meeiu

How about some kind of rasbora? Like chili or galaxy.

I would love some Galaxy Rasboras but they seem so hard to come by...

Oh it is only protection for the bottom? I thought maybe it had to do with keeping the sand separate...which I read some threads on and didn't understand all that much. Thanks.

I know in some aquariums, people use very dense foam to place under the substrate to raise the elevation of the slopes in the background. Also some may use think plastic sheets to divide and section off the aquarium. This is to prevent some of the more invasive plants from spreading too rapidly and out competing other species of plants in the aquarium.

Looks great! What are you putting in this tank when it's done?

Could you explain what you used the yoga mat for?

Aww if that is really your cat I want it. So cute and I'm not a cat fan.

I am not sure what I want to put into this tank yet. Still a bit far off into the future as I want a thick lush garden before I do. But I have thought about it and I was thinking of some small schooling fish. Maybe some Neon Tetras or some Threadfins Rainbowfish.

As for the yoga mat, Pisces didn't carry any ADA Garden Mats at the time. Therefore I was looking for a aquarium base and I substituted that with a yoga mat (which I cut to the correct dimensions).

And yes thats my cat. ^^

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

So I finally got my package in the mail today. Thank you Canadian Aquatics. Amazing people and the best customer service ever. (Shipped out yesterday and arrived today)

Anyways so I spent a large park of the afternoon planting my HC, helferi, and DHG

Heres a shot before the fill up.

Filling up.

And finally filled up. (Topped it off a bit more after I took this shot)

You may ask where is my filter and heater and I have to say I am embarrassed at them so I took the shot before I put those items in.

Currently using a HOB and I have to shop around for a canister ASAP!

Thanks for reading

Just for kicks....

my cat was watching

As am I.

Currently installed one and I'm not so sure I need 2 for a 10 gallon. It is SUPER bright.... haha

save youself some money on shipping and get 2-24" t5ho sunblasters from a hydroponic shop... you don't need reflectors in a tank that size.

co2 is very important with hc...light not so much.

Thank you for your suggestion.

I was wondering which retail location in Edmonton sells SunBlasters? Or better yet, do you know of any locations in Calgary that hold their product?

I actually just picked one up today. Quick grow garden center on edmonton trail a couple blocks south of 16th, address is 1204 edmonton trail. $30 for the 24"T5HO fixture as well as the reflector. Puts out a ton of light, I wish I had done this rather than spend the money on an actual aquatic fixture when I got this tank set up. Way cheaper and seems to put out more light to me. This is on a 22" deep 35G tank. Main fixture is an aquatic life 2x24w T5HO fixture which was ~$160. Here's some pics, excuse the messy tank. First picture is just the aquatic life fixture, second is both fixtures, third is just the sunblaster.

http://imgur.com/MwMNM,f2vDq,mPOo6

Thank you so much for the info.

Went and picked up 2 sets today!

save youself some money on shipping and get 2-24" t5ho sunblasters from a hydroponic shop... you don't need reflectors in a tank that size.

co2 is very important with hc...light not so much.

Thank you for your suggestion.

I was wondering which retail location in Edmonton sells SunBlasters? Or better yet, do you know of any locations in Calgary that hold their product?

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Just wanted to do an update.

After readjusting some of the rocks and slopes, this is what the hardscape currently looks like:

Please feel free to criticize and give me some feedback!

I finally finalized my order with Canadian Aquatics and am waiting for my package to arrive with the plants. Therefore, this may be the last chance for you guys to give me feedback before I dive into planting and flooding this baby up

Also, did anybody RSVP for the ADA Workshop tomorrow at Pisces? Give me a shout if you have! Oh I am excited for tomorrow. hehe

I was just wondering if anybody had any experiences with this light:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/140644013995?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649#ht_1687wt_1396

I am trying to grow HC and Dwarf Hair Grass in a 10 gallon with CO2 and ferts. Accompanying this will be ADA AquaSoil and PowerSand Special.

Thank you

i love your rocks please keep us posted on your iwagumi hehe

Im happy to learn that ADA products are available up here without having to ship them up ourselves. If you dont mind, could you pm me the cost of the substrate/tank combined. Thanks

It looks good, but I might suggest trying a few more different layouts. Ive been working with about 15 pieces of driftwood this week, and everytime I think Ive got it right I find another option that looks slightly better. I would suggest taking that small stone in the back far right, and moving it in a frontal position so it will not be hidden once the plants grow in. Or, if you want it back there, a more pronounced slope will help elevate it into view. Also, the rock directly in front of the main stone cannot be distinguished as a separate object. It just blends in and is totally hidden. The most compositionally strong iwagumis tend to have stones that all flow together with similar slopes and angles, yet are all distinguishable from eachother and do not all look identical. Its all personal preference though and what looks best in your own eye.

You should know this is all comming from someone that has zero aquascaping experience, but from someone who is obsest with it Grain of salt my friend

...What the heck is with the text size on this forum?...hopefully my 3rd time editing this post fixes it...

Mod edit: I think I got your main text for you. Left the last paragraph for comparison. (Jvision)

Thank you for the advice.

I was also thinking about the placement of the stone in the back as I know it will get hidden when the plants come in. I will think of a solution for that.

Also, the stone directly in front of the main one, does that mean the left stone or the one on the right side?

But once again, thank you for the advice!

.

The lights I will be using are 2 CFL rated at 6500K @ 13W and 800 lumes each. Any suggestions on the lighting? Will this be sufficient for these plants? !

(mounted within an excellent reflector) A single 13W spiral can yield over 100 PAR @ 12 inches

I am not really familar with the term PAR. Possibly meaning photosynthetically active radiation?

As for the 100PAR, is that a good or bad thing? haha

Thank you all for your comments and advice.

For the filter, I will soon have a make a decision about which one to go forward on.

As for the lights, do you think it will be sufficient for what I want to grow? Or should I upgrade to the next set up?

I think they were 26W rated at 6500k with 1600 lumes. (The current ones are 13W 6500K @ 800 lumes)

Friday, July 20, 2012

Just thought I would update this as I have not done so in a long time.

Picture as of today.

Fauna:

2 Black Marble Angle Fish

1 Otocinclus

5 Amano Shrimp

?? Red Cherry Shrimp

Flora:

Front: Hemianthus Callitrichoides 'Cuba' (Dwarf Baby Tears)

Middle: Pogostemon Helferi (Downoi)

Back: Eleocharis Acicularis (Dwarf Hair Grass)

Equipment:

Tank: ADA Cube Garden 45-P 45X27X30

Light: Sunblaster 24W T5HO

CO2: None

Filter: Eheim 2217

So other than a Amano Shrimp jumper two months ago, things have been good. Light period has been cut down to about 4 hours a day and water changes occur once every 1.5 months. No CO2 injections and only weekly dose of Excel.

So I have been round and about trying to collect my items for my second planted tank.

I stumbled across some videos regarding Takashi Amano and just fell in love with his tanks and decided to try and start my own.

Please keep in mind that this will be my first Iwagumi attempt. Any suggestions and comments will be greatly appreciated!

Searching for ADA products in Canada is not easy but luckily there is a distributor here.

So I acquired a ADA Cube Garden 45x27x30 and I am stunned at the craftsmanship of the overall tank.

Unfortunately, the place where I brought my stuff did not carry any Garden Mats for the aquarium so I was forced to DIY it. So I did some research and tried to find some closed-cell foam or neoprene and was unsuccessful. Then I read on a forum about some people using yoga mats for their ADA tanks. So I decided the yoga mats were my next best option and now I have a cut up yoga mat.

The substrate I used is ADA Powersand Special S and ADA Amaziona (the amazonia smells nice....)

It took about another week or so to find and gather some stones which I felt will go well in the tank, here they are!

And finally, here is what the tank currently looks like.

As of now, I am waiting for my supplier to get back to me on the plant list I had put in a week ago.

The list consists of:

Hemianthus Callitrichoides

Eleocharis Acicularis

Pogostemon Helferi

I plan to have HC carpet, hopefully, the entire aquarium. As for the Pogo Helferi, I was thinking of planting it close to and surrounding the stones. As for the Dwarf Hair Grass, I was thinking of planting it in the back right hand corner.

The lights I will be using are 2 CFL rated at 6500K @ 13W and 800 lumes each. Any suggestions on the lighting? Will this be sufficient for these plants? Also, accompanying this will be DIY CO2.

As for the filter, I am quite lost as of now. I somewhat narrowed it down to 3 filters:

Zoo Med 501 Turtle Canister Filter http://www.amazon.ca...m=ACESBCCRDDFV4

Ehiem Filter 2213 http://www.amazon.ca...TF8&me=&seller=

RENA Filstar XP1 Canister Filter http://www.amazon.ca...pd_rhf_se_p_t_1

Anybody have any experiences with these filters and if so, do you think it will overpower a 10 gallon tank?

Anways, I would like to tank you for reading my thread and I hope to gain some valuable constructive criticism on my setup. Any comments and/or suggestions are welcomed.

Thank you very much!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Just wanted to do an update.

After readjusting some of the rocks and slopes, this is what the hardscape currently looks like:

Please feel free to criticize and give me some feedback!

I finally finalized my order with Canadian Aquatics and am waiting for my package to arrive with the plants. Therefore, this may be the last chance for you guys to give me feedback before I dive into planting and flooding this baby up

Also, did anybody RSVP for the ADA Workshop tomorrow at Pisces? Give me a shout if you have! Oh I am excited for tomorrow. hehe

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

So I finally got my package in the mail today. Thank you Canadian Aquatics. Amazing people and the best customer service ever. (Shipped out yesterday and arrived today)

Anyways so I spent a large park of the afternoon planting my HC, helferi, and DHG

Heres a shot before the fill up.

Filling up.

And finally filled up. (Topped it off a bit more after I took this shot)

You may ask where is my filter and heater and I have to say I am embarrassed at them so I took the shot before I put those items in.

Currently using a HOB and I have to shop around for a canister ASAP!

Thanks for reading

Just for kicks....

my cat was watching

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Just wanted to do a quick update today. Just took this picture and it seems I may need to trim soon.

Any suggestions on keeping the HC lower and more dense?

Thanks!

P.S. ignore the heater and filter please haha.

Waiting for my Lily Pipes and gotta find a solution to hide the heater.... :S

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Took this shot a few days ago.

You can't really tell from the photo but my HC is not as green as I want it to be. There are some leaves that are starting to turn brown.

I was wondering if anyone can shed some light on this for me.

I am currently using a 24W 6400K T5HO on this. Fertilizes NPK and micro minerals.

Lights were on for 6 hours but have been reduced to 4 hours because of the browning (I thought maybe they were getting too much light so I reduced them about a week ago)

Thanks!

Tuesday March 06, 2012

Thanks for all your suggestions.

So I went out and purchased some Excel and oh my, what a turn around.

Here is a shot of the HC at its most brown point:

February 26, 2012

and here it is today:

March 6, 2012

(44 days after planting)

And some Amano Shrimp

Very nice!

Everything I received are doing well. Thanks a bunch Victor!

December 25th, 2011

Today I found some baby shrimplets! Such a nice present for Christmas. hehe

And my Dwarf Saggitaria are growing nicely. :rofl:

Gorgeous. I should run to my African tank and see if I have any room..

DO IT! haha

I am soon to be over run with these little guys... :cry:

December 15th, 2011

Just found two more berried shrimp for a total of 4 now. Oh I'm excited!

One thing is concerning me thou.

There are some little bug like creatures walking around the glass. Some have 1 tail and some have 2 tails. I'm not 100% convinced that they are shrimp babies just because the first two berried mothers still have their eggs under their tail. Unfortunately they are way too small and I can't focus my camera to take a shot. If anyone can shed some light on this, that would be awesome!

Anyways, here's a new video of them grazing over a wafer

Very nice looking fry. :thumbs:

Thanks Victor!

December 13, 2011

Just a quick update.

This is the father of these little babies. (taken today)

Hello fellow Youtuber,

I LIKE!

About a month or so ago, a pair of Eureka Red Peacocks bred. I decided to grab myself a 5 gallon and start a Cichlid grow out tank. At first I probably had around ~30 fry but lost a few here and there and now there are about 25 of them. They are about 3/4 of an inch as of today, December 12, 2011. They seem happy but I need to find them a bigger home pretty soon here.

Here's a video of these little guys swimming around:

As you can see, this tank has changed from a normal Cichlid grow out tank to just a general grow out tank. I got a fresh batch of guppies (came out today) and another set of Eureka Red Peacocks (took them out last week). I also got 5 Zebra Danio fry out of no where. So there is a bunch of fries in this small tank.

As I said before, these guys will soon grow out of this tank and I need to find new homes for these guys. If you guys are interested in buying any Eurekas, send me a pm. I'd love to sell some off!

December 13, 2011

Just a quick update.

This is the father of these little babies. (taken today)

nice stuff boys!

Before I begin, I would like to give a quick shout out to the people who have helped me immensely on my start-up process:

dekker59

Cgy_Betta_Guy

fishclubgirl

It has always been the hobby of my father's but I never actually owned my own tank other than betta bowls. So about a month ago, I decided to dive into this hobby and start my own tank up. So I got myself one of my dad's old 10 gallon tanks and I started it up. This is what it looked like on October 30, 2011. Not very interesting and not much going on in the tank. Only a small bunch of Java Ferns and a half dead Jungle Val.

After about 2 weeks of starring at this, I decided I didn't like it and it wasn't what I was looking for. I had read some stuff online about people using dirt as a substrate and having great success. Being on a budget, I decided I want to give it a try. So I went out to a home depot store and got myself a bag of Miracle Gro Organic Choice. I have to admit, if I were to ask me to start another dirted tank, I would have to refuse; its a lot of work. It was also around this time where I met a great guy, dekker59, on this forum. He helped me out a great deal and gave me some plant clippings. Cheers to you, dekker59! And also a quick thanks to fishclubgirl for the Dwarf Saggitaria.

November 12, 2011

Some Red Cherry Shrimps were added on November 22, 2011. Purchased about a dozen from a guy on this forum, Wackinator. Paid for a dozen but he threw in a bit more. Thanks mate!

November 22, 2011

From then on, nothing much has happened other than regular dosing of fertilizers. Until today, December 11, 2011. A guy on this forum, Cgy_Betta_Guy, started a thread and was offering free clippings. Again, I pounced on this opportunity and I met up with him. Another great fellow I got the chance to meet. Thanks you very much, Cgy_Betta_Guy!!! He gave me a wack load of plants and I planted as much as I could into the 10 gallon. I almost gave up on the entire thing because the dirt spewed everywhere. But I stuck with it and I must say, I am quite happy about it.

December 11, 2011

I will try and update the names of my plants in the coming few days.

Thanks for reading my very first journal and I hope to update as I go. Please feel free to check back for updates and such. Also please check out or subscribe to my youtube channel. I will also try and post updates on there as well!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/meeeiu

Thank you.

December 15th, 2011

Just found two more berried shrimp for a total of 4 now. Oh I'm excited!

One thing is concerning me thou.

There are some little bug like creatures walking around the glass. Some have 1 tail and some have 2 tails. I'm not 100% convinced that they are shrimp babies just because the first two berried mothers still have their eggs under their tail. Unfortunately they are way too small and I can't focus my camera to take a shot. If anyone can shed some light on this, that would be awesome!

Anyways, here's a new video of them grazing over a wafer

December 25th, 2011

Today I found some baby shrimplets! Such a nice present for Christmas. hehe

And my Dwarf Saggitaria are growing nicely.

if i were you I'd contact fishgirlclub on these forums =)

Jayba always with his nice fish and nice shots

beautiful fish

I have a 10 gallon planted tank which some hornwort, java ferns, various types of moss, and dwarf saggitarius.

I am currently looking at a T5 for my 18'' hood which are offered in 15w from this Hagen's product line.

There is:

Power-Glo

Life-Glo

Aqua-Glo

The power and aqua glo are both rated at 18000K but says it is suitable for FW plants as well.

The Life-Glo is rated at 6700K and also says it is suitable for FW plants.

I was wondering if anybody had any experiences with these bulbs and could possible give me more insight on which one to use.

Thanks!