# The Rock is dead



## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

hello
i'm working on a new project and it's going to be an iwagumi tank measurement will be about 24 gallon with 36 watts of lighting. the plant is going to be all hairgrass, maybe some other plant but none that i can think of right now that suit along nicely with hairgrass with that medium amount of light. any sugestions?










this will be the only rock in the tank. don't know what kind of rock is this. i bought this 24 lbs rock from a local gardening supplier. too bad there's no other smaller rocks that are the same type, so i guess it's gonna be a single rock tank. the rock's measurement roughly is about 20x20x20cm, is this too large for a 60x40x40cm tank?

please feel free to tell me what you think...

thanks


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## styxx (Jul 2, 2003)

hmmm...good question considering I'm having some of the same challenges in my tank. I think that it is a good size but you certainly wouldn't want anything larger than that! I love the appearance, although I don't know what color substrate you are using, so I would humbly suggest keeping to a color that contrasts well to this rocks color would be a good idea.


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

hello styxx1. i will use black sand as my substrate (as always). i'm thinking brown, black, and the green from hairgrass will look good. the background will be black.

as my stone's shape is pointing to the right, i will put it slightly to the left where the slope rise to the back then sloping down to the right. 

maybe it's HLD but i'm kinda worried if the 36 watts of lighting aren't sufficient to grow hairgrass optimally.


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## styxx (Jul 2, 2003)

ikuzo said:


> hello styxx1. i will use black sand as my substrate (as always). i'm thinking brown, black, and the green from hairgrass will look good. the background will be black.
> 
> as my stone's shape is pointing to the right, i will put it slightly to the left where the slope rise to the back then sloping down to the right.
> 
> maybe it's HLD but i'm kinda worried if the 36 watts of lighting aren't sufficient to grow hairgrass optimally.


Well that's a good point, I'm not sure if it will be enough. Hairgrass has very thin leaves, thus the surface area for it to grow isn't high and therefore it really requires a higher intensity light. I'd always recommend more light and then you have much more flexibility to use it or not where appropriate...


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## JenThePlantGeek (Mar 27, 2006)

That's a very interesting looking rock - to me it almost has the texture of a brown paper bag crinkled up into a ball. I'm looking forward to see what you do with it!


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

i think i just rip off some of Ben Grimm's (The Thing, one of the Fantastic Four) skin... lol.

Well if i can find the right equipment for this setup soon, i will setup the tank at sunday.

edit : can't find a 24 gallon tank. bought one with 60x30x36cm measurement (16 gallon) instead. oh well.


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## LordMaximo (Aug 31, 2007)

I have been hitting the local thrift stores and collage swap meets.
You can always find tanks at most these places on the cheap side.
We have rocks like that out west in the low land hills, they are everywhere.

Maximo


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## MARIMOBALL (Mar 18, 2007)

A 16 gallon tank is close to the ADA 60P. When you add the rock and sand your tank will be around 12 gallons. 36 watts would = 3wpg you can maybe get away with growing dwarf hair grass, but it will be slow. If you already have the light then just use it. I would suggest at least 65watts. I usually get the highest wattage I can when setting up a tank because it gives you more plant options.
For example I have 24w PC on my 3.5gal nano, 96w T5 HO over my 18gal 60P and ill be setting up a 5gal with 36w soon.


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## styxx (Jul 2, 2003)

MARIMOBALL said:


> A 16 gallon tank is close to the ADA 60P. When you add the rock and sand your tank will be around 12 gallons. 36 watts would = 3wpg you can maybe get away with growing dwarf hair grass, but it will be slow. If you already have the light then just use it. I would suggest at least 65watts. I usually get the highest wattage I can when setting up a tank because it gives you more plant options.
> For example I have 24w PC on my 3.5gal nano, 96w T5 HO over my 18gal 60P and ill be setting up a 5gal with 36w soon.


agreed. that sounds about right Marimoball...


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

hello everyone, thanks for the comment. unfortunately i already have the lighting system and decided to go with it.

the rock









sloping the base fertilizer and the sand took a lot of patience 









cloudy









after everything is running









next project will be building the fans and providing CO2. like always, suggestions will be appreciated a lot. thanks for looking.


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## Ryzilla (Oct 29, 2005)

wow.. That large rock looks fantastic.


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## Subotaj (Oct 16, 2006)

Not sure about the middle.
Too symmetric to me.
May be in the right side/corner.

I think it will be really nice aquascape.
:thumbsup:


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

I put the rock slightly to the left as it's pointing towards the right. if only i can find similar smaller rock i can do a lot better with the scape 

I also tried to slope the sand at extreme angle but it's too hard to stop them from falling, i can only hope that after the hairgrass is filling in it will look a lot better. this tank consumed about 25 portions of plant.


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## sNApple (Nov 6, 2005)

maybe some blyxa right behind it? i like it


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

as for blyxa, i tried to grow them before but has no success yet. i suspect the hardness of tap water here is the culprit. but there are hairgrass right behind the rock. viewing from the left side is nice also, i'll post sideview later.


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## styxx (Jul 2, 2003)

*??*



ikuzo said:


> as for blyxa, i tried to grow them before but has no success yet. i suspect the hardness of tap water here is the culprit. but there are hairgrass right behind the rock. viewing from the left side is nice also, i'll post sideview later.


What's the status on the update?~


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

styxx said:


> What's the status on the update?~


ah sorry styxx i guess i kinda missed out your post
anyway i took some blurry shots with my phone camera (yes it's old) 

here's the current full tank shot, a little bit slow growth on the right side, i wonder why...









side shot









in case you're wondering, i use a vortex reactor









the tool i use to comb the hairgrass and vallisneria nana. i think i invented something


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

^ A dinglehopper!! :hihi:


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## styxx (Jul 2, 2003)

looks good; it looks like things are growing well and slowly but surely coming together!


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## pet-teez (Aug 17, 2007)

Makes me think of Ayers Rock! Giant rock in the middle of no-where.


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## pet-teez (Aug 17, 2007)

Great, now I want to see someone use a 'snarfblat' as a filter outflow or something 


Church said:


> ^ A dinglehopper!! :hihi:


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## sandiegoryu (Feb 15, 2006)

Technically, Iwagumi means "stone formation" and you can't have a formation with one rock. So that would be "Iwa" lol.


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

styxx
yeah i'm a little bit concern about the right side. i'm gonna pull some of the hairgrass from the left side and put it to the righ to help the carpet to form. vallisneria nana is growing nicely there. i love the way they wave following the water flow.

sandiegoryu
lol yeah i guess iwa would be more specific and way cooler title


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## jaidexl (Sep 18, 2006)

That rock is sweet. This is sort of the image I got when I first saw it.


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

whoa nice editing and creativity, jaidexl 
i didn't think about this position before. it really use the not viewable right side. thanks for pointing that idea out.


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## jaidexl (Sep 18, 2006)

Sure thing, that rock really reminds me of a stone cliff, granted you'd have to find a way to prop it up like that without crushing shrimp.


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## prettyrustyrobot (May 23, 2007)

jaidexl said:


> That rock is sweet. This is sort of the image I got when I first saw it.



pride rock?

since you guys already went on a disney tangent.


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## Badcopnofishtank (Jan 20, 2004)

That rock is fantastic. I think if you positioned it a little more off center it would be even better than it is.


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

too late for that 
to be honest, the rock is too big for this tank. that's why i put it in the middle.

i'm not sure if it's because of the current but my vallisneria nana is not growing straight. it's a bit curly. maybe it's because of the thin leaves?


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## jaidexl (Sep 18, 2006)

Mine does that too, it should straighten out some once it's reached the surface. Combing it helps because sometimes it entwines within itself and grows a weird kink.


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

That rock looks great. Let the tank grow in before you start saying you don't like the placement.

Imagine if it was a bit bigger... I found my route already:icon_roll 

No no, I don't even really climb anymore *sigh*

Let it grow in some.

-Andrew


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

jaidexl
yeah i use my comb every other day.

Fish Newb
i'm having a little trouble with growth currently. trying to increase my dosing right now and see if the hairgrass will thrive after that.


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## tom855 (Jan 31, 2006)

Incredible looking tank!

Just to be clear - you're running 36W on 16G, right?

Are you injecting CO2 or using Excel? 

The result is beautiful! Are you planning to stock it or just keep it as a plant tank.

Thanks for the photos!

Tom


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

hello Tom
i'm using 2 bottles of DIY CO2 and diffusing it with a vortex reactor. yes i'm running 36W on 16 gallons.

i currently have about 14 rasbora hengelis (lots of death in the first 2 weeks), 15 cherry shrimps and one amano.


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

moved from the other thread...

something pretty bad happened.

when i got home form work yesterday i found that this tank is cloudy. i smell something familiar. i found out that some of my DIY CO2 yeast/sugar water is already goes up into the tank. i use the jelly method and a new brand of instant yeast i never try before (it's because the store ran out of my usual instant yeast brand). it turns out that the yeast is stronger than the brand i used before. strange thing is that the yeast solution managed to go to the bottle's bottom, reacted with sugar there, creating a huge CO2 trapped down and CO2 gas lifted the rest of the jelly thus bringing the yeast solution way up through the airline, fill the bubble counter, and into the tank.

i end up changing my water 50% 3 times and flush my filter. this makes me to even consider switching to pressurized CO2 system once i got the money.

oh and luckily all of my rasbora hengelis, lots of cherry shrimps, 5 amanos, and 1 otto survived.

this happened to my other tank too, but luckily the yeast water is still filling up the bubble counter. oh well...


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

update fts









hairgrass









side


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## toshi (May 4, 2006)

I love the setup to this tank ikuzo. It's going to look great once that hairgrass fills in, especially against that rock. Simple and effective - can't wait to see it all grow in.


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## Tdon1md (Jun 3, 2007)

Very nice. I love the simplicity.
________
Sunset Boulevard Residence


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## mikeb210 (Oct 17, 2007)

Any updates?


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

i'm working and waiting for the right side to fill in. somehow the growth is slower at the right side. this bothers me a lot, i've checked my light and everything else. the hairgrass at the right aren't dying, but it won't fill as fast as the left side.


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## EdTheEdge (Jan 25, 2007)

Maybe you're getting more CO2 on the right side? Try changing the angle on your reactor so that more flow goes to the right. I dunno might work....

That's going to be one sweet tank.

Subscribed.


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

hey i didn't think of that before, but i don't think that's the issue. my current is strong and i believe the water is evenly distributed and there's no dead spot. the rock in the middle makes the current spinning around nicely.


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

borneo sucker 









vallisneria nana jungle









fts


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

The tank looks great! I really like the simple 1 rock scapes that aren't very popular it seems...

-Andrew


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## moogoo (Dec 7, 2007)

that rock is amazing. i love all the lines in it and yes, as others have mentioned, i totally thought of a rock cliff in the midwest when I first saw it.

can't wait to see it fully grown in!

Just curious, but what did you do to test the rock to make sure it was safe for aquarium use?


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

no i didn't test it. i think it's fine since everything is growing well and nothing strange with the fish.


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## moogoo (Dec 7, 2007)

that's great. I was just curious. Kind of risky to just throw a rock in there and hope for the best.  I am cleaning, boiling and letting my rocks sit in a bucket of water for a week to see if they will change the water chemistry. then i'll try it on fish.


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

fts update


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## pilau (Feb 23, 2008)

Looks great!!!!!


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## danepatrick (Jul 17, 2006)

very interesting. but i like it.


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

i got a problem with my hairgrass. they turns yellow, become stiff, and brittle. usually when i combed them they sway following the direction. now it just stay there and when i use force it will break and i will have small hairgrass parts. i don't know what caused these but i'm about to explode and tear this tank apart into a new scape.


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

sneak peek of the new scape, i hope HC can grow well with my old 36 watt lighting


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## James From Cali (Dec 15, 2006)

I surprisingly think I would like those rounded rocks. It just looks so good with the HC!


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

What a title  

Brittle hairgrass could be a sign of malnutrition. Maybe they demand for a more rich substrate to grow on, other than water collumn fertilization, or maybe some other factor (I'm not too fond of growing hairgrass). 
Too bad ADA soil is hard to get around here, though you may want to try Azoo soil and see if hairgrass is sustainable over a long time on it.

New, scape, new hardscape of rounded river stone. Goes all right with the dark substrate.


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

fts









45 days later 









some algae problems, what are these? why it only affect the lower part of my tank? as you can see HC at the top of the hill, closer to the light are clean.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

it is unlike any algae ive ever had. the only thing i can think of is a combination of hair/thread and cyanobacteria. the color is a combination of both; the growth pattern is carpeting like cyano, but fluffy like hair. does it have any bubbles in it (not the HC pearling, but like cyanobacterias bubbles)?

the part without it looks lighter, so maybe its a lighting issue. maybe you could remove it, put new HC there, and increase the light in that area. since i think raising the light as is would only help the algae.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Is that Clado?

never had it, but heard some horror stories... 

GL with it! 

Have you tried spot-treating Excel?


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## deMastro (Mar 18, 2008)

Do you have CO2?

I strongly recommend!


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## eyebeatbadgers (Aug 6, 2007)

If you just have it in the lower areas of the tank, then it's probably due to a low amount of flow in that area, and therefore linked to low CO2. Looks kind of like clado to me, I've got it too. It's a pain to get rid of. If you've got pressurized CO2, crank it up, try using misting, try reducing the photoperiod. My clado kicks it into high gear when the lights are on for more than 8 hours.

HTH.


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## orion2001 (Mar 15, 2008)

Nice tank, however the rock arrangement looks way too symmetric. Especially the too big rocks on either side of the mound. Also it might have been better to have the mount towards one side.


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## fishsandwitch (Apr 20, 2008)

I would put some powerheads to increase flow, do a blackout, increase co2 and see what happens


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## Carpet-Pond (Aug 9, 2003)

This is a very cool looking rock. I think it may be petrified wood. Do you know?:thumbsup:


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

hello all

my CO2 is pretty high, i got this external reactor which dissolve CO2 nicely and cause excess undissolved CO2 to become fine mist. my flow is good, probably too strong. the algae strands are waving in my tank which is not shown in the photos. the algae is bubbling but i don't think it's clado. i spot treated with excel last night. looks like my amano shrimps are eating them.

the cause of this algae probably due to the lack of fast growing plants from the beginning of the setup. i did reduce my lighting period and my ferts though. 

CO2 is high from the beginning. about 2-3 bps and dissolved nicely by the reactor. i put SAE back then but it was gasping for air and removed it immediately. there are 8 white clouds doing amazingly fine in a high CO2 and high current environment...

Carpet-Pond, i changed the rock and it's not petrified wood 

thanks for the response everyone


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

algae gone


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

yep definately less. well thats good, now you just have to wait for the HC to grow in.


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

it will be a long time until they cover the whole tank. espescially the lower edges of my tank where lighting is low.


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

it was a lot thicker than this









until i tore the HC because of boredom.

now it's 6 weeks after planting, the painfully slow growing lilaeopsis









so i got lazy to find new rocks..


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## Lorenmws (Jul 27, 2008)

Any updates?


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Those are some great rocks!


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

i tore down the tank to make this : 
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/tank-journals-photo-album/74633-fallen.html


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