[shambhalove.]

Well, this may be the most delayed journal ever but I'm finally getting around to posting my first experience with a high tech "iwagumi" style tank. Ive always admired those simple scapes with a nice lush carpet and rocks all coming together to look like mountains jutting out of a green meadow. So me and my brother decided to set one up in the living room and model it after the jagged and dramatic rocky mountains that we love so much. And as it turns out i had all the hardware to set up a nice high tech 20l just sitting around collecting dust :hihi:

I decided this would be the perfect time to try a dry start as well, there seems to be a lot more interest growing plants or at least starting tanks like this these days.

Anyways enough rambling now for the good stuff...

20L
Aquasoil Amazonia
Finnex Fugeray 24" and a Current Satellite + 24" (best of both worlds lol)
5lb CO2 w/ GLA's Supreme reg via cerges reactor
Eheim 2215
Hydor Inline heater
Bluelab Trimeter
Full EI with extra K, Fe and Excel dosing
HC Cuba

So lucky for me all i had to buy for this tank was the HC and the Aquasoil the rest has been recycled from other ventures.

I started with 7 little cups of Tropica's tissue cultured HC Cuba and i was very impressed with the quality of the plants. I have never went tissue cultured before and I'll never go back haha.

Heres pretty much the first planting, maybe a couple days after.


And a couple days later, starting to recover and grow.


Growing well but its hard to keep the tank warm enough so its a lot slower than what i had expected.


Flooded.


Once the HC acclimated to being under water it has exploded, temps were definitely stunting growth.


Tweaking CO2, growth is probably 4x what i was previous to flooding.


About 1 months time flooded now, compared to about 2 months dry start. Time for the first trim


Now from my experience the dry start was great for getting the plants to root but if you cant keep the temps around 80+ then you'll get faster growth once you flood and crank the CO2. Keep in mind this only applies to HC, many other plants seem to enjoy the lower temps.

So now I've done a big mow down and removed a smaller rock from the scape and heres how it sits now, pretty pleased with the turn out.








Anyways there's my first carpet attempt, what do ya think??

I need some fish suggestions too, something hardy...lots of CO2

 

[DGarone]

Loooks good.

 

[MikeOKC]

I like it, nice job!!!

 

[dru]

Great pearling shots

 

[kimchilee]

first carpet attempt? wow, great job! as for fish suggestion, rummynose tetra always my favorite schooling fish.

 

[Lowe]

 

[shambhalove.]

Thanks all!!

 

[Chris_Produces]

Looks great! I definitely concur with Rummy-Nose Tetra idea. You could always do a bunch of exotic looking shrimp!

 

[SueD]

I would go with a couple of schools of micro fish, although many prefer some shaded area so may not work in such a well lit open tank. Would have to research a few.

 

[shambhalove.]

Ya I was leaning towards something a bit smaller but your right there's not really anywhere to hide out and the current is pretty strong. I don't really wanna mix tap and ro but I may have to if I add fish since my tap comes out at 8-8.2 and the aquasoil brings it down in the tank to around 6.5.

Here's under the hood for those techy folks

 

[Freemananana]

I'd go with the smallest fish you can find, green neons come to mind. I'd also add a couple otos and a colony of shrimp (RCS are cheap) and let them breed like crazy. I'd probably just leave it as a shrimp tank to be perfectly honest. They are a ton of fun to watch.

 

[shambhalove.]

I'd love to keep it just cherries but they arent going to do well with all the CO2 and ferts. I dropped about 20 or so ramshorns in about a week ago and I can already see pitting in their shells, a few have died already so we'll see how they adapt.

 

[Kayen]

That's a tight carpet. I would do some CPD's.
Also check out https://www.facebook.com/skashrimps for some planted tank goodies. He's an ADA carrier down in Calgary.

 

[Dropped]

Looks good!

 

[Chris_Produces]

I think CPD's would look great but due to the lack of cover and intense light, I could only imagine their anxiety level they'd have. They're already shy in a heavily planted tank as it is.

 

[shambhalove.]

Thanks for the link I'm gonna have to buy some buces now haha. Maybe some of the smaller cories would be cool in there I'll have to do some research and see how small they get.

 

[Skeelski]

Absolutely stunning carpet man. Tank looks great, thanks for sharing-

 

[shambhalove.]

Thanks! I added another timer so I can run the lights a bit different. Now the planted + runs a hour before and after the finnex, kind of works as a sunset and sunrise.

Here's a pic of it in the morning