# Single Stone Iwagumi & ADA philosophy guide



## Francis Xavier (Oct 8, 2008)

So, I had a bit of a growing period in terms of aquascaping, work and so on. With so many new things to learn and try out, it was time to get back in the saddle after about a 2 month hiatus from my apartment. The setups I had going surprisingly grew in relatively fine, no algae or the like - just not very apt towards an aquascape. It was a bit surprising really since they probably went about a month and a half (or likely all randomly ran out of co2 the day I left) without any co2. Lends credence to the plant mass out competing algae theory.

In any event, faced with some scapers block, I decided to focus on technique and the challenge of using a single stone for an Iwagumi.

The reason why a single stone layout is difficult is that you need one stone that, by itself, can stand alone and make your statement. It has no support, no periphery you just have plants and a stone. So you need to pick a stone that speaks all.

For me personally, I wanted a return to the more minimal and to make a more simple statement.

Here's the hardscape in place:









Planting, filled Day 1:









Plants & Things to touch up on next water change:










Technical Data:
Aquarium: 3.5g
Lighting: 27w 8,000k bulb
Substrate System: Bacter 100, Clear Super, Tourmaline BC, Penac P, Penac W, Amazonia Powder Type

Stone type: Ryuoh
Plants: Riccia, HC, Marsilea Crenata, Hydrocotyle sp.

Week 1 Fertilizer Techniques: Brighty K (one squirt / day), Green Bacter (10 drops a day)

I'll share some of the techniques I've learned throughout this journal, the first of which is during the first week this layout will get a water change once a day with daily dosing of Brighty K and Green Bacter.

After the first week, it will be daily doses of Brighty K and Green Brighty Step 1 and water changes every other day / as needed. Hopefully Amano and Oto cats won't be necessary, but if the diatom algae outbreak occurs, then they'll be added after a thorough water change and hand removal. 

*Substrate system theory defined:*

I'll take this moment to briefly describe the ADA philosophy behind the substrate system. The keyword here is that it's all about whole system health, a focus on the entire ecosystem - not just the plants. 

*Bacter 100 & Clear Super and what they do:*

ADA describes Bacter 100 as over 100 different types of microorganisms - but what this really means for the substrate system is that you immediately turn your substrate into a secondary biological filter. You pre-seed the substrate layers (in tanks larger than a 5.5 gallon, using power sand is recommended) with this bacteria to help jump start the cycling, but more importantly to add bacteria that help the system stay healthy at large. 

By giving your plant's roots direct access to a strong center of biological filtration, you encourage them to be healthier, more free from algae and increase the health, stamina, vigor and vitality of the plants. This helps enable them to outcompete algae and grow at better rates. This also helps keep the water more "pure" - and the more "pure" the water, the healthier the system.

Clear Super serves as a 'food' source for the Bacteria contained in Bacter 100 and enables the bacteria to grow quicker and stay healthy by not having them starved during setup and maintenance for lack of natural food sources.

In a Mini S/M size you should only need about 1/3 of the bottle of Bacter 100 & Clear Super, potentially even less: around 1/4th - which gives you room for 3-4 layouts total. Just gently spread both on the bottom pane of glass. Bacter 100 first, then Clear Super on top of it. Try to get an even spread across the aquarium

*Tourmaline BC:*

Tourmaline BC is a high purity / quality powder carbon source and goes in roughly the same proportions of Bacter 100 & Clear Super. It goes on top of these in the substrate system on the bottom pane of glass. 

Tourmaline helps keep the water pure by absorbing organic pollutants (like plant decay from initial setup or from conversion from emersed to submersed growth forms) and is essentially powder forms of Bamboo Charcoal.

*Penac P & Penac W*

Before covering these further, let me first state that these are essentially the same as "vitamin" supplements that someone might take on the side on a daily basis. They aren't exactly necessary and obviously you'll live without it. For these it's kind of a preference thing and there's not really any 'science' to back them up. I threw them in because we had some extra laying around and a little bit goes a long way.

But just in case you are interested:

Penac W is designed to prevent the substrate from becoming anaerobic, it's essentially just something to throw in to improve the substrate environment as a whole. 

Probably the better use of this product, or well something more measurable is that it can be added directly to the aquarium water in the case of an oxygen shortage in the aquarium: for example if you accidentally overdosed Co2. It serves to rapidly oxygenate the water.

Penac P is an additive for 'improving the soil,' by aiding in the ability for plants to spread their roots and grow healthier. It's just an additional supplement for aiding in the growth in aquatic plants.

Again, these two aren't exactly necessary, they're just like taking vitamin supplements. It's more of a "wholistic" thing.

*Aqua Soil Amazonia*

I probably don't need to explain much here - very high nutrient concentrated substrate that also lowers the pH. This is by far the work-horse of growing your aquatic plants. 

*Conclusion*

As you can see, on day one the water is pretty clear, completely avoiding any 'cloudiness' issue or anything of the sort while not running any carbon or the like in the filter. This is achieved with a combination of using the substrate additives and very gently filling the water to not disturb the substrate too much.


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## Fat Guy (Nov 19, 2003)

Awesome. Looking forward to watching this tank develop.


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## TLE041 (Jan 16, 2010)

Interesting scape.

Do you find your Ryuoh stones have any affect on the water parameters at all? In my Mini-M, the 10 lbs. of Ryuoh really buffers the water and increases its hardness quite a bit. Even with the RO water I add to the tank, My dGH is 11 and dKH is 7. pH is raised to 7.6-7.8.


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## Francis Xavier (Oct 8, 2008)

Hey Tony,

I don't find the Ryuoh Stones I use to have much / if any effect on my water parameters. They are supposed to be inert, but I would suspect that they slightly affect water, as most rock tends to. However, my base water is also like 8.9 out of the tap - so using stones like Ryuoh never really had a noticeable impact.

I have been messing with be Soft for a little while on the layouts around the gallery though (which we don't use RODI on) and have noticed it's been a little easier to grow plants for us here.


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## Francis Xavier (Oct 8, 2008)

Fat Guy,

I must say I have enjoyed watching you progress from the Edge to the Mini M. Your scaping skills have definitely improved!


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## PaulG (Oct 10, 2010)

Love it. I've been cosidering a one rock scape for a while, will be interesting to see how yours develops.


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## Francis Xavier (Oct 8, 2008)

Okay, so I've gotten to day two, and am actually keeping up with a Journal for once.

I have my lighting period set from 10pm at night to 6am in the morning (8 hour photoperiod), which I will probably bump up as the need arises - sometimes playing with an 8-10 hour photoperiod can help make things easier. Not all planted aquariums are the same. Right now I start on the low-side to judge how algae will occur in the aquarium. Preventative measures in the fight against algae is always the best way to go (preventative doesn't mean you won't get algae, you're pretty much always going to get it to some degree).

I did notice an interesting effect, and that is the effect of Penac W on the substrate in terms of oxygenation levels in the aquarium overall, I did perhaps go a little overboard in the dosing of it for this small size aquarium, ended up using double the recommended dosage by just simply putting in a more sizeable dosage to equal Bacter 100 & Clear Super levels:










As you can see there's quite a lot of oxygen in the system, that's just one side of the aquarium. 

It's important, for planted aquaria, that the system reach a stable (i.e. cycled) point as quickly as possible to enable the growth of healthy aquatic plants and deter from algae. For this reason, I am doing a water change once a day everyday for the first week, taking it down to about this level: 










And you can see, still clear water and going pretty good (the Marsilea is melting a bit hard in the back, dunno if it will work out in the long-term, as the batch we got was pretty well melted to begin with)










upon filling with water, I Dosed one squirt of Brighty K and 15 drops of Green Bacter (aids in replenishing Beneficial bacteria after a water change, as well as during the cycling process help's speed up the process of cycling. This Amazonia should be ready for Amano shrimp in about 5 days).

While filling the water - just do it slowly, try not to disturb the substrate too much, if at all. You shouldn't be blowing aquasoil around. 

Let's keep this going and see how things continue to turn out! I have a shakey-mobile video of water filling, but I need to figure out a better way of uploading it for viewing.


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## IWANNAGOFAST (Jan 14, 2008)

oh it looks great! Are you going to have the hydrocotyle spread all over the riccia in the front or just in the back?


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## Francis Xavier (Oct 8, 2008)

IWGF,

My plan with the hydrocotyle is to keep it as a background plant - so the end goal is for it to drape a little over the main stone. I've been watching it's growth patterns for months now and I believe it will fulfill this role.


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## kwc1974 (Mar 17, 2009)

Interesting look, that is not the San Marcos riccia I gave you ist it?

I like that this scape is only with one rock proving you can find that one show rock and have a great scape


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## Francis Xavier (Oct 8, 2008)

Hey Kevin,

That is indeed the San Marcos Riccia you gave me. I'm hoping it grows in well keeping that same color and size submersed!


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## Francis Xavier (Oct 8, 2008)

The first week of this layout being up is almost over - and it's gotten a water change every single day. Once the next week starts, it will turn into water changes every second day. So, from Saturday -> Monday, Weds, Fri, Sun.

But as you can see here as well, the aquarium is going through a pretty intense melt-down phase. Except for the hydrocotyl in the back, which really needs no encouragement to grow, there's wholesale melting of the Riccia (which was semi-emersed), HC (which was totally emersed), and the Marsilea Minuta (which was totally emersed).

The Minuta was a lost cause - frankly it just came into the aquarium too late, given enough time they would bounce back as submergent growth was already seen, but the shipment of plants we get from our wholesaler is always a bit weak. If they aren't put into water almost immediately upon receiving them, then usually they are a lost cause. In this case they were shipped two day instead of one day, and then didn't see an aquarium until the third day. 

So, the end result was the Minuta was mostly replaced with some of it already in the emerged form. 

The HC is in a similar boat (having come from the wholesaler) - and may also need replacing. By and large it's just best not to keep rotting plants in the aquarium. 

I must say though, that by and large packaging of plants we get from hobbyists is always 400% better than from wholesale sources and have much longer vitality before needing to be put into an aquarium. 

However, this is normal and expected - KWC warned me that this Riccia would go through this phase before bouncing back considering it's original source, and it's nothing that I'm not prepared for.

In the mean time, still dosing 1-2 drops of Green Bacter daily and 1 squirt (1 mL) of Brighty K daily. Let's see how it keeps on going and bounces around. It'll be more careful removal of dead plant material in the next week is my prediction.


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## Blice (Mar 7, 2011)

Sorry to hear about the melting :icon_frow. I don't know much about riccia so I'll be watching this thread to see how it does. How much co2 are you putting in the tank?


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## Francis Xavier (Oct 8, 2008)

Currently about 1-2 bps.

The melting with emersed grown plants is normal, so it's nothing that I'm too worried about!


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

I think there's a lot to be said for starting with a simple element for scaping, then building on that carefully. This is a better teacher than trying to start with a complex idea/scape.


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## TLE041 (Jan 16, 2010)

Yikes! Maybe you should look into getting a better wholesaler. Plants shouldn't perish if they're not in a tank within 3 days after packing.


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## Da Plant Man (Apr 7, 2010)

I think he is the wholesaler :biggrin:


Great scape, can't wait for it to grow in.


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## Francis Xavier (Oct 8, 2008)

I agree Tom. I've been backwards and forwards and all over the map the past 6 months or so. If you're going to practice anything, it should just be technique.

I've got another tank I'm working on that's more conceptual, and consequently a bit more complex, but that one I'll save for later.


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## youjettisonme (Dec 24, 2010)

Love your simple layout. 

Agree on the simplicity vs. complexity issue. I went way too complex for my first tank, and in turn, did a good job trying to make as many mistakes as possible. I suppose it's a great learning experience, but it can also be unnecessarily expensive. 

By contrast, my latest nano is as simple as possible. 3 rocks, fissidens on mesh, staurogyne repens. The tank will have 2 ottos and 10 CBS, and that's about it. I think my next tank will be equally simple.


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## Ben. (Mar 29, 2011)

really nice tank, why were the plants on stones instead of being planted?


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## Francis Xavier (Oct 8, 2008)

Hello Ben,

Riccia is a floating plant that doesn't attach to other objects (like moss or java fern, etc will), therefore it needs to be tied down firmly to stones that will make it able to grow in as a carpet plant. For this reason, Riccia line is used as it doesn't decompose in water over time (as moss cotton will because moss attaches to objects).


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Francis Xavier said:


> I agree Tom. I've been backwards and forwards and all over the map the past 6 months or so. If you're going to practice anything, it should just be technique.
> 
> I've got another tank I'm working on that's more conceptual, and consequently a bit more complex, but that one I'll save for later.


I keep going back to the basics and re evaluating them, you will likely do this 10X more in the next 20 years. 

Even my larger 120 Gal, I've gone back to maybe 2-3 plant species, and large expanse of space, and a single display piece of wood. I have access to this stone locally, but I'm more a wood guy and CA is the place for Wood varieties.

Do one piece of hardscape right and build from there. 
I often modify many of my own ideas based on this process. 
I can sit and ponder, what it is I like and dislike about it. 
Taking one's own sweet time is very useful.

Most good scapers do not rush, they think a while, what essence or new idea would illustrate their goal/s? Can I develop a new style or design of my own based on what I like and admire?

Perhaps you take a different view, holding the hardscape material as the primary focus? I often build tanks around such materials, not try and fit them to the tank. ADA's tanks are well suited dimensionally for many types of scaping materials. Perhaps a trip to the San Marcos or another nice spring fed system might inspire you/again?

I find using some belem hair grass and Riccia will attach all on it's own,* infest* the grass is much more like it! then no retying over and over or trim often. Another similar method to use Xmas moss as base, then tie Riccia over this, it'll infest the moss which does attach to the wood/rocks etc.

I have to be very careful not to get these weeds into other aquariums!

Nice to see a single stone approach to design though.
The best and wisest seek good questions, not answers.


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## Francis Xavier (Oct 8, 2008)

So we're at exactly the one week mark and here's how she looks:










As you can see there's a huge amount of difference! But really, there's a mystery plant of sorts growing in the riccia, which I have no idea what it is, originally I thought it was a stray piece of HC that got stuck, but as it grew up just a little bit, it became apparent that that's not what it was. 

It doesn't surprise me there'd be a random plant stuck in there - considering the Riccia came from the San Marcos river. However, I hope it's not H. Polysperma, which would be a very likely candidate given the source.

Normally I would start dosing Step 1 and go to water changes every other day, but for this one I think i'll stick to just Brighty K and a daily water change, just now 1/3 of the water instead of nearly 100%. Once more of the plant mass gets to submerged growth I'll start adding some Step 1. I think if I were to start adding it now, I would begin to get some unwanted algae. 

For contrast, here is another layout in my Mini M I've been working on that is also one week old:










I've been using the same method here, and I can start to see signs of an iron deficiency, but again, I'm not going to start dosing ECA until the stems get a little bit more established. There's a random Bucephelandra in there, temporarily weighed down. 

That style is a more new-ish type of style I'm working on, relying more on stem plant arrangement and the placement of smaller stones to come together with a moss carpet - inspired by other types of Japanese gardens.


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## PaulG (Oct 10, 2010)

Looking very nice.

I've started my "one stone scape" so will get a journal going.


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## Francis Xavier (Oct 8, 2008)

Paul! I look forward to seeing your own scape progress.

Anyhow. We are now situated on an every-other day dosing scheme for both tanks. I am still only dosing Brighty K, and no longer dosing Green Bacter, except for one-two drops after a water change.










A second day after the water change:









The Riccia is starting to bounce back and bounce up! the makings of the carpet is coming around now. Maybe I won't have to retie riccia stones after all. The hydrocotyle in the back is, to no surprise, growing like a weed.

In the Mini M, it was time to give the first trim of the aquarium - which occurs as the stems start to reach the top of the tank. I ended up fairly mercilessly triming them down to the bottom and then replanting a few tops here and there. Trimming them down like that encourges them to sort of "split" or grow out side shoots that go up as well, which is how you inevitably, through proper trimming, get a full 'bush' look with stem plants.

You'll also notice I rearranged a few things, I found a slightly more elegant positioning for some of the plants.

Right After Trim:










One day later:










Dosing on the Mini M is up now to Brighty K + Green Brighty Step 1. Green Bacter 1-2 drops after water changes.

The slight 'yellowing' you see in the day two pictures is the natural effects of Amazonia I / old type - this is usually what's referred to when ADA mentions "cloudy" water. This currently occurs because I'm not running any carbon on any of the aquariums, which would remove this effect fairly easily, and is actually recommended by ADA to use carbon for the first three months of the Aquarium and then replace with biological filtration. I'm just too lazy to add carbon right now. Which, ironically leads to having to do more water changes anyway. For me it serves as a good reminder to change the water during the first two weeks.


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## Francis Xavier (Oct 8, 2008)

Now at the start of the third week - and ironically, as so often happens with planted aquariums, the ones giving me hassles have completely flip-flopped. So i'll start with the one that's not arguing with me at the moment, the Mini S:










That riccia is coming in nicely now - and I think it may be my favorite plant at the moment for a carpet. I'm highly tempted to incorporate it into the Mini M in lieu of Moss. But not goign to go in on that one quite yet. The hydrocotyle is also forming up nicely in the back (as if it ever needed much encouragement, truly may be the easiest plant to grow ever). The end goal of the hydrocotyle is for it to kind of drape over the top left side of the stone and form a background of sorts in a similar way to the way hair grass is used. This is possible because hydrocotyle kind of "floats," as it grows, hovering over the substrate / objects as opposed to densely covering them. 

The main stone seems to be having a little bit of diatom/brown algae and cyano growing on it, on one of these water changes next I'll end up hitting some maracyn into the system to remove the cyano, and if the brown algae remains a problem, i'll dab the stone itself with h202 (hydrogen peroxide) by essentially diluting some h202 with water and dipping a small brush into the mixture and dabbing it over the rock while the aquarium is drained. This is also a good technique for removing BBA off of driftwood and stones.

Currently the dosing regime is Brighty K x1 squirt and Green Brighty Special Lights x1 (every other day). 










Also had the first cleaning of the lily pipes last night, I've found that if you're proactive with cleaning them out every two-three weeks then they are easier to keep clean and the clear tubing stays pristine / perfect much, much longer.

When it comes time to trim the riccia, I believe I'll replant some HC more in the front and re-tie the riccia to stones, the reason being is that since the riccia melted the way it did, it may be unnecessarily prolonging the carpet not flourishing completely and evenly, and this could speed things up. Also using a few smaller stones to tie riccia to in the front could increase the visual appeal with the way riccia grows up - but so far, so good!

Now, onto the Mini M:

This is after a full water change:










there isn't much for algae problems in this setup, however the stems went into an extreme deficiency pretty quickly - and admittedly it was in part due to my hesitance to increase dosing regimes and in part because co2 wasn't being distributed enough evenly.

I had to replace the MP-1 Do!Aqua lily pipe with a P-1 ADA lily pipe, since the MP-1 just wasn't putting the flow in the appropriate spot for this aquarium and it was causing some starvation since nutrients as well as co2 weren't being properly pushed through the stem plant mass. The ADA P-1 is definitely vastly superior to it's Do!Aqua equivalent, and I'm kind of annoyed I didn't decide to go with this option first.

The stems never really bounced back from the first trimming, but after doing the water change I replaced the lily pipe, dialed up the Co2 and dosed

3 squirts Brighty K, 2 squirts Green Brighty Special Lights - tomorrow will be 2 squirts Green Brighty Step 1 and it'll be an alternation day by day. 

I should note that within 3 hours or so of the co2 distributing properly and dosing, the stems appeared much healthier in the way they were standing back up, and hopefully they'll bounce back pretty quickly.










I'm also choosing to not talk about the moss carpet yet. I'm going to wait a little while before coming to an official opinion on that.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

You can take the Riccia(or any attached stone etc weedy plant) stones out and retie them to produce a nicer richer thick growth without too much effort, this is generally better than trying to trim them etc.
Trimming often ends up a mess and you pull off some anyways.

I retied about 1/3, to 1/2 at a time so not to throw the balance of the established plant biomass off too much.

This way you can touch up those bare spots nicely.

When the Riccia grows out the 2-3rd retie, it is thicker and really nice. If you have plenty of nice Riccia to work with, you can start off pretty good. If not, or if pieces pull off, a quick retie fixes them up. 

Over time, I think it's a lot of labor, but everyone should try it a few times.
The effect is very nice.

I liked the Branches and pieces of wood more I think than the stones, but you cannot beat it for a nice fast foreground and pretty with the pearls. 

I used a single piece of wood, more as joke, back about 10 years to flip someone who tried to sue me and few other aquarist, the bird.










Fairly offensive piece of redwood. 

I ended up removing the weedy species though:










Easier to deal with. 

I think most of my tanks have a single piece of wood similar in concept to the single stone idea come to think of it.


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

With good light, etc. Just take the riccia stones out, replant some of the growth over the dead spots and put a hair net over the whole thing. You don't even need to remove the original netting. I find Riccia foregrounds pretty easy to maintain since the foreground if placed on separate rocks is removal and as plantbrain alluded to the mess will be less.


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## not_sponsored (Mar 29, 2008)

Wow that riccia looks like it's really taking off, love the scape X


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## roybot73 (Dec 15, 2007)

Been a while since an update, Frank.
I'd love to see how these are progressing!


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## Francis Xavier (Oct 8, 2008)

I'll probably update once the container arrives. We've been working around the clock on that one, so there hasn't been a lot of time for other stuff!


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