Mko

two thumbs up for Nature Aquarium style...Big fan myself as you probably noticed. I feel that more people need to be aware of the truly calming and artistic potential fish tanks have... more iwagumis! less colored gravel =(

I work at PJ's pets and can probably get a good deal on a Hagen Waterhome aquarium because of that so im probably going that route (planning a bigger tank approx 30 gallons or so)They are nice tanks and after seeing your tanks I was convinced (nothing compares to ADA though). I have 15 rocks of similar texture to yours that I have been collecting over the past while from AC and Big als so I'm excited to start the iwagumi once im done my university finals. As for this cube im currently just using it as a holding tank for bettas that I import. I will probably rescape it come summer time. I only have enough patience for so many tanks. This christmas it will be the future 30 gallon iwagumi. I'll start up a seperate thread for that once I free up some time.

Do you dose EI ferts or premixed? if EI do you dose dry ferts or solution? this will be my first true iwagumi so I want to know how nutrient demanding these types of tanks are

Here's a picture of it:

Its a custom made 7.2 starphire cube made at aquarium illusions.

Got home from the U at about 12:00 and did a water change and took a few pictures of the plants emersed. Nothing like ending the day off with some tank maintenance.

looking good =) some nice rcs. Can't wait to see everything fill in fully. My grass is slowly starting increases its growth rate but has to recover from being neglected for so long. what other tanks do you have running right now? and did you order your lily pipes online?

Today's Update:

Did water test to check up on the water nutrients

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0.5 ppm

pH: 7.0

KH: 11.2

GH: 7.2

Doing a water change after I finish studying at the university later this evening along with more spot dosing of BBA and manual removal of any filamentous algae.

Woa, the end on shots make the tank look so much bigger!

Haha yea they do it creates a cool sense of depth inside the tank. Thanks for viewing !

me too =) and im loving what they do to my algae woot woot.

lovely amanos haha =) and is that yellow shrimp from AC?

• amano shrimp: nom nom nom nom nom nom
  

They do not stop. haha they're always hungry. They've totally destroyed the hair algae that was once in between my moss. My moss is now healthy and algae free =D

Bump* This lonely fellow is still for sale =)

The algae has slowly started to disappear. I'm probably not winning the battle completely just yet but its definately starting to show signs of turning around. Today is the last of my daily water changes (did daily water changes over a week long period to restart the cycle and regain balance within the tank)

I'm currently only dosing potassium and excel in the tank to make sure nutrients stay down as the amanos and siamese algae eaters remove the algae around the tank.

For the tough spots of BBA i've been using a syringe to spot treat with H202, turning the filter off for 5 mins to prevent the current from spreading the H202. Then doing a water change shortly after. The results show that a lot of the BBA is starting to die off and I havent seen any new growths of BBA on its common regrowth locations (mini elite filter outflow, rocks, driftwood) which may show some positive signs of me winning the battle against the BBA for now.

current water parameters:

co2: 1.5bps

nitrate: 0 ppm

nitrite:0 ppm

ammonia:0 ppm

pH: 7.1

Still removing hair algae along with cladophora algae from the eleocharis parvula. The filamentous algae types seem to still be growing but this is probably from the old growth already present. I will continue to remove as much of the algae as I can relying on the amano shrimp to keep any new growth at bay.

Here are some shots from today:

hydrocotyle verticillata showing some new growth:

Full tank shot:

Thanks for Viewing,

I enjoy any feedback, criticisms, and advice so feel free to comment

Mirko

saw some great pearling from the plants today good sign =) hopefully I can get this tank back on balance. Daily water changes end on saturday. After that I will switch to every other day until I can rid my tank of the hair algae.

My dwarf blue gourami coming in for a close up.

haha thanks =) love just sitting here with a cup of hot chocolate.. christmas music.. fish tank.. what a good feeling

video update :

well look at that you want to make a triangular composition and i want to try my hands at an iwagumi haha. The white is actually just my white wall with the light just bouncing right off of it. I agree it makes it a lot nicer for photography and overall asthetic apperance in my oppinion. seems to give a good illusion of depth into the tank.

Shots from this morning:

Nice tank.I like nano to small setups. That way, it keeps the costs down:)

What did you use for your background?

Is it easy to grow hydrocotyle verticillata? Im planning to grow glosso with this on the foreground of my next tank.

Is that a glass drop checker similar to ADA on the lower right?

i am quite a fan of your tanks too. I love your iwagumi layouts. I'm planning to get one started up over christmas to be honest. Hydrocotyle verticillata just comes to life with Co2 i think. With no Co2 its quite stagnant and is a great spawning zone of all sorts of algae. Under Co2 injection it grows quite rapidly seeing new leaves almost everyweek. Not to mention it is quite quick at spreading itself out. And the glass equipment you see in the right hand corner is not a drop checker its the actual diffuser. Mr.Aqua diffuser. I plan on picking up a drop checker online to keep a more accurate measurement of Co2 within the tank. As for the background do you mean light? or plants?

Looks great! very nice, simple and clean.

may i ask what your dosing regiment will be?

will it be the same as before?

also what kind of substrate are you currently using?

Hey! Its you, you haven't updated your tank in a while. Like the look, very natural and realistic.

Thank you kindly!

wicked setup.

i like the contrast of colors between the different rasboras.

nice hydrocotyle verticillata,i have some of the same plant in my shrimp tanks.

it is a very hard plant to find and very expensive,but once it starts a nice carpet you will be thrilled with it. it is by far my fav plant

who do you have the one ballast just as back light?was it just for the photos?or do you always have it on?

Thank you, I have a few videos of the tank up on youtube you can see more info under the "members journals" section of the forum. The backlight i turn on when im viewing showcasing or taking pictures it is turned off for the rest of the day to prevent some unwanted algae growing from excess light. I plan on using conduits to create an overhanging light to maybe naturally create that back light effect.

Tank looks awesome, how many watts is the aquatic life fixture? And is that a GLO fixture I see as well?

yes it is it just acts as a back light it does not shine into the tank. The aquatic life fixture is 24 watt i believe.

Looks good, do you know the name of that lily pad looking plant closest to the right side?

Hey, you just saw this tank live too =) um the lily pad looking plant is hydrocotyle verticillata. How's the betta?

Yeah actually it looked great, I thought I said lol! Maybe I was too busy looking at the other fish.

does the plant spread horizontal at all or did you plant each "lilypad" by itself??

The betta is great, I stole the pictures you took of it cause it wouldn't stay still for me to get any last night. Hey...about the betta totally thought it was a boy...but Ovipositer...is very visible... do you know if its a boy or a girl???

I read online some males have it....um never heard of that before actually I better post in the betta section total hijack of thread lol.

no worries pm'd