# 6.6 build, beginning first aquascape (lots of pics)



## Vandiggity (Dec 10, 2012)

Hello everyone. New here on Plantedtank. Just got into this planted aquarium thing serious, and after many years in the hobby, I've finally decided to do an aquascaped aquarium. I've always admired the beauty of the iwagumi aquariums and am going to shoot for something along those lines. In the interest of reducing viewable clutter, I'm going with a mini refugium type setup and will try to stuff everything in there(filters, heater, co2 diffuser, etc, it's going to get tricky). I have the two sponge filters in my big aquarium getting cultured and will put those in the refugium once I have everything pretty much ready to cycle. All I have is my cell camera so the pics are not the best. Posted on AAPE too, but I'm gathering all resources I can. Here we go!

Here are the "parts"
6.6gal bookshelf aquarium from petco.
Fugeray 24 & 10" lights from finnex
Nutrafin CO2 kit from Hagen
HOB refugium/breeder from finnex
shiruba mini water pump
Eco complete substrate
2x sponge filters
seiryu stones
parts from some old sponge filters, check valves, thermometers, etc.








This is what the tank comes with. Flourescent hood, HOB power filter, top and bottom frame.








This is what I am going to actually use. Ditched the top frame(rimless!), light and filter.








As with most of my tanks, the back got painted with black hammerite. I like the black look with the holes in it that hammerite makes. It's hard to capture in a picture, but it gives it a subtle texture and still black when viewed from the front and full of water.








Got impatient and started sawing on the old donor sponge filter before I got a picture. But here it is midway through dissection.








Here we have the HOB refugium/breeder/soon to be frankenfilter before modifications.








I wasn't going to even try to explain how this part goes together, so a picture will have to do. Green parts are from the old sponge filter, grey parts are from the new refugium. Threw on a fluval edge sponge over the strainer as I'm eventually going to keep CRS in here. One point which I would like input on is the green part with the air inlet on it. I am going to have the co2 enter here, sort of like "filter intake" diffusion. The magnet on the motor is downward, so there shouldn't be much issue with air getting in there and overheating. My main concern is will this be enough exposure time in the water for the co2? 
















Here is the aquarium fabbed up. 
























As with the AAPE forum, let me know what you think or if anyone sees any glaring pitfalls, I'm a noob......I'm going to start adding ingredients tomorrow probably, woohoo! Glad to be here, thank you for looking and any constructive feedback!


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## STS_1OO (Nov 28, 2012)

Tank looks great and those are some sexy parts there. However, thats a lot of mechanical clutterage! Given that though I think you're doing great. Keep us posted on the tank!


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## RayT (Aug 27, 2010)

Wow! Very interesting on your use of the refugium, you don't see many of those around here. I look forward to see all the hardware you will have setup in that box.

Those finnex lights are great and you will see some serious growth from them.


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## manzpants92 (Dec 6, 2012)

+1 on the refugium


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## Vandiggity (Dec 10, 2012)

Got the substrate in. Only have three stones to work with, so nothing too crazy. Going for the mountain and slope look. Not a lot of depth to work with. Let me know what you think, it's easy to move stuff around at this stage. Thanks for looking!


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## rnaodm (Jun 9, 2012)

I like the extra tech your employing, nice start, I really like the left side with the two rocks and slope, the right seems kinda out of place, but im a terrible aquascaper so im probably missing something.


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## Vandiggity (Dec 10, 2012)

Yes, I agree. The right does look sorta funny, but I didn't know what else to do with it. I'll have to stare at it for a while, see if I can figure it out...........


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

You're off to a nice start.

While the stone on the right looks a bit out of place now, it likely won't once you decide upon plants and get things growing.


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## GMYukonon24s (May 3, 2009)

I like the mini light.


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## Sakuras (Dec 10, 2012)

How about if you flipped over the stone on the right? The left side looks really cool.


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## Vandiggity (Dec 10, 2012)

The rock on the right is fairly boring on the bottom side. Almost completely flat so i put that side down in favor of the textured side being viewable. I do like the ledge aspect of it, it's just hard being patient and trying to imagine how cool it might look with dwarf baby tears all over the place.


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## Vandiggity (Dec 10, 2012)

Well, not all of my ideas are good ones. The sponge filters do barely fit in the refugium, but they make SO much noise with all of that gurgling! The tank is really clear though. I think I might have to hook up my old fluval 204, can hardly hear that one running. Plants go in on Friday!


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## tryank (Jan 12, 2012)

Love it. I really wanna see more pics of how the refugium turned out, even if you end up using your fluval 204. Like STS_100 said, it's looking sexy.

As for your scape, I think it's great. Don't add anything on the right. You said you were going for the iwagumi look, so you've gotta resist that urge to "balance" your layout into something expected!

Question: What's with the second mini light on the ref.? I think it's rad, but what's it's purpose?


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## Vandiggity (Dec 10, 2012)

Ok, had to redo the co2 entry point. Where it was initially inside the refugium above the pump just made the pump suck air. Now it's in the tank near the inlet. With the pump on low, a bubble just kind of hovers in the water above the pump until it disperses. 

Soooo, it's a tight fit.......but I'm pretty sure I can get the heater in there!








While the sponge filters do make a lot of noise, the tank is very clear already.

The small light on top of the refugium is a reef thing. Lots of reef people use their refugium to grow macroalgae (on purpose no less!) for it's beneficial properties. The Finnex folks had a package deal where if you bought the 10" fugeray with the refugium, you got a discount. They also set up a deal with the little water pump. It was almost free if you bought it with the refugium too. For now the little light has ended up on Mr. Grumpy's betta tank until I find a need for it on the refugium. 









Here is a pic of the tank up and running. Going to start planting tomorrow after work!


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## bluestems (Feb 7, 2012)

Vandiggity said:


> Here is a pic of the tank up and running. Going to start planting tomorrow after work!


You're right that the current far right stone doesn't have as much texture. If it's not too late to reconsider... you might try swapping the right stone with the far left stone. 

Depending on what you're considering planting, there's not much planting space to the left of the stones. I ran into that issue recently...

I really like the mini light behind the papa light. :smile: What filter media are you planning to use? I'm trying a small breeder box, currently with some mini christmas moss as an add on. I think just the oxygenation of the water is helping with some bga I've been battling.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

This is going to be rather interesting. I've thought about what it would be like to do refugium on a freshwater tank. I'm very excited.


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## Vandiggity (Dec 10, 2012)

I meant to ask, what would be a good stem/moss plant to place in the refugium that would suck up the nitrates/bad stuff quick? I use duckweed in the big tank (55gal)and pull out about a cups worth a week. As of yet (3 years)I have only had one algae issue (green hair)and that only lasted a week after i cut the lights back to 8 hours. The duckweed makes good garden fertilizer but I do not want duckweed in this tank. 

Essentially i am looking for a plant that I could partially remove from the refugium on a weekly basis that would assist in keeping the parameters in check.


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## jarvitron (Aug 6, 2012)

Anacharis grows fast.


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## Vandiggity (Dec 10, 2012)

Ok, got the plants in there. Dwarf baby tears for the most part and regular baby tears in the back left. I've read just about everything I could find about HC and it seems that it does better when planted stem by stem? Wow, talk about tedious! 

The HC I got was in one of those cheap plastic potted plant deals that you get at the LFS. They had just gotten the delivery when I got there and it looked great. But obviously it wasn't submersed during shipment and I suspect while being grown either? I have had the pot in my big tank for two weeks about 8 inches under the light(in a breeder box) and it looks like the leaves that were on it when I got it are wilty, but there is new growth on the tips that looks good(and small). Is this normal? This is from one pot from the store after careful separation.

It looks better in person, more vibrant and green, but my camera phone sucks.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Nice job spreading all the HC out. That's the mistake a lot of people make in the beginning - not separating things as you have done. 

The HM in the back is going to look great once it bushes up. How much of it did you plant?


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## Vandiggity (Dec 10, 2012)

I have 4 HM "cuttings" as they were called at the lfs, each were about 3" long. I would have gotten more but the prices there were prohibitive. I think with the little HC pot and the cuttings I was just under 20 bucks after tax. Hopefully it takes off.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

It all looks to be in pretty good shape. As long as you provide CO2, light and ferts, you should be fine. 

The plants you chose are the perfect scale for the tank and should look pretty great against those rocks once everything grows in.


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## Exceliber (Feb 1, 2012)

Consider me interested. Using the refugium like that is pretty sweet!


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## Overgrowth (Feb 19, 2012)

What are those rocks--are they seiryu? If they are, then you should take them out. They raise the KH, pH, and GH, so the water won't be suitable for CRS with them in the tank.


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## Vandiggity (Dec 10, 2012)

Well, it's been about a month since the last picture. I have this big heater in the tank since my mini heater died, but a new one should be here any day! Got a little more HC to seed in and bam, it took off! For some reason the HC keeps coming loose on the left side where the substrate is deeper......or it doesn't like the rocks or something. Dumped the hagen co2 unit (need to find a use for it now) for an aquatek paintball unit. What a difference that made!!!!! Still injecting it into the refugium intake seems to work pretty good. got a couple of those little black fluval diffusers on standby just in case though. I kept the rock on the right. As suggested by someone here, it really does look cool now. Had a short fight with brown algae that I triumphed. Now there is a "little" GSA. The ramshorns don't seem to bother the HC which is nice. Yes, my camera still sucks.
Current inhabitants:
Mr. Grumpy the Betta
One RCS (test pilot)


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## Conrad283 (Dec 10, 2012)

That HC looks great, but the right side is lacking in height IMO.


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## manzpants92 (Dec 6, 2012)

awesome growth


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## tryank (Jan 12, 2012)

Looking good, and I bet it's even better now...
If the HC is still loose (it's been a while so it might not be a problem now but still...) you could "pin" it down. Break a paperclip up so you have little "V" shapes and anchor parts that are coming up. I did it in my tank and the HC rooted great.


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## Silmarwen (Sep 21, 2012)

I love the refugium idea on a tank so small! It's certainly something to add to my "Hmmm. Maybe..." list! Looks pretty good so far; I can't wait to see it fully grown in!


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## Rob in Puyallup (Jul 2, 2009)

Hey Vandiggity, looking at your pic in post 14, curious about what all is in your refugium... 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S III using Tapatalk 2


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