180G Iwagumi

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

DTWGulo

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
May 23, 2016
Messages
138
I've been working on this (very) slowly for over a year. I finally got everything together and had the means and time to do it.

Substrate: ADA PowerSand, Amazonia
Lights: MicMol G3 Pro
Hardscape: Acid-washed Black Seiryu stone

Still planning out which plants and fish I want.
 

Attachments

  • 50D548E9-37C4-470C-B416-AF2EDBAFAA82.jpg
    50D548E9-37C4-470C-B416-AF2EDBAFAA82.jpg
    250.7 KB · Views: 76
Looking like a good start. Are you planning on running a sump (I see the overflow in the picture).

Any plans on CO2 and fertilizing? That's a decent amount of light energy and would likely require CO2 and a decent fertilizing regime to make use of the increased plant growth potential.
 
Looking like a good start. Are you planning on running a sump (I see the overflow in the picture).

Any plans on CO2 and fertilizing? That's a decent amount of light energy and would likely require CO2 and a decent fertilizing regime to make use of the increased plant growth potential.

Yes, there is a nice big sump (~30 gallons iirc) underneath.

My CO2 reactor (NilocG) is plumbed in-line with the return from the pump, and I'll be using a pH controller to regulate CO2 delivery to the tank.

I fertilize with GLA macro and Plantex CSM-B micro daily on my high-tech tanks. Generally keep to their recipe/directions, with alterations based on growth and algae presence.
 
That's going to be stunning. Do you plan to use carpeting plants? What a beautiful start.

Yes! Just ordered:
-Micranthemum Monte Carlo
-Hydrocotyle verticillata
-Eleocharis parvula

Planning to order:
-Ranunculus inundatus
-Glosssostigma elatinoides

I also have a bunch of red stem plants on order. There's a small crop of Cryptocoryne flamingo growing in another tank that I may move in. I'm having a hard time getting ahold of some plants from online retailers. Everyone's out of something, so I have to pay shipping from 4-5 separate places to get everything; not eager to do that.

All in due time, I suppose.

Thank you for the feedback!
 
Update!

Got some plants in, dealt with a major thread algae outbreak, and things are starting to look better! All that ADA substrate put out SO MUCH ammonia that I wasn't prepped for the amount of water changes that would be needed. Holy cow. The testing results are after a 50% water change. I did more today, will do more tomorrow. So far so good, though. I can already see that I'm going to need to move some stuff around to work on the scale of the tank. Can't decide if I want to go traditional iwagumi or just enjoy these stem plants and let the rocks shrink in scale.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_3024.jpg
    IMG_3024.jpg
    173.2 KB · Views: 53
  • IMG_2996.jpg
    IMG_2996.jpg
    257.3 KB · Views: 45
Well this is looking great!

I love plants and all kinds - I have been trying to get dialed down to have an Iwagumi, but I can't do it. I had the tank, the design, the plants, the substrate, nope couldn't make it happen. Plants, lots of plants!

Actually, I usually think of how the fish would prefer bigger wood and more plants and that would make them happier. Make fish happier, hahahaha!
 
Update! - Growth has been "decent"

I've trimmed 3 x already. :D
 

Attachments

  • IMG_3223.jpg
    IMG_3223.jpg
    210.9 KB · Views: 39
Back
Top Bottom