20L Iwagumi drystart

Williak said:

I haven't done a drystart on a tank yet, so I can't answer about the microsword certainly.

However, look forward to seeing where your tank goes! Like your rock selection!

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aweeby said:

Nice tank!

I did a drystart on microsword, I will tell you this: It is SLOW. In the water it's slow, on land it's slow. It's ALWAYS and CONSISTENTLY a slow grower. On the upside, it will take the drystart well, even if you start with submersed plants and etc. It also transitions really well too. Be careful not to let the DHG overtake it, because for me, even HC would overtake the microsword.

And about the algae, yes, sadly, you will almost inevitably have it upon flooding. Thankfully, it will probably be shortlived or quite controllable if you've done your research. Make sure your co2 is good, your lighting isn't over kill, your fert scheme is thought out before you flood. You know, the basics.


Also, you could probably add some desklamps over that tank. After the first few days, if you really ramp up the lighting, you get something a little more encouraging from the microsword.

one more thing, bring your water level down so it's just below the substrate line.

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SaltyNC said:

EDIT: I forgot to add that I misted the plants twice a day with extremely diluted Flourish Excel. That kept them very health. I left town for a few days and came back to not quite so happy plants...they yellowed up a little. I would definitely recommend keeping it misted.

I did a DS with microsword. It grew a little, but it is slower than the DHG. I only wanted a few clusters around the base of my rocks (it's a very small 6.6 G), so I just chopped up a package from the LFS into four tufts and tucked it into my substrate.

It has been just shy of a month and I flooded my tank on Sunday. It was too soon, but I trimmed my dwarf hairgrass to promote runners, and it was hard to clean up the trimmings, so I flooded the tank to make them float up. My CO2 in not in place, as I was expectiing to flood in a week or two out.

I have Osmocote under my Flourite substrate to feed the roots, and I am dosing Flourish Excel, Flourish Micros, and a little dry ferts. I'm doing daily 70% water changes this first week. I have medium to medium-high light in the center of the tank with some light fall-off on the edges.

I'm happy with the DSM so far, and I hope the algae won't go crazy on me until I can get some CO2 in place. I'm hoping the Excel will help, as well.

I'm looking forward to seeing your tank progress. Your rocks are much better scaled for microsword and DHG than my tank. Classic newbie mistake on my part. Good luck!

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