# My First Try with Iwagumi



## deleted_user_16 (Jan 20, 2008)

not so bad for a start!!!!!


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## froghair (Jan 5, 2008)

It's looking like a great beginning! :thumbsup:


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## aquaphish (Dec 20, 2002)

Looks ok but you will need to put either a fish or two or add ammonia in order for you to start a cycle process. Just floating plants will not add the needed ammonia needed for cycling.


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## ChadEmrick (Jun 21, 2008)

Some moss would really looks awesome growing off of one of those rocks. I can't wait until you get your plants! Its gonna look great!


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## MedRed (May 20, 2008)

where did you order your gloss from? was it grown emersed or submersed?


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## MedRed (May 20, 2008)

i want to find some glosso for a new tank. my LFS carries glosso that is grown emersed before the store gets it. Does your local guy ship to portland?


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## MedRed (May 20, 2008)

LOL... I didn't realize you were in Turkey! Thanks though!


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## mizu-chan (May 13, 2008)

This is looking really nice so far. 
Can't wait until they all grow in.


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## ZooTycoonMaster (Jan 2, 2008)

N and P, if dosed correctly, won't grow algae. As long as N is kept below ~20 ppm, and P is kept below ~1 ppm, then algae won't grow.


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

Good looking tank.

To me the Glosso looks hungry and the Dwarf Hairgrass looks a bit tired. Have you put any substrate fertilizers in? The Hairgrass might just be in transition to submersed form, I wouldn't trip too much off of that. The Glosso, however, just looks hungry to me. Needs food.

Otherwise, great start!


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## FrostyNYC (Nov 5, 2007)

What is your lighting? I dont see you mention that anywhere.

Also, perhaps you're not getting enough CO2 into the tank.


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## roybot73 (Dec 15, 2007)

I'm guessing that maybe the Zeolite in your substrate is absorbing any of the N that your N hungry plants need. I'd say to start dosing -- with that amount of light and your CO2, ferts are the only missing piece of the puzzle. Are you using DIY CO2, or pressurized?


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

First I want to state that this 'scape is totally worth fighting for. I can see how it will look -- and it will look awesome -- with some problem solving and patience.

It looks like you've got slow and possibly stunted growth. At twenty-four watts on a ten gallon with CO2, you should not be getting that algae. To me, it looks like you're overdosing your water column. The fact that your Glosso looks more like HC to me, says that it is not getting enough nutrients. 

What I would do if it were my tank would be to (one) stop dosing the water column completely for a couple f weeks and (two) stick some tab fertilizers into the substrate. After a couple of weeks of this, assuming the algae abated, I'd up the wattage to closer to forty watts and double the CO2. (The CO2 part might not be possible for you and you seem to have added fish.)


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## ddtran46 (Jul 8, 2008)

i was planing on doing the same style as that... looks nice


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## milesm (Apr 4, 2006)

nice scape.

you also might want to put in a barrier between the hairgrass and glosso, otherwise you'll have it spreading into your glosso lawn. it's easier to keep glosso from spreading too much as compared to the hairgrass. a thin piece of plastic should work, you can cut up a water/soda bottle; it should go all the way to the bottom of the tank, and right at the surface of your substrate.

from the looks of it, it seems like your glosso is not getting enough light (growing upward rather than spreading out).


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## hyphination (Sep 25, 2008)

i really like the way this tank turned out. cool HG


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

Looks really good! 
The only criticism I can give is to clean your glass, intake, and diffuser. Maintenance like that adds to the overall look of a tank and, conversely, when they're not done, they tend to take away.
Otherwise, you've come a long way. Nice job!


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

I liked how the rocks were in here:

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/planted-nano-tanks/68274-my-first-try-iwagumi-2.html#post735427


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

emrextreme said:


> Actually, i used to like it that way in the first place but after a while, the stone in the middle started to look small to me for an iwagumi style. So that's what i have for now. Maybe i can make some changes in the future.


Ah. I'd tilt the stone backwards a little bit or to the left a little bit. To make it seem bigger, make a mound of substrate underneath the stone. I think it would flow better if the stone were on a mound and tipped a little bit so there's a flowing horizon. Right now, the middle stone looks a tiny bit sharp.

Just my two cents though.


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## imeridian (Jan 19, 2007)

I agree, it's a bit too "Washington Monument" for me.


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## Fishwood (Feb 1, 2008)

So can you put your finger on what the trick was? It seems like you went from barren to very lush quite quickly. What made the change?

Tank looks great. Personally, my favorite hardscape is the one in the picture before this one, with the one really tall stone slightly left of center. But they all look nice. I hope I can get a foreground this thick when I plant.


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## Francis Xavier (Oct 8, 2008)

Probably a little bit late for this comment, but I just stumbled across this. The plants look like they've grown in nicely. If at all possible though I'd probably want to remove some of the gravel in the front and slope it towards the back. For two reasons, one it makes the tank look bigger to have less substrate in the front and more in the back, and two, in my opinion it looks better to see less substrate in the front since more substrate in the front takes away from the viewing area, it seems like every time I look at the photos my eye is attracted the substrate and the root system growing up against the front glass panel.

I like the color of the rocks though, if I had those color rocks i'd totally be setting up some kind of desert mesa kind of aquascape, with decorative sand making paths between rocks and thickets of scrubby bushes and the occasional tall plant thrown in, with maybe one of those clear blue tinted backgrounds.


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## ddtran46 (Jul 8, 2008)

so..what happened to the glosso?


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

I wouldn't recommend removing the filter. Without flow, plants don't do well at all.


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## Hail (Mar 6, 2009)

This will be interesting to see what happens. Good luck!


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

i actually built myself a filter recently, and i had some issues with it, so my high light tank went without a filter for about 10 days.

I experienced a LOT more pearling than normal, and my nitrates went up, but my plants continued to do fine. there was a fair amount of algae on the glass, but inside the tank and in the plants and everything, the algae was still minimal. I wouldn't keep it without a filter for too long, but for now you should be fine.


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## imeridian (Jan 19, 2007)

There are lots of different reasons for surface film and correspondingly lots of different ways of dealing with it. A quick fix is to take a small cup, drinking, yogurt, etc, lower it into the tank and let the surface water overflow into it. You can do that as part of your water change process. 

I like the arrangement of rocks better now, would perhaps like it even better if the rock on the right was rotated 180 degrees, so it pointed toward the larger central rock. 

The plant growth looks great, nice and deep green, thumbs up!


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## moogoo (Dec 7, 2007)

i've used a paper towel on the surface scum. Just lay it on there and it'll be removed w/ the paper towel... 

not much you can do about the scum except put in a powerhead to give some surface movement.


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## Gweneth (Feb 17, 2009)

I don't know how true this is, but in my experience it seems like the further the water level is from the light, the more light is lost from going out the sides of the tank and reflecting off the surface of the water. So by lowering the water level you may actually be lowering the light level also.


I know my tank gets dimmer when the water level gets low.


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