# sandiegoryu's ~2 gallon tank! Iwagumi attempt...



## sandiegoryu (Feb 15, 2006)

Well just to tell you beforehand, I am not allowed to be on the computer because I have parents and they put punishments on me for behaving badly. Well today my mom gave me permission to let me access the internet only at the planted tank because my mom knows I am passionate for this very much. I wanted to post my tank soooo much but the day before I set this up she told me "no more computer until you come back from Germany!" So I come back from Germany on the 23rd, so please do not expect me to reply to any of the posts you are hopefully about to post, until the 23rd or 24th. 

The color in the picture is a little awkward so forgive me for not understanding digital cameras. Especially my bad one. The good one is unavailable at the moment...

Well here is my tank: 









Tank specs now
Light: 18 watts compact flourescent. The aqualight mini (has no proper stand for it. Its just sitting on top of my tank
Substrate: fluorite
plants: Hemianthus Callitrichoides and Eleocharis Parvula (dwarf hairgrass)
Fish: None
Shrimp: Red Cherry. One pregnant female and a few babies.
Filter: I dunno. it's way too powerful for my tank though. I think it was 50 gals/hour on high? I keep it on low
Ferts: Flourish Excel, Flourish Nitrogen, Flourish Potassium, Flourish Phophorous and Flourish. 
rocks: looks like seiryu rocks but person who bought it says he got it from bonsai supply store. I love them!

This is what it looked like before....










Seems like that picture isn't working. Stupid imageshack. Well here's another pic of the black corner things that annoy me.










Please give me comments, negative and positive. TEACH ME!!

O yah and I have some clado in my tank... Its killing me. Not really. I'm keepig it under control but it takes high maintenance. After I come back from Germany I'll tackle the beast.


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## dweebikus (Jul 11, 2006)

Where did you find that tank? I've been trying to find one like that for awhile. Other than that, I really like the rock setup, that'll grow out nicely.


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## Martin Schellinck (Jun 17, 2006)

how's the hc growing in? I know a lot of people have difficulty growing it in fluorite, myself included.


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## Steven_Chong (Sep 14, 2004)

It looks good, I love those rocks. I don't know if this will be too late by the 23rd, but I'd try to add more substrate to the back, and gice this scape more slope/height. A lot of iwagumis don't use slope but the dimensions for this one are such that I think you would benefit from it.


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## SCMurphy (Oct 21, 2003)

I have that exact tank. Actually I have three of them. My kids each have one. This one is mine:








I gave up on the light though. I use a desk lamp and a screw in PC bulb from Home Depot.








I posted these mostly to let you know that your HC will fill in and look nice in that little tank. You will be fighting the hairgrass though, it will keep showing up in places you don't want it so be prepared to be pulling some out.

BTW: The rocks in this tank are actually taller than the ones you have in your tank. Expect the HC to swallow them up when you aren't looking. :biggrin:


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## the_noobinator (Jun 10, 2006)

note to self: check out walmart for cheap lighting.

i'm looking for 1 decent looking rock piece, similar to the pieces amano uses (and similar to this thread's tank), and probably 1-3 pounds of it depending on density. does anyone know what it is called?


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## JenThePlantGeek (Mar 27, 2006)

Great looking tank! Your rock is well placed, well balanced, and has a great natural character and color to it. I'm sure once that HC fills in that it will look even better!

The only think I don't like is that you got rid of your white clouds (those just happen to be my favorite fish). I know they are jumpers, did they jump? I guess I can't assume that EVERYONE likes them as much as me...  

There are lots of species of fish that might look good if you ever want to put something in there. Small rasboras or endler's come to mind. Check out this site for some good ideas! Nano-Fish


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## Matthew Mahling (Sep 4, 2005)

Ah ya did good. I hope the tank is well cared for in your abscence.
Great placement on the stones and plants.
I'm glad you are enjoying them.


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## fresh_lynny (Mar 9, 2006)

JenThePlantGeek said:


> Great looking tank! Your rock is well placed, well balanced, and has a great natural character and color to it. I'm sure once that HC fills in that it will look even better!
> 
> The only think I don't like is that you got rid of your white clouds (those just happen to be my favorite fish). I know they are jumpers, did they jump? I guess I can't assume that EVERYONE likes them as much as me...
> 
> There are lots of species of fish that might look good if you ever want to put something in there. Small rasboras or endler's come to mind. Check out this site for some good ideas! Nano-Fish


great site, Jen. Thanks~


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## JenThePlantGeek (Mar 27, 2006)

Lynn, did you check out galaxy rasboras? WOW. $8 each? Heh, to me it seems worth every penny... now to go find some more space and my checkbook...


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## SCMurphy (Oct 21, 2003)

Those galaxy rasbora's look like mini rainbow trout. Too cool!


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## fresh_lynny (Mar 9, 2006)

JenThePlantGeek said:


> Lynn, did you check out galaxy rasboras? WOW. $8 each? Heh, to me it seems worth every penny... now to go find some more space and my checkbook...


They are simply gorgeous


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## emjhay27 (Sep 2, 2005)

what kind of screw bulb did you bought at home depot....
wats an HC? i like the look of it.



SCMurphy said:


> I have that exact tank. Actually I have three of
> them. My kids each have one. This one is mine:
> 
> 
> ...


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## turbomkt (Jun 9, 2004)

There are a number of screw in compact fluorescents you can find. I actually found 6500K multi-packs from Costco.


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## ianmoede (Oct 1, 2004)

Kudos on getting in on the hobby at a young age, ive been doing it since i was like 10, and am now 22, going strong, its a hobby that will follow you and make you poor your entire life. What did you do to get in trouble and banned from the internet? Hah, been there too, children of the 90's where no internet is a legitamate punishment.


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## sandiegoryu (Feb 15, 2006)

YES I AM BACK HAHAHA. 

I love this hobby. What I did was make my mom pissed off. Very badly. And she was in a bad mood, and I made her mad. It was things like, I forgot to tell me mom that I had band practice that day and I told her an hour before. Then she told me to get my cellphone and key but i forgot BOTH of them and that ticked her off and she told me nothe HC, and I'm neglecting ferts because of school work... computer or playstation which I barely play because of this hobby which is a good thing. 

O yah and Matthew Mahling is sending me some blyxa japonica. Would that look nice in my tank? I still don't know much about this plant (how big it gets, how to trim it, how its a stem plant) etc. Well I think its a stem plant... Read somewhere it was. My HC isn't doing the best it can be. Probably because i'm nuking excel onto the clado that is on my HC and I've been neglecting ferts due to forgetfulness (is that a word? doesn't look like one. I probably misspelled it.) + school work. 

I had a dream last night. I went to a korean supermarket, and they had a fish section! It was crazy. Many many fish but I don't really remember what. And then there were shrimp! Hawaiian red shrimp, two kinds of glass shrimp, some other shrimp I dunno, probably made it up in my dream, and pearl shrimp (I dunno how that one came up in my dream) and then there were many plants. Many crypts and lots of HC. but I saw lots on the ground that were all dried up... That was kind of random. I was thinking of stealing it and try to revive it in my tank but I told myself, I already have some! But the dream was fun... Now to do HW for the days I left school!!


O yah, and SCMurphy, how did you get the top corner things off that are absent in your tank but I still have on my tank? Or maybe they are different tanks but look very similar. Mine has small black things in the corner.


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## sandiegoryu (Feb 15, 2006)

Well here are "updates" of the tank.


















From what I can see, the HC has not gotten better, but worse! probably due to Excel that I am using to kill the clado. I hope the HC gets better. In that picture, the red in the flourite seems more red than in person, but I still hate the substrate color. But it doesn't really matter once the HC covers everything.


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## chinaboy1021 (May 30, 2003)

very nice tank. hairgrass with glosso/HC and iwagumi is always a solid "natural aquarium"

keep up the good work. i started aquascaping almost same time as you, but not good as you. 

btw where did you get that clip-on light in the first set of pics?

cheers


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## sandiegoryu (Feb 15, 2006)

Thank you very much for the comment

The light came with the tank. I bought this tank as a set. Included filter, and light. The light was only 7w, not very much. The company is a chinese company by the name of Hai Feng. I bought it in an American LFS though.


More comments and criticism appreciated!


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## Matthew Mahling (Sep 4, 2005)

The Blyxa will make a great background for this tank. It's seems to split more than need trimming. The onlt thing I've trimmed on it has been dog eared blades (tattered).


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