# 60g Beginner Iwagumi



## slickwillislim (Nov 9, 2005)

I started this tank back in late september. I have the complete thread over on apc:60g Journal (First attempt at Iwagumi:Early stages) - Page 4 - Aquatic Plant Central

Lately I have been battling some BGA and its evident in the pictures. This is pretty much as far as I wanted to go with this set up. I might try an HC foreground to increase the depth but thats more work on this very unstable tank.

I thought I would share with the lovely people on Planted tank and get some opinions on how I can improve in the future. Probably won't do any changes to this tank since I am already planning a new scape, but if your suggestion is good who knows...


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Is it dwarf hairgrass right now?


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## slickwillislim (Nov 9, 2005)

Yeah thats eleocharis parvula.


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## Steven_Chong (Sep 14, 2004)

Sweet dude! It grew in so consistantly! Love the green neons (I think?). The first photo they're silvery but in the second and third they look blue


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## slickwillislim (Nov 9, 2005)

Yeah If you zoom in on the first they look blue its just when I sharpened it I lost the blue. I didn't notice until they where online. The bigger pics aren't as bad. They are green neons. 

Consistant but SLOW!!! If I use dwarf hair grass again i will try and plant it much thicker and in smaller bunches. I think my problem was the constant battles with algae made it hard for the plants as well.


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## RESGuy (Jan 15, 2007)

It looks beautiful, so peaceful  I could stare at that for hours ...:icon_wink


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## Martin Schellinck (Jun 17, 2006)

Nice rock placement. Overall, this tank looks great. The only suggestion I would give is to move the blyxa from in front of the rocks to behind them on the left side.


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## slickwillislim (Nov 9, 2005)

Its not blyxa. Good guess though since that was the original plan for that spot. It was sold to me as Echinodorus tennellus but obviously its quite large. I think its one of the larger Echinodorus grass like plants not sure which one. Doesn't bush as well as blyxa and as you can see in the picture it sends runners, unlike blyxa which is a stem plant. It wasn't supposed to grow that big but what are you going to do.

Thanks for the compliments.


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## turtlehead (May 31, 2005)

Finally a full lawn good job keeping it nice.


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## caymandiver75 (Sep 5, 2006)

Your setup looks terrific! How did you get the grass to grow in like that? Did you paint the backside of your aquarium?


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## fresh_lynny (Mar 9, 2006)

Do you trim the top at all?
What other plants are in there besides the hairgrass?

Nice job BTW


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## slickwillislim (Nov 9, 2005)

Thanks for all the compliments. 

*Caymandiver75*:I got it to grow like that by waiting... Thats about the only trick. Pressurized co2. I only use 2x54w Tek T5. The other two bulbs haven't been used, too much light. 

I am hanging a piece of black cloth off the back it works pretty well and I can switch to a different color very easily. 

*Fresh newby*:I only have three plants. Eleocharis parvula, Echinodorus tenellus, and the larger Echinodorus perhaps angustifolius but thats just a guess. There is some riccia, moss, and hc hiding in the grass hard to pick it all out. 

I trimmed it twice. It grew in faster in some spots and started to grow taller there. The front left was full quite a while ago. It is a real pain picking all the cut blades of grass off the surface of the tank. They just went right through my net. Took me a while. 

*Turtlehead*: Thanks. Yeah its been slow going. If my original plan to have HC as the foreground had worked out I would have been done sooner.


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## Boz (Jan 8, 2007)

It is simply gorgeous! Your patience has definitely been rewarded.


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## slickwillislim (Nov 9, 2005)

Its definitely been a long process. I purchased the tank last January. I pieced together the setup and got everything going in September. 

I figure whats the rush. If I rush I make mistakes, and it becomes more of a chore instead of a hobby. Who am I racing?


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## eklikewhoa (Aug 29, 2006)

That looks very nice!!!


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## Boz (Jan 8, 2007)

Can I ask what substrate you're using?


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## slickwillislim (Nov 9, 2005)

You sure can. Its Soil master select. The regular red stuff.


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## Ippo456 (Feb 17, 2007)

Uhm .. I don't see any bga ..
Nice & simple looking aquascape .. really makes the rocks stand out.
I just wish that you could've created depth to it


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## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

That is really impressive. I love the gentle slopes and serenity. I followed the link and read the whole thread over at APC - and was truly impressed with the progress, especially over the various algaes. Nice work! You're certainly not a beginer anymore.


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## slickwillislim (Nov 9, 2005)

I finally redid this tank. The hairgrass was getting to thick and the tenellus/ angustifolius where growing taller and spreading to far in the tank. 

I am trying something a little different with this one. I have a kind of hill of substrate in the middle. I noticed some iwagumis had this hill like structure and thought I should give it a try. 

This was my first try at the hardscape and its ok. I redid the whole tank and replanted it with glosso all in one night so anything would have looked good when I was done. 

I planned poorly and found out to late that I had to go on a college viewing trip and thats what forced me to rush the redo. I might not have time to replant all that glosso for weeks because AP season and State testing is coming up so the hardscape will probably stay basically as is for a while. 

I would love some suggestions on the rocks. I am having a hard time visualizing this tank complete even though its just glosso, so any advice will help.

http://picasaweb.google.com/William.Reksc/41007


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## slickwillislim (Nov 9, 2005)

I changed it and changed it and I am trying this scape right now.

My tank a couple weeks ago:

















My tank tonight:









My newest scape is my best attempt at copying Amano's scape on page 95 of his first book. It uses black rock instead of the petrified rock he uses. Myine also has a lot more points and texture while his had lots of lines and softer edges. I hope this tank looks decent, and I hope my glosso finally fills in how I want it too...


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## defdac (Dec 28, 2003)

I like your Iwagumi skills. Somehow I feel you have hit a perfect sweet spot regarding the size of the different boulders. Not too big, not too small. "Lagom" big as we say in Sweden: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagom


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

Honestly, I really liked the "couple of weeks ago" rockwork better than the Amano-copy. In the newest scape, the largest boulder looks as if it wouldn't be situated that way naturally. It looks "unsettled", if that makes any sense.


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## defdac (Dec 28, 2003)

That large boulder makes the whole composition since it looks like it's part of the underlying rock and connected to all other rocks. My brain knows that is not the case of course. To me a sucessful aquascape equivalent of "Suspension of disbelief". The only way the large boulder can stand that way is if it connected to the other boulders, making a complete whole. If it was - it's very settled in a very interesting way.


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## jeffboyarrdee (Aug 25, 2004)

or if you keep the larger boulder there...maybe sticking a taller plant that fills in the spaces as to make it look like they are all connected. like blyxa or a sag that fills in nicely...i prefer blyxa's for iwagumi layouts...i actually like both. They both have a potential to look very nice when grown out.


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## slickwillislim (Nov 9, 2005)

I have lots of extra tenellus if I want to go that way. You guys don't think the glosso filled in will fix that?

I see the problem. I just ignored it because I couldn't find anything I liked better. 

In the old one I really hated the look of the biggest rock. I don't know why. I had to change it it just ate at me.

So the general consensus is to add tennellus aront he biggest rock and that area. If so I would probably have to balance that with a little tenellus on the far left side...

I will think about it. This tank is more me trying to beat the glosso than get a great looking tank. Its beaten me twice now in this tank. I am determined to get it right.


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## MARIMOBALL (Mar 18, 2007)

anyone seen any green neons around any Los Angeles Fish store lately?


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## xcooperx (Jun 21, 2006)

i forgot the name of the store its in hollywood, they are selling them for $14 i think


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## MARIMOBALL (Mar 18, 2007)

Dang $14 a piece. coop please find out the name? or could you special order these.


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

lol. AAF had them for like $2.50 or $3 each.


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## MARIMOBALL (Mar 18, 2007)

Thanx epic Ill call tommorow. Now back to this thread. I love the first scape but havent seen anyone with a thick lawn of glosso lately. I have managed to grow glosso in regular black (art rock) sand. It does need high light I have 24w PC over my 3.5 nano and weekly seachem flourish.


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## Storm_Rider (Sep 30, 2006)

i also like the weeks ago scape better, but i see why the large boulder was an eye sore. but it really does look unnatural in the newest scape. but depending on how the plants fill in and around it, it could be a big success. can't wait to see where it goes.


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## slickwillislim (Nov 9, 2005)

Yeah... I am just going to leave it alone. I am going on vacation kind of soon. Just enough time for the glosso to grow or fail. 

I will rescape at the end of the summer for sure. If I can get this tank to work i will probably try another iwagumi of some sort. If not I might try a dutch style aquarium. Streets of stems and anubias probably throw a bolbitus in there just because I haven't tried one yet... 

Who knows what I am going to do with this tank...


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Donate it to epicfish. That's what I heard last time I talked to you.


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## slickwillislim (Nov 9, 2005)

Yeah... donate to Epic... Thats exactly what I was planning on doing. :flick: 

I couldn't get rid of this tank. I can't let it win.


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Conquer it first. Then donate it. 

Haha. Can't wait for it to grow out. I think the large rock will look less "out of place" once it's all grown in. But hey, what am I talking about?


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

Sorry for starting an 'aesthetics fight'. Good luck with the glosso. I grew glosso really easily, but lots of people seem to have problems. I wonder what the secret to success is...I'd tell you if I knew.


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## slickwillislim (Nov 9, 2005)

Yeah I did in the past with regular playsand. 

My problem is the tank gets lots of algae with just glosso in it. Not enough plant mass. I try and float Riccia and some other stuff but soon it blocks out the light. Making the algae reasonable but making the glosso grow tall.


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## Overfloater (Jan 12, 2004)

I've grown a 75G with glosso only without algae problems. I had 4x55W AHS kit over it, and no problems. It grew flat and green. Substrate was even an inert type called 3M Colorquartz. 

IME keeping a short photoperiod (4-6) hours will keep algae away while still producing excellent growth.


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## slickwillislim (Nov 9, 2005)

This is a horrible couple of pictures but its from over a year and half ago. 

I didn't know that much about planted tanks. I fertilized and I had diy co2 though. As you can tell I am struggling with the riccia in this picture and I eventually had a horrible attack of bba from lack of co2 along with staghorn from lack of nutrients. All because of finals week. It only took a week. I had 2x65w brand new coralife bulbs over a 29g. This tank went to hell real fast. It was a lot of fun though. 



















The scape was basically the cutout of a river. It was like looking two real scapes from the side. Interesting effect... not going for it again though.

Now if I can get that close to what I want with diy co2, and limited knowledge. I have to be able to do it with 1.5 years of experience, 3 tries, Pressurized co2, 4x54w Tek t5HO...

Over floater:
I am taking your advice to heart. I had been using 2x54w for 8 hours. I don't think that was intense enough. Now I am going with 2x 54w for .5 hours then 4x54w for 5 hours then 2x54w for .5 hours. Kind of a warm up and cool down kind of thing. 

I already see some nice growth and some of it is up... But I will trim anything that goes up and hope for the best.


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## slickwillislim (Nov 9, 2005)

This is ten day later. The glosso grew up because of the way I planted the glosso straight into the substrate instead of angled. They are starting to bend over and creep the way i like but its not perfect. So far I only have a little algae on the glass and I can deal with that.










Larger version:


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## LeapingGnome (Apr 15, 2007)

Looks like a good start!


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## MARIMOBALL (Mar 18, 2007)

slick its comming along nicely. Do you have Amano shrimp ot otto in there to help with the algae cuz my Iwagumi was starting to grow algae on the rocks until I stop feeding Amanos for three days and all the algea was gone almost overnight. They really are great at eating algea. AAF is out of green neons Kirt says they are out of season. I want some so bad. I envy your fishies.


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## slickwillislim (Nov 9, 2005)

I didn't realize there was a season for green neons. I mean it makes sense because cardinals have a season... 

I have gone through about 5 in this tank. I only have one Amano left. 

All but the one jumped out or died in the first couple weeks. This one has been in there for ever now. 

Why would you ever feed amanos. I only feed enough for the fish I try to never give them any food. THere is enough organic stuff. I will look into getting some more after vacation.


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## MARIMOBALL (Mar 18, 2007)

Ill try not feeding them for a week. I have 8 Amanos in a 18gal tank not to mention 2 CRS and 3 tiger shrimp. And I feed 2 pellets of crab cuisine and one 1/4 tab of algae waffer every other day. fish get micro pellets and not many reach the bottom. so far no bb or brown algae. Only plant in the tank will be HC. With the shrimp, riccia floating, taiwan moss on drift wood and Excel I havent had an algae problem in my new tank while it matures (crossing fingers). I wonder why your shrimp died off but IMO I would have at least 20 in that tank.


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## slickwillislim (Nov 9, 2005)

I was thinking about 30. That way if I lose a couple it won't be horrible. I can always feed them if the algae goes away or put them in one of my other tanks. I need to save up a few bucks first though. I just bought some ADA stuff and got some CO2 stuff coming...


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