Non CO2 iwagumi

[omartinez]

hi,

my wife and I want to start an iwagumi setup on a 16 galon cube. The general idea is not to add CO2, no filter, less/no water changes, minimun/no fertilization, in resumen less maintenance as possible (DW's natural). About fauna, for the moment she just want to add shrimp, red jerry maybe. for flora, we want suggestion on what to use for cover. This is our first iwagumi and aquarium together, her first, so we want it as easy as possible.

We are waiting for the rocks, and have at hand one bag of ADA new amazonia, courtesy of a friend .

our questions are as follow

can we really do this without a filter? some reading suggest we can but want confirmation.

how much light this type of setup need?

what cover plants we can add to this setup?

how much, if any, fertilization does we need?

 

[feh]

Hmm... iwagumi isn't the easiest to do. With or without a filter flow would still need to be provided. Without CO2 you're kind of limited on lighting options because too much light will result in problems without a carbon source. Dosing ferts isn't a real issue it doesn't take much time and even without weekly water changes it can be done. Plants aren't going to grow as fast without a carbon source. Ferts are better for the plants and its not going to do any harm to the fish or shrimp. Considering you have the ADA amazonia you already have ferts. Dosing the water column would prolong the life of the ADA soil. I personally would consider going with a powerhead of some sort to provide some water flow. I'd point it upward some to help maintain good oxygen levels in the tank. Depending on the dimensions of the tank you might consider looking into PC or T5 lighting... a tank that size isn't going to need much for lighting. I light my 5 gallon tank with only 9 watts of power compact. I'd also look into slower growing plants and moss considering you want something low maintenance. If you look around you'll find some info on ferts for Non-CO2 tanks here. I have seen people do mats of moss in shrimp only tanks. They tie it to stainless steel screens and let it grow in to hide the screens for ground cover. Then if you wanted maybe accent with some flame moss or something in the back of the tank. The rock is the focal point in this style of aquascape. But, its really a matter of personal taste.

 

[ShadowMac]

your best bet is definitely the moss ground cover. Fissidens fontanus would be a good option. a non moss plant could be cryptocoryne parva.

You will need water flow no matter what you do. Filtration does not complicate things, it makes things easier and more stable. I would recommend a filter or any type. A hang on back filter or even an in tank filter.

I would say a T5 might be pushing the light levels if you want little to no maintenance. T8 or PC lighting would be good options. Maybe even some LED's if you can find some you like.

 

[omartinez]

i'm reading the non co2 method from tom.

and according to that article and what i understand of it, i can use excel as a source of co2, and dose once a week, no water change.

the part of the amount of light and filtration are the ones that i'm confused. maybe 1.5 wpg (as a reference) ?

 

[ShadowMac]

WPG depends on the type of lighting you are using, it is most accurate for older types of bulbs. for T5's and LED less will get you where you want to be. 1 WPG of LED would work, while 1.5 of T5 sounds good to me. All of the non CO2 tanks I have done have either had a pair of T5's elevated a good distance above the tank or used T8 bulbs. My current non CO2 tank has a single 18 watt T8 over a ~12 gallon tank. Good stable slow growth with that, no algae, very few water changes and ferts. I do over filter it with a the smallest version of the eheim eccos.

 

[bardus71]

What about a Walstad style/NPT/El Natural tank using potting mix as a substrate? Its VERY low tech. They are known for needing very few water changes and having fast growing plants do the filtration, not sure if that will suit the minimalism of an iwagumi layout but worth investigating. I have a 6L vase planted out with various hairgrass spp using zeolite to cap the potting mix. It sits on the windowsill getting indirect sunlight & the Red Cherry Shrimp are breeding in there without any food supplementation. Heres a few leads.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/el-natural/26458-what-el-natural-step-step.html

 

[omartinez]

thanks...that's exactly what we have in mind....

 

[omartinez]

what about doing what tom describe here :

http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/4266-Hybrid-methods-fusing-dry-start-excel-with-non-CO2

with eleocharis parvula aka dwarf hairgrass, what are the steps to do a DSM with hairgrass?

 

[ghostsword]

Why not forget the shrimp and do a field of emersed hairgrass? Or go a step further and do a swamp? Then you can still add shrimp? 10 to 15 cm of water is all thy would need.


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