Dan's First Journal - Iwagumi Style - GLA Rimless 36-L 6g Tank Build

[Fresh2o]

Any harm to my tank?

Maybe. Not sure. Follow this link: http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05584.html

It mentions that the larvae live in moist growing media and feed on algae, fungus, decayed plant matter, and plant roots.

 

[DanTheGuppyMan]

Hm yeah it seems that is what they look like, I hope it doesn't get too bad before I flood the tank! Argh. Oh well

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

So when are you flooding this tank buddy?

 

[Magicmarymac]

Fungus Gnats

Hm yeah it seems that is what they look like, I hope it doesn't get too bad before I flood the tank! Argh. Oh well

Sorry for butting in, but, Fungus Gnats, I hate them.

If you have any houseplants they will invade them. Then they will gleefully fly up your nose at every opportunity. It took me years to figure out how to get them out of my house and office. Ugh. When you flood they will die--in there anyway.

 

[misterpenguin4]

Update pic?

 

[DanTheGuppyMan]

UPDATE - 41 days since planted

I am like 3 days overdue for this. Sorry! Been really lazy lately with everything to be honest, didn't feel like getting on LOL. So here we are! I trimmed the DHG tips because some were turning brown and I didnt like it. So it looks a bit short...but it should grow back Almost all of the HC has carpeted! Just a little bit of spots where substrate is showing. Here is the tank as of today!

Have not seen any of those bugs either. Thinking of flooding it in about 2 weeks! I wanted to flood by the 8 week mark, and in two weeks it will be 55 days, one day early of 8 weeks since planted. Can't wait! Just refilled my CO2 tank and got the manifold on it already, so it will be all ready to go

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Wow that looks awesome. Can't believe how fast that carpeting in!!! DSM seems the way to go if you can resist the urge to flood right away (I still can't). But IMO, why wait 2 more weeks... this puppy looks like its ready to go! haha

 

[DanTheGuppyMan]

Wow that looks awesome. Can't believe how fast that carpeting in!!! DSM seems the way to go if you can resist the urge to flood right away (I still can't). But IMO, why wait 2 more weeks... this puppy looks like its ready to go! haha

Thanks Brian!! Yeah, DSM treats you well haha! I actually didnt want to flood the tank right away, since I had like 2 other tanks I was filling up and getting established I just said heck with this tank until I got my others up and running, so DSM really helped me out there haha. And I still need to get a filter for my shrimp tank since it is using the 106 right now, so I can't flood it right yet. But I want to see if I can get the HC to completely cover all the substrate before I flood it too, OH! I got 2 plants of the Blood Vomit man! Comes Monday I was thinking about putting it in this tank, since bud29 got some from the same guy as me and he said his was about the size of his thumb so I thought I could integrate it in this scape well enough, but I have no clue where to put it if i did. Should I? Or should it go in my 60g or something?

 

[Zimmanski]

So cool! I think the little splash of red would look amazing in this tank

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Sounds like a good plan! Guess you have to wait for the filter situation and get this going. It looks like the HC is all filled it already. Amazing... You 'actually' got the BLOOD VOMIT! haha...Well that's an interesting and rare plant! It might be worth trying to integrate it here so it doesn't get lost in the mix of a larger tank. You need to baby those plants too so when you propagate them, I WANT SOME!

 

[DanTheGuppyMan]

Sounds like a good plan! Guess you have to wait for the filter situation and get this going. It looks like the HC is all filled it already. Amazing... You 'actually' got the BLOOD VOMIT! haha...Well that's an interesting and rare plant! It might be worth trying to integrate it here so it doesn't get lost in the mix of a larger tank. You need to baby those plants too so when you propagate them, I WANT SOME!

Yeah! But where would they go in this tank? Maybe in the right side beside the rock in front of the large main rock? And I will try to grow that stuff as well as I can, and you have the first grabs at it!

 

[Zimmanski]

I think it would look great in front of the two rocks in front of the large rock, or along the line of rocks to the left right in front of the dwarf hair grass.

 

[DanTheGuppyMan]

I think it would look great in front of the two rocks in front of the large rock, or along the line of rocks to the left right in front of the dwarf hair grass.

Oh yeah I like those ideas, but I'm not sure which one to use...haha. What's you guys' opinion? Left or right? I am getting 2 plants of it, so I could put one on each side, but I'm not sure if that would look good all symmetrical like that.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

I like Zimmanski's suggestions. I would go either route as they would both look good IMO. I'm not too sure about one on each side? Maybe when you get them to propagate, you can have an uneven number on each side eventually.

 

[maxwellag]

I think it would look good right in the middle of the rocks.

 

[DanTheGuppyMan]

UPDATE - May 7, 2013 - 53 days since planted - FILLING THE TANK!

That's right! Tank has now been filled! To start with, I started filling it and while it was filling up, I was assembling the clear tubing on the 106 and lily pipes. Brian, you were right!! Took me like an hour to put both tubes over the aqua stops of the 106. But I got it! Much easier on the pipes, though. I got it filled up and it was pearling... and I started to do the CO2. Well GLA never included any instructions for their newfangled glass CO2 bubble counter, so I just used an old plastic AquaTek one until they email me back with instructions for the thing lol. So I turned on the CO2, which was turned on all the way, and then I heard the bubble counter hissing like a pot on the stove and then it practically blew up and exploded the bubble counter liquid all over the place...

So I cleaned that up and tried again on a lower setting, so it is working well now lol. So here are some pics.

Filling...

Pearling....

FULL!

I also noticed that vortex from the lily pipes Brian pointed out somewhere lol...Looks pretty cool haha.

I also made a really crappy time lapse of me filling the tank (well, I made my cousin do it ) and It was my first time using that app so its really bad

SO, thanks all for following this!!

EDIT: Hold on i am fixing the links as you read this.. lol

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Hooray... Finally Flooded! Looks great man! Yup, those vinyl hoses on those aquastops are a PITA!

 

[Zimmanski]

Looks truly amazing! You've put in a lot of hard work and had so much patience and now in return you have one absolutely beautiful tank. Well done

 

[Billbug68]

Yay! Very well done, Dan! Everything looks great! Now for the fun part!

 

[Convict2161]

Amazing!!! Well done!! I know I'm a plant newbie but I can appreciate hard work and a amazing scape. BRAVO!!