Iwagumi (scrapped). 30L nano (start)

Sorry your other tank crashed on you. You have far more patience and attention to detail than I could manage to muster. And you definitely have an eye for aquascaping.

my attempts at a planted tank have so far been very half-arsed. I think in future it's going to be one tank, one plant... or near enough. I'm going to do a planted setup this summer but it'll be Cuba and flame moss and nothing else!

BTW, pristellas are an underrated tetra, as are lemons

Lauris wrote:

(Please note: Topic name changed due to keep all my planted journey in one post with photos, updates, progress ect.)

ok.. so it is time to admit - I was not prepared for it. Iwagumi setup scraped.
Cuba did not survive (there were only few things to go wrong and they did)
125L tank sold due to preparing for next project (plan for 80L custom made optiwhite
but it will take a time as some sum or money must be involved)
Rummy noses sold.

plenty od ADA amazonia soil and aquascape rock left for new project, but in the mean time
, as I'm not givin up - I'll have a 30L project to ease my pain

so what do I have (..or should I say - whats left .. lol)

3 Days old..

Capacity: 30L
Light: Beamswork Hi-Lumen 30 LED lights
(new one on the way - HiLumen 50 5-7K LEds)
Co2: Pressurized co2, Also decided to switch back to glass ( lily pipes and diffuser)
external ceramic reactor did a great job but I LOVE GLASS (really missed it on Iwagumi project)
Filtration: thanks God I did not sell Eheim2213. Does a brilliant job on 30L capacity.
Heating: 200w external in-line
Soil: ADA Amazonia

Tank - purchased from Wolfie. 20 quit was a great deal. He got a deal for a 3 tanks here on forum and 3rd one came in lovely
blue color (LOL) with clumsy lid (in blue+orange) with no light (I just needed to add a kind of sponge
Bob background to make it gorgeous but I decided to spoil it - Removed the branch around, painted
bottom in black.

Live stock:
6xAmano - 3 adults, 3 small (Adults will go soon)
1 x Yellow (Love it) but will add another 5
2 x Sakura red. Will top-up to 5 (love the contrast of mixing yellow and sakura)
2 x Sumatran Abalone Snails
15 x Horned Nerite Snails
3 x Dwarf Gouramis (They seems not to bother about shrimps at all, so far so good)

Would like to add some bunch of tiny schooling fishes (5-10) any suggestions welcome

Plants: (I hope this time I will manage with no fails. lol)
Anubias nana - tied on branches
On stones - Peacock moss
Background and middle ground - Eleocharis Acicularis
Foreground - Eleocharis Parvula
I hope I will manage to keep the foreground low (once it will root it should be fine) and Will let the middle ground grass to step a lil bit
higher and background I will try to let grow up to the surface. it might be a bit of hustle to trim in this size tank but wave scissors are brilliant

Won't add any more, maybe some other moss to cover the stones.. once my peacock moss
will recover from previous project it will be moved around. I have very nice spots on big rock pieces to
some nice moss - also any suggestions very welcome.

ok. enough talking (typing) .. few photos..

Anubias nana

Some dwarf grass, peacock moss, dwarf and horned nerite

Side look

Face

Setup

what can I say.. I took a fail as a man (lol it was a heartbreaking but I managed not to cry) and I ended-up with something 4x smaller.
And finally I see my plants breathing on other half of the day, didn't happen in my scraped Iwagumi.

as mentioned - open for suggestions on tiny schooling fish to fit in and some moss to attach to rock in background.

Thanks for reading

Man you have a serious knack for making a fantastic looking tank sorry about your iwagumi but the small tank looks fantastic

JohnH wrote:

Lauris,
It's with a good deal of reluctance that I tell you this - and I do really hope it's just a trick of the light - but the Dwarf Gourami in the second picture down looks to have a malady I have noticed many times down the years but am totally unaware of its name - or how to treat it. For a long while I used to think it was something like Fish TB, but now I'm not so sure.
It manifests itself almost as a white 'wart'-like growth, often on the head and sometimes on the mouth and also along the lateral line.
I personally never managed to eradicate this, or even cure it.
As I said, this might just be strange reflections of the light, but if it isn't I would advise you to completely isolate this fish if you're able to.
Sorry to (potentially) be the bringer of bad tidings, but I'm sure you'd sooner be told, even if it turns out to be wrong.
Perhaps someone else could take a look and either confirm or refute my suspicion.

John

John! Many million thanks. I thought it was disease but I thought it won't effect others in tank assuming fish will be fine or pass away on its own. Moved in quarantine. will see what I can google about treatments.. Well spotted.

LemonJelly wrote:

Sorry your other tank crashed on you. You have far more patience and attention to detail than I could manage to muster. And you definitely have an eye for aquascaping.

my attempts at a planted tank have so far been very half-arsed. I think in future it's going to be one tank, one plant... or near enough. I'm going to do a planted setup this summer but it'll be Cuba and flame moss and nothing else!

BTW, pristellas are an underrated tetra, as are lemons

One tank - one plant. lol. but I do admit - I will see how I can get away with water chemestry and lights and plants in this one and once success will be archieved I will start to plan my next project with more different plants. so I'm kind of back to zero point with my tank and it will be easier to follow any changes on smaller tank. at some stage I thought I know a lot and Im ready but my fails took me back on the ground wuth both my feets and I reakised i kniw so little and need to learn a lot of mire. also les thus setup is expensive in case of file and maintain cists and very easy to maintain itself. Thank you

Aroshni wrote:

Hi Lauris, sorry for your iwagumi , it was really beautiful.
I also had a bad experience with the cuba and next time I want to try with some similar plant I will go with micranthemum 'monte carlo' which Darren told me is quite easy to maintain.

Your actual project looks good and balanced, I'm now with a nano setup with a bit of green and a "tree" and I was thinking in the barteri nana petit I have as foliage in case I don't get the moss I'm looking for in the next days, now in yours I see it looks really nice, like a ficus ginseng.

About the schooling fishes I will go for lampeyes, and if you're looking for mid-bottom swimmers I'd choose galaxy microrasboras. I have both and none of them bother my shrimps.

P.S: I though you were a girl because of the name lol

Lol. I do have a long hair tgrough but if I would be a girl I would be a pretty ugly one. lol.

thanks for advice. I just will shop around Saturday (more likely I'll end up with banging on Seahorse doors again) and I will se what's available. cheers

about nana .. I would like to see the roots hanging down from the branches. It should look interesting. Mu concern now is how to rise the height of lights. additional LED plate is on its way and nana on the highest branches now is too close to the light. will diy something.

wolfie wrote:

Man you have a serious knack for making a fantastic looking tank sorry about your iwagumi but the small tank looks fantastic

Thanks mate. I bet you would not recognize the tank as the one I got of your hands. Saw your new addition - that's a stunner ,honestly

little update.
Additional Leds arrived.
Now looks like all areas covered well.



I hope this will be good enough to deliver great growth along with EI salts, Co2 and liquid carbo. Now I just need to wait and see if Leds will be decent enough. at least the price was fair enough. one plate 10k and other one should be 5-7k. I do believe plants will just adjust. it is bright enough now anyway.

also added few yellow and sakura red shrimps and bunch of Dwarf spotted danios.

thinking about getting bunch of floating plants.
Java moss added to stones and peacock moss moved around.

Also big stone in foreground replaced with a bit smaller one and different in shape to take the load off the foreground.

will take some close-ups tomorrow

also one yellow shrimp and one danio decided to leave the tank over night. ..I really don't like the idea of getting cover.. hope it won't happen often and others will not walk out as in fact the first ones didn't come back. lol

The shrimp will leave. If it is not covered

only one shrimp left this tank. I have few amanos in for about 3 minths and other sakura - 3 of them fine for a month+. This is why I'm thinking of floating plants. now the light is good enough to hit through. I will not cover all surface but some parts. it may save some lives. If it will go really bad I will go for some glass cover then. will see how it goes.

Hey Lauris how are the shrimps? did they arrived well?

Have you considered putting a lid of perspex? If you don't like fully covered maybe something similar to the fluval spec lid which has an opening in the center.

well... shrimps arrived very well packed. all safe all alive. next day. I'm more than happy and defo will get more when needed. also he put a lots of java moss and little ornament for shrimps to hige with java moss attached only for extra 10e.

I will leave the tank unopened. if the cover will go on I just will order it by measurements needed as I need few holes to be cut in for lilly pipes and diffuser. did you got your weeping moss wanted?

thanks for asking.

went today to seahorse in hope to get some floating plants. got very nice deal (thank you Darren) :

was so excited even forgot to ask the name of this plant. My shrimps just love them.

After seeing Yellow Rasboras couldn't resit. LOVE this fish. Such a nice colors. brought 7 of them home. My favorite now! but with this I say no more additions to my nano community tank. It is busy enough now.



few update photos of recent additions and changes done:

java moss


Shrimps


I hope java moss attached to stones will addapt well. I think first trim will happen in week or 2.


so. bit busy tank for now. my main concern is plants. after such a failI lost trust in myself. I hope this will pick up well.

Looks really nice, those yellow rasboras look cool. Never saw them in that colour! I'd love my tank to turn out something like yours!

Just a quick update.
Looks like grass do like my new setup.
Rooting system starts to spread out.
Another week or two and I'll give it a trim



Also this makes me more happy as it looks like it won't fail this time. I hope I'll manage to grow this grass quite thick

Ok. So "we are" now 3 weeks old. lol.
First trim and few changes carried along with maintenance last Sunday.
1. - Light reduced. Beamsworks 30 + Beamsworks 50 was a bit too much.
Anubias nana did not like it at all. Reduced to 1 Beamswork plate of 50 LED's
Looks good at the moment. Light does not hit too strong for nana but still in a
reasonable amounts to the bottom line plants.
2. Added another small tree with a bit of Anubias right next to bigger tree.
3. Made a path of stones. The idea of path was there at the beginning. I thought to
leave just the area uncovered with chopping off the grass once needed. Decided
smash to bits one of my lil aquascaping rock. Created path of rock. Buried some
moss under it.

this is my time lapse. I was too lazy to setup my camera to get something decent
quality-wise - used my phone. 4 hours of time-lapse:



and few update pictures:













..I need to think about the background. So any good and quality ideas welcome. Could be a whole stand to be
able to adjust it by how the light falls

Hey Lauris the tank is amazing looking! That's one of the best scapes I've seen. The time lapse video was really good too, what's the song in it? Sounds pretty good

Wackoo wrote:

Hey Lauris the tank is amazing looking! That's one of the best scapes I've seen. The time lapse video was really good too, what's the song in it? Sounds pretty good

Many thanks. I will try next time with more close up view and better light to reflect the lapse in more details.

I need to take a look about the song. I was searching to equal time stamp songs on youtube when added video so I cannot remember artist and name of the song on the go. It was stored as Alternative-Punk. I'll come back to you on this.

Cheers

Wackoo wrote:

what's the song in it? Sounds pretty good

Mary Anne - Cuesta Drive

update:
always wanted to enjoy my fish for more time if I'm up late..As due to planted setup it is not
fine leave main or even part of the lights ON for more than needed I came up with this..
This will make my evenings more enjoyable and won't effect plants as it's only 2 x 0.3w
LED's (I suspect they might be around 3.5k T). Goth them in IKEA for 3e each (USB powered)
I will leave these ON for an hour or hour'n half after the main lights turns off at the evening..
like the game of shadows

lol. This is a 5 day progress of Salvinia Natans. I surely can say - this floating weed does like my tank.

Photo taken 5 days ago


Photo taken today


If someone is interested - I will start to give it away every week or two. Just keep an eye on forum sale section

(www.irishfishkeepers.com/index.php/forum...ns-free-to-go#164720 )

Yes please!

Have read this right from the beginning, really inspiring I must say. Beautiful tank.

hi there.
Just a quick update on my planted tank diary on next project.
so as it all starts with.. I have an idea

So.. my little Nano may turn into a slow grower as I don't really know if I will be able to
afford another Co2 system, but will see..

so this will be hi tech set-up and planned to start again with DSM (dry start method)

So about new project -

-Cabinet: IKEA (not purchased yet, but with this I will start, next weekend)
assembled this cabinet for my mothers aquarium. I'd say it is a beautiful and stylish piece of furniture.
Simple, inexpensive and about the size I'm looking for. IKEA 51.00 quit. 1 door, adjustable level shelves.
in size of H64cm, L60cm and W40cm. Available in white, wooden, black, gloss white and few more
combinations. If someone is looking for something in these measures - I can only recommend.
I'll go for white (glossy one is 25EU more expensive and it's just because doors are in gloss, so I see no
reason to overpay). also it has a tiny screw-in "legs" with adjustable levels for each. so it is easy to get
this thing in level.

BESTÅ series Vara White

www.ikea.com/ie/en/catalog/products/S19000000/#/S19012946

-Tank: 60cmx40cmx40cm 6mm optiwhite, clear-seal, 90L. Got a great price of Rainbow aquatics. so it will meet
the cabinet (this should be sorted by the end of April.)

-Light: this is a painful for me (I need to start a fundraising for lights. lol). I think I will stay with LED as chap Beamswork
LED's proved with a great results in my Nano tank. No algae whatsoever and decent growth. I will go for a overhead light unit
and more likely will install some brackets in my wall. but in terms of expenses - I will say - this will give me a plenty of time to
work on design in my new scape. lol.

I have no clue what fish or inverts will go in..
For scape I will use ADA amazonia (plenty left over since my Iwagumi failed), some mini aqua-scape rock (still have about 17kg's of this)
and will mix up with some roots. As I failed on HC but I love the carpet - Defo I will try this time with Monte Carlo (Micrantherum umbrosum)
and will add some Micro-Swords (Lilaeopsis brasiliensis).. will try with some moss on stones (yogurt method) and some mosses on roots..

So this is just at the very early stage of my next tank. I'd say - idea and plan is there.. everything else depends of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
But I will try to keep this in detail and up-to date as much as possible..

Heh. Unexpected project on its way. Going to collect Fuvak spec19v this Saturday. I hope some mooro wood as well. Will use some of the ADA amazonia, mini rock. Co2 2 way regulator/valve bras ordered. Will creare another nano green machine. Cannot wait to get my hands on.

Getting nano addicted too! Haven't finish my current nano and I'm thinking in the second one hehe.

Looks like you have everything well planned. Waiting for your first photos.

Have you considered riccia fluitans?
What is the yogurt method?

Yogourt method is like - you take a bunch of moss, few spoons of yogourt and 100ml of RO. Blend it well in blender and apply on the surface needed.riccia might be the one to go but i will leave it out of the nano project. Also it does create a very natural looking result once there. As blendered stuff will take a time to settle and attach and deliver a decent growth. I'll keep it to a bigger project (or maybe not.lol) and will prepare well for it. This tine I'll try to tinelapse my bew nano scape. Will see what I'll come up with. Thanks

Aroshni wrote:

Getting nano addicted too!

Tell me about it. Personally for me is easier to put the expences on the table without a fear to be murdered at the same time. lol.
And I do love nano

This thread is something else i must say, A+ work lauris tank looks beautiful in every scape you had it