# ADA 45x27x30 First Iwagumi Tank Attempt



## meeiu (Jan 27, 2012)

So I have been round and about trying to collect my items for my second planted tank.

I stumbled across some videos regarding Takashi Amano and just fell in love with his tanks and decided to try and start my own.

Searching for ADA products in Canada is not easy but luckily there is a distributor in my city.

So I acquired a ADA Cube Garden 45x27x30 and I am stunned at the craftsmanship of the overall tank.

































Unfortunately, the place where I brought my stuff did not carry any Garden Mats for the aquarium so I was forced to DIY it. So I did some research and tried to find some closed-cell foam or neoprene and was unsuccessful. Then I read on a forum about some people using yoga mats for their ADA tanks. So I decided the yoga mats were my next best option and now I have a cut up yoga mat.

The substrate I used is ADA Powersand Special S and ADA Amaziona (the amazonia smells nice....)


















It took about another week or so to find and gather some stones which I felt will go well in the tank, here they are!










And finally, here is what the tank currently looks like.










As of now, I am waiting for my supplier to get back to me on the plant list I had put in a week ago. 
The list consists of:
Hemianthus Callitrichoides
Eleocharis Acicularis
Pogostemon Helferi

I plan to have HC carpet, hopefully, the entire aquarium. As for the Pogo Helferi, I was thinking of planting it close to and surrounding the stones. As for the Dwarf Hair Grass, I was thinking of planting it in the back right hand corner.

The lights I will be using are 2 CFL rated at 6500K @ 13W each. Accompanying this will be DIY CO2.

As for the filter, I am quite lost as of now. I somewhat narrowed it down to 3 filters:
Zoo Med 501 Turtle Canister Filter http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B004PBAIRK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=ACESBCCRDDFV4
Ehiem Filter 2213 http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0002AQXTA/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=
RENA Filstar XP1 Canister Filter http://www.amazon.ca/RENA-Filstar-XP-Canister-Filter/dp/B000260FWU/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_t_1

Anybody have any experiences with these filters and if so, do you think it will overpower a 10 gallon tank?

Anways, I would like to tank you for reading my thread and I hope to gain some valuable constructive criticism on my setup. Any comments and/or suggestions are welcomed.

Thank you very much!


*Sunday, January 22, 2012*

Just wanted to do an update.

After readjusting some of the rocks and slopes, this is what the hardscape currently looks like:










Please feel free to criticize and give me some feedback!

I finally finalized my order with Canadian Aquatics and am waiting for my package to arrive with the plants. Therefore, this may be the last chance for you guys to give me feedback before I dive into planting and flooding this baby up 


*Tuesday, January 24th, 2012*

So I finally got my package in the mail today. Thank you Canadian Aquatics. Amazing people and the best customer service ever. (Shipped out yesterday and arrived today)

Anyways so I spent a large park of the afternoon planting my HC, helferi, and DHG

Heres a shot before the fill up.










Filling up.










And finally filled up. (Topped it off a bit more after I took this shot)










You may ask where is my filter and heater and I have to say I am embarrassed at them so I took the shot before I put those items in.

Currently using a HOB and I have to shop around for a canister ASAP!

Thanks for reading


*Thursday, February 2, 2012*

Just wanted to do a quick update today. Just took this picture and it seems I may need to trim soon.

Any suggestions on keeping the HC lower and more dense?

Thanks!

P.S. ignore the heater and filter please haha.
Waiting for my Lily Pipes and gotta find a solution to hide the heater.... :S


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## lasutaku (Jun 15, 2007)

Looking good.

As much as it hurts, just keep trimming that HC down, as far as possible. The more you trim, the denser it'll grow. If you don't trim, it'll end up getting really long, with the plants closer to the substrate yellowing, and eventually, uprooting.


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## icepotato89 (Apr 3, 2009)

eheim 2211 and hydor inline heater will get the job done.


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## fusiongt (Nov 7, 2011)

Please zoom out and show the lights and filter and co2 setup


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## ADAtank (Jul 26, 2011)

depending on how cold you keep your ambient room temp you may not need a heater


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## adriano (Nov 4, 2011)

Looks great.


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## Al Slick (Jan 22, 2012)

+1 to the inline heater, a tank that beautiful deserves to be free of clutter. The eheim 2213 would be so powerful for your tank. I would look at a filter closer to 100gph


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

Looks great. Reallly coming along now


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## skindy (Jan 30, 2012)

Very nice! Where did you get your rocks from?


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## i'm a ninja (Aug 2, 2009)

Umm... that aquasoil is going to leach a ton of ammonia into the water, I would recommend relocating those fish to another tank until this tank is over the ammonia spike.


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## Couesfanatic (Sep 28, 2009)

i'm seriously jealous of the rocks.


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## meeiu (Jan 27, 2012)

Thanks for all your comments!!!
So I went out and purchased some Excel and oh my, what a turn around.

Here is a shot of the HC at its most brown point:
*February 26, 2012*









and here it is today:
*March 5, 2012*








(44 days after planting)

And some of my Amano Shrimp


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## Fish Ed (Oct 25, 2011)

Your hardscape is amazing, what kind of rock is that. Also how difficult is it to grow that HC carpet, because Im about to do a HC carpet.


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## talontsiawd (Oct 19, 2008)

Update looks superb, both in growth, and new equipment. I should be illegal to use an in tank heater on an ADA tank. 

I forget what the scissors I use are called for small tanks and HC but you can find these small scissors in the beauty section of your local drug store. They are small, super sharp, and stainless steel. Makes trimming HC super easy in small tanks with a large amount of hardscape.


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