ADA 90P journal (updated with new pictures 8-30-08)

[lauraleellbp]

What a difference from your first 'scape!

Very nice hardscape Rick- it will look incredible once everything's all grown in.

What are your thoughts so far for livestock?

Originally Posted by lauraleellbp

What a difference from your first 'scape!

Very nice hardscape Rick- it will look incredible once everything's all grown in.

What are your thoughts so far for livestock?

Ha,ha - man your right...

remember when I was writing 100 posts a day? ha,ha

I think I am either going to do rummy nose tetras, or card. tetras - I'm going to do a large school of one of the two in about a month when things get settled.


Thanks so much for the comments - I'm glad you like. I was worried the rock placement didn't look nice, this is my first attempt at something this nice, so thank you.

[lauraleellbp]

LOL yep, I do Ya had me running all over the place trying to keep up with you! ROFL

I really like the hardscape. Looks very mountainous, more like the Rockies than the Blue Ridge- you know what I mean?

You know I'm biased so I'm going to say go with Cardinals!

Do you have a list of your plants posted yet? If so I'm missing it somewhere...

My 2cents would be to go with 2 maybe 3 species of plants at most, so the focus of the tank stays on the rocks.

Here are some pictures of the items I bought - fyi

By the way - as far as plants - I am doing hc everywhere but the back of the tank. In the back I am doing dwarf hair grass...that's it..nice, clean look.

[lauraleellbp]

Oh very nice

Have you thought about floating some fast-growing stems up until the slower-growing plants get established, though? It might help to ward off algae.

I had heard that, but didn't really know how to do it. Do I just get a bunch of stem plants, and let them swirl around up top?

[lauraleellbp]

Pretty much. Hydrocoytle is doing pretty good floating in my tank ATM (wasn't planned that way, but my current keeps pulling it out from where I WANT it to stay LOL). I tried Salvinia, but it was so small it kept getting pushed under water and clogging my filter intakes. I'm trying Red root floater next. You might want to try a hardy stem, like water sprite or hornwort. Hornwort is a pretty fast grower and a good nutrient hog. One of the nice things about floating big stem plants is they're easy to remove when you're done with them.

Here are some pictures from today. I am doing a 50% water change every day for the first week to help with the high ammonia from the aquasoil.

Here are some pictures from today - I hope you enjoy.

[Orlando]

Ooooo,Ahhh..Very trick indeed. Cant wait to see this gem polish up with a nice green carpet. Well done Rick

[crc]

Rick,

I sent you a PM but do you mind telling me the name of the rock yard in houston where you got those rocks?

[CmLaracy]

I like it, well done! And I'm truly jealous of your light!!

One critique I have, that's really too late to make a difference, is that you should have sloped the substrate a lot more, as thats a large part of Iwagumi scapes.

My advice to you right now would be to keep your photoperiod low, less than 7 hours. Keep your water changes frequent, about 50% DAILY, as you have a VERY LOW bioload in there, nothing to suck up the ammonia. If you could do more than 50%, I'd say by all means do it. As much WC's as you can, you really don't want Diatoms

High levels of CO2 as well. If there's no fish or shrimp in there (I hope, the ammonia and ammonium will kill them) I'd say pump up your CO2 levels past 40ppms... really as high as you can get them. Then after everything settles bring it back to 30-35ppms.

Looks nice and good luck. Have fun with it.

[mott]

Rick, those rocks look awesome man! well done.

If you need some hairgrass shoot me a pm I have a ton

Originally Posted by CmLaracy

I like it, well done! And I'm truly jealous of your light!!

One critique I have, that's really too late to make a difference, is that you should have sloped the substrate a lot more, as thats a large part of Iwagumi scapes.

My advice to you right now would be to keep your photoperiod low, less than 7 hours. Keep your water changes frequent, about 50% DAILY, as you have a VERY LOW bioload in there, nothing to suck up the ammonia. If you could do more than 50%, I'd say by all means do it. As much WC's as you can, you really don't want Diatoms

High levels of CO2 as well. If there's no fish or shrimp in there (I hope, the ammonia and ammonium will kill them) I'd say pump up your CO2 levels past 40ppms... really as high as you can get them. Then after everything settles bring it back to 30-35ppms.

Looks nice and good luck. Have fun with it.

Hey thanks man - yah the light IS nice.

So now I'm bummed about now sloping it enough in the back. Do you think I should redo it before its to late?

Is it THAT bad?

[macclellan]

It's your tank, you decide.
If you have more aquasoil, you can just add it to the back and leave the front alone since planting HC is such a PITA. And/Or suck up some aquasoil out of the front into a bucket and replace it in the back. That way you can at least leave the middle area alone and not have to replant everything.

But the hc is in the front of the tank. when I look at the tank from the side the back is actually sloped up - how much higher should it be? Is the only way to do it to take everything out and start over? Man I hope not..

Does it look that much better to have a high slop in the back? Man I REALY don't want to start over..