2.5g Low-Tech Iwagumi

[Church]

Yep, it was actually already filled in that last pic. But then it was drained. And moved. And now it's filled again!

I now present new pics of my cool little 2.5g! First, the picture-perfect FTS:




Then a few more nice shots from different angles, to show growth:










And last, since I know someone's going to ask about him, here's one that shows my little djembe guy in better detail:




Hope you liked!

[Church]

Update time!

There has been noticeable growth on the marsilea. Seriously, I didn't think I would be able to see the new growth happening on a weekly basis, but it's evident. Here are the pics:










A closeup of the marsilea, to show the new growth:




And a few parting shots:

[DevinWolfe]

Looking good Church. I still need to decide on some type of carpet for my tanks and this has me strongly considering mimicking you.

[leaf]

I was looking at some marsilea m. @ the lfs today and wondered what it might look like as a carpet. Reminded me alot of glosso but in a low tech kinda way. Good to see you've utilized it as such. Great job planting the stems, it'll fill in nicely. Aren't carpets so much easier to plant in a 2.5?

Just wondering, but why did you keep the rim? They're real easy to remove from these two-point-fives. Work each corner up little by little, and it'll pop off.

[Church]

Honestly, I don't mind the rim so much. I guess, I figured if I removed the top rim I would also have to remove the bottom one too, because I don't really care for the way they look when people only remove the top one. And I was just trying to keep it simple, since this is my only official low-tech tank.

Thanks for the compliments on my planting style. I spent a long couple of hours carefully cutting each node out of a bundled up mass of marsilea! I used each and every node that came in that bundle, I'm proud to say. No waste whatsoever, for the first time ever. It was just the perfect amount for this little tank. And yes, these little 2.5's are a breeze to carpet! I can see it happening, even with no CO2, in about 2 months I'll bet.

Devin, be my guest! There needs to be more marsilea carpets out there. I discovered right before setting this tank up that there aren't even that many good images out there from just using a google image search. So hopefully this tank will at least provide good pictures of healthy marsilea carpets for others to reference. I'd like to see someone do a big iwagumi, like Amano-style, with marsilea in place of the common glosso. Then a school of 500 cardinals swimming over it!

[Church]

I usually have otos in my tanks which helps keep them free of diatoms, like that front rock on the right. Do any shrimp eat diatoms?

[Church]

Dang no responses from before...

Well, I'm definitely dealing with a slight diatom problem. It's not a huge deal, obviously, but it is unsightly. I'm so used to having larger tanks with CO2 and dosing EI, doing 50% water changes a week. But with this tank, things are different, and I'm doing my best to adjust my methods to suit. Here's the diatom issue I'm having:



I haven't dosed the tank in almost 2 weeks, and when I did, I was pretty sure that I didn't use a whole lot of KH2PO4. I'm thinking it was about an 8th of 1/32 tsp. But I also haven't done a single water change on this tank ever. Maybe I should do that?

Are there any snails or shrimp that feast on diatoms the way that otos do? I'm definitely noticing the lack of otos in this tank, which is a first for me, as I always put otos in my tanks. Is a 2.5g too small for a trio of baby otos? I could always move them on to larger tanks as they get bigger, and then replace them with more baby otos...

[demonbreedr16]

I'd add in the otos[and them be the only fish] but I've heard, RCS polish leaves and rocks and stuff, so, you may want to try them first? Oh, Nerite snails will eat algae too...so I've been told.

[Sarkazmo]

Nice little tank. I love nano and pico tanks!

I did notice that you're using a Azoo Palm filter. I've got two of those. Just a heads up, you've got the floss and bio-sponge backwards. The water should pass over the bio-sponge last. I did away with both. I use a cut to size square of Marineland's Rite-Size blue and white bonder filter floss wrapped around a fine mesh bag filled with ceramic/glass bio-beads. It pretty much fills the entire media compartment of the filter. This'll significantly add to the filter's ability to deal with larger bio loads.

Sark

[Church]

Okay, thanks for the heads up. I guess I didn't even think it would matter, so I was using the bio-sponge as a mechanical AND bio filter, while the floss was being used as a polisher of sorts. Nevertheless, I don't much care for the stock media, and have been thinking about what I could do to customize it. Thanks for the idea!

Oh yeah, and just for the record, this is the Red Sea version of the same filter. I know they are both probably manufactured in the same factory, but I figured I'd at least point that out.

[JennaH]

i really like the marselia. i didn't read all the posts- is this going to be a shrimp tank? i would prob try some nerite snails for the algae if relocating otos later are going to be an issue. and just curious- if this isn't a shrimp tank- what is your stock list?

[Church]

Hi Jenna, thanks for popping in! You are correct, there is no stocklist right now. I'm still unsure as to what to put in here. I'll probably end up with a school of Boraras, and a flock of RCS, but that's up to debate.

As of now, the tank is still empty, and there really is no good reason for that! I think, first, I'm going to try putting a trio of young otos in there, to take care of the diatoms. If they seem uncomfortable, or otherwise not happy, I will remove them to my 10g (which also needs a trio of otos, anyway). Then I will get about 5 Boraras maculata (I think), followed by some RCS.

The only thing I've ever kept in a tank this small before was a single Betta. And that was a long time ago. So I'm a nano-noob, I guess you could say.

[rrrrramos]

I know you're shooting for the MM to carpet, but the look you have going right now with it is exactly what I'm planning on for my new nano.
I also dig your setup, but that's mostly because it's the same as my 2.5g was! And the same I'll be using on the new tank.

[Church]

Glad you like it! I'm pretty fond of it myself. I'm really looking forward to seeing it carpet, and I can see new growth weekly, but it definitely grows slower than I'm used to. I can tell that this is a non-CO2 tank, that's for sure. But I'm patient, and as long as I have other aquariums to tinker with, I'll be able to let this one do its thing.

Thanks for stopping by!

(Also, I have to ask: what's up with you and the Neil Patrick Harris avatars? I've always wondered, every time I saw your previous avatar, and now that you've changed it, and it's still him, I want to know! )

[rrrrramos]

Well before it was his character Dr. Horrible. I figured it'd be out of character if I didn't change it to another one of him haha. I also have a slight obsession with How I Met Your Mother. So if you look at that pic, it's him as Barney from that show, and my custom status thing also says "Suit Up!" from the show. Haha.