iwagumi , let's try

I'm gonna try to do a iwagumi scape.
60x35x35 tanlk (70lit)
2x125w mercury lamps 80cm from substrate, for emersed, will lift it up once submersed.
Filtration , Fluval 405 1200lit-h.
CO2- Rhinox 5000.

The tank will have no fish so i'm planning to realy overdrive co2.
Substrate- first layer is a mix (30% flower soil,10% clay, 60% gravel), next i plan on putting some mock from the filter (bacteria) and than some more mix and then gravel.

The plan is to put some HC, eleocharis and Staurogyne in dry start until it thickens up and then add (or not) blyxa japonica or something.

I have all bunch of rocks and stones so i will try different setups before i start planting.

Any suggestions?
Am i missing something?

Tom Barr;61712 said:

Try 1 light, and use less. Say 30-45W etc of T5, or maybe do the LED Cree, say 6-8 of them would be plenty.

Regards,
Tom Barr

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Thanx for replying
Tom, do you think what i have now is too much even for emersed start?
This is the only light i have , i'm afraid.. I can lift it up some 100-120cm above substrate though, too bad i don't have PAR meter.
I'm not planning to have a long lasting setup, just until the plants grow , make a carpet and then i'm moving on to another setup.
Do you think i would have much issues with this light? Even though i'm planning to inject co2 like it's a 900lit tank?

This is the stone setup i'm going ahead with.
Maybe i'll try some other small stones , maybe not..
Now i'm waiting for the plants to come so i can plant them , HC,Eleocharis Acicularis, Staurogyne repens.
As i understand, these do well emersed, right?

Gerryd;62063 said:

Hi,

Looks good. I am pretty sure all your plants will do well emersed..

What would you think about more of a slope?

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Hi Gerry!
I will ty some more slope and see how it looks, thanx for a suggestion.
I was thinking of moving the Fukuishi stone (second largest) a bit to the center, will try that later also, now i have to go to work

update....

Gerryd;63024 said:

Looks good. Is there some way you could replace some of the black tubing with clear parts???

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Thanx Gerry!
Unfortunatly i'm gonna have to stick with these black tubes for a while because if i would spend any more money on this tank my wife would kill me or something worse
If the tank will go ahead well than maybe i will buy those glass ADA stuff, though i'm kinda sceptical about that because i'm as gentile as an elephant in a glass store.
Maybe i'd rather take out the tubing before taking the pitcure...

I've decided to go for a high flow, 20x turnover. Fluval 405 and Atman powerhead wich is a co2 bubble breaker after it gets out from Rhinox.
I release 4 bps of CO2 , water is GH below 7 , KH 4-6 and Ph gets below 6,4 (my JBL testers only measure that low).
I change 30% water every day and i try to keep NO3-30ppm , PO4-3ppm , K-30ppm and Fe-0,5ppm.
I add 5ppm of Mg because my tap water Mg level is very low (very high Ca though).
Photoperiod is 6hrs for now.

Here we go : Cyano

Cyano is begining to show up more and more every day.
I have raised the lights up 65cm above the water and some 100cm above substrat.
Also, i have taken out one bulb.
The cyano is showing up on my HC, i try to clean it up with the tweezers every day but it's coming back.
I guess i'm not suprized , it is a very strong light.
I keep the NO3 at 30ppm and still change the water avary day.

Anyone got some suggestions?
Can i do something with Excell/Easycarbo?
Has anyone tried to dose Tea tree oil?

Hi Gerry! I will continue with the WC , i use 90% RO water so i don't use the deshlorinator.
I have co2 very high, arround 4bps through Rhinox and than into a 500lit-h powerhead .
It's getting realy hard to remove manualy because it gets deeper into the HC.

Gerryd;63322 said:

How about some extra flow past these areas???

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The flow realy is as high as it goes, even Fluval 405 alone is a lot and with added powerhead for co2 it's almost a whirlpool.
Fluval 405 is rated 1300lit-h and powerhead is 500lit-h, tank is 70lit.

A little update.
I have menaged to solve the cyano problems with some light reduction, water changes, manual removal and extra kno3 dosing.
Also , i would cover the tank when the lights were out so it wouldn't get any extra light.

Syamese algae eaters (2x) were introduced a week ago and yesterday i have put inside 8 cardina japonica.
The 2 shrimps have died today, i guess it's because of too much co2, i have never had shrimps before so it wae hard for me to notice if they are stressed. I guess they were.

The stones that i used for the setup are limestone so they kind of melt like butter in the acid water. They were nice and grey and now white.

Just a correction here.. The amano's are all alive, the two that i thought were dead were actualy exoscelleton

The tank is stabile now and very clean