I dig the leaning in-ward look a lot.