# GA in-store display 120P Iwagumi II



## viktorlantos (18 Mar 2011)

I thought i open up another topic for this tank. This is another one from our gallery.
We call this iwagumi for easier understanding, but this is not a typical iwagumi.

Keymaker memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=1068 created this tank a few weeks ago.
This is a high tech monster which represent all bells and whistles with a mass ammount of spending  

The tank parameters are:
120x45x45 Opti White
ADA Style Premium painted stand
2 x ADA Solar I - 150W NAMH Green
Eheim Professionel 3 - 2080 and 2180 
Pressurized CO2 with AM1000 reactor
ADA glass pipes on both sides
For substrate system we used ADA Powersand Spec and Amazonia along with additives like Penac P and W, Bacter 100...
Ferts here are our Green Aqua Macro Micro (EI) ferts

Earlier we had 2 AM reactors but figured the one just do the job perfectly so the additional was removed to save the horsepower on the other eheim.

So the tank had everything for a great start, but this was a bumpy ride.






Keymaker build an extreme rocky scape with around 80kg of stones





well the thing is that he built this aquarium fully in his house including the rocks. it turned out we had to move the whole set to the gallery, but the rocks was glued   so... this was not enough that the aquarium itself was heavy like an elephant, there was an additional 80 kg of stone in it. i would not give a cent to see this relocated in one piece, but somehow we did it....





The rock was there on a rubber carpet he just had to fill in all the soils and additives.

Plants were selected before. L. Brasiliensis and Isoetes Japonica.
So 50 pots of brasiliensis planted for a few hours...





i only prepped the plantlets for him, but i felt like a zombie at the end of the day with this much plant.  





The tank looked really good already on the first day because of the mass of plants.
Unfortunatelly we had to start with full light for the opening hours and with the 300Watts lighting caused green water shortly. As we fully used the lights (and using that nowadays too) for 8 hours a day. 

A few days UV cure helped with the green start.





looked awesome





however this was still the emmers leaf on the plants...
and we had to trim it. did i ever told you i hate this plant?  
well this looks lovely but as all grass kind of plant this rot and gives a great challenge on start.
for us this trimming turned out to be a few weeks of fight with algae. as all the trimmed leaf got rotted and was not chance to remove all of it.

the solars gave too much light and warmed up the water. the 2 monster filter also warmed the water.
so we ended up with too much light warm water with full of algae.  less circulation because of the fully packed eheims. this was the time we shut down one of the AM reactors.

many water changes, 40-50 amano shrimps, manual algae removal helped us to make it look nicer and had less and less algae. added in some floating plant too. this week was a breaktrough as the scape is looking nicer from day to day.
as the old leaves removed, and more healthy leaves are there, the algae has less chance.

this is how the tank looks now:













Still we had to lift up a bit the solars as the last step. The system will be ok from that time.

Brasiliensis is a hard plant. I had much much less trouble with parvula on the early rot, but this plant cause much more trouble. Still believe after the longer startup the scape will look good with this dense Brasiliensis field.

Will share more images later on the progress.

we appreciate your feedback and comments as always guys.


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## twg (19 Mar 2011)

What can I say?

Incredible!


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## Mark Evans (19 Mar 2011)

looks good viktor. 

Any liliaeopsis sp. is a tough one. My first attempt made me nearly give up on it, but I've persisted with it. I find it quite easy now. 

I have to treat it a little like anubias to some degree. It's slow growing, and get affected by GSA.

My first line of defence, is light. Raise that first. As long as CO2 is high, and ferts to match, your fine. 

trimming old growth off is is a must in the first week, and then watch it grow.   I find any trims after that first one, can cause some problems.


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## Piece-of-fish (19 Mar 2011)

Nice aquarium and gear. Looks almost mater from the start 
I hope i succeed with braziliensis this time as well. Failed twice before.


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## LondonDragon (19 Mar 2011)

Another great setup!!! Congrats to Balazs for this effort, looks stunning, planting it like that must have taken ages haha how many pots used?? 

Which tweezers you using to plant?

Congrats guys


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## viktorlantos (19 Mar 2011)

Cheers guys, thanks for your nice feedback.  



			
				Mark Evans said:
			
		

> trimming old growth off is is a must in the first week, and then watch it grow.  I find any trims after that first one, can cause some problems.



Thanks mate will do that. I do not think either a new trim would be a good idea. Will try to stay away.



			
				Piece-of-fish said:
			
		

> I hope i succeed with braziliensis this time as well. Failed twice before.



we're with you at least in soul  looking forward to see how that grow later.



			
				LondonDragon said:
			
		

> Another great setup!!! Congrats to Balazs for this effort, looks stunning, planting it like that must have taken ages haha how many pots used??



thank you.   when he is not trying to explain the golden ratios in one of the topics here, he can do some nice tanks.  he has a luck sometimes as i say.   

we used 50 or 55 brasiliensis for the start. we worked on this for some long hours. the plant preparation and the planting also was really time consuming.



			
				LondonDragon said:
			
		

> Which tweezers you using to plant?



In most of the time pinhead tweezers. ADA or Do!Aqua ones.

quick question:

We're thinking about to add in some supportive plants. If you guys have any ideas to use some here and there or behind the rocks etc do not hesitate to share it. We're open to any suggestion.

not sure additional plant would be needed, but we're playing with the idea.


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## viktorlantos (24 Mar 2011)

Had a shooting session at the end of the day so we finnaly tried to capture this tank with white background.

Hope you will like it   

Oh some crypt and fishes were added in to make it live.  









we also did a video from this which will upload shortly.

next time we will prepare more before the capture and will remove hair algae and will do a wc before shooting 8)


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## keymaker (24 Mar 2011)




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## samc (24 Mar 2011)

that looks ace guys!

i think i would prefer it without the floaters though


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## bigmatt (24 Mar 2011)

Amazing - but i must also question why you add the floaters?  They detract a bit from the still images for me (though i appreciate they might add something to the "live" tank!)
What livestock did you add?
Matt


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## keymaker (24 Mar 2011)

Thx guys. Floaters will go as soon as the tank is ready. We had algae problems because of the slow-growing Brasiliensis. Instead of stems we used these to have some "fast-growing-ammonia-and-nutrient-eating" load in the tank. It seems they helped. But I don't like it, so it will be taken out.

We have 50 Pseudomugil Furcatus, Otos and Amano shrimp. Later, we'll increase the number of Furcatus - they are really-really nice fish in this setup, the video we took will show my point.


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## bigmatt (24 Mar 2011)

ooohhhh... bet the fish look amazing in those numbers - pics please!!!! 
Thought that might be why the floaters were added!
Loving it - and i'm normally a bit indifferent to Iwagumi!  Completely inspirational!
Matt


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## plantbrain (25 Mar 2011)

There's something about the sponge plant floating I do not like. 
This is more a personal thing, I just hate it because it is a weed in CA, USA



> We're thinking about to add in some supportive plants. If you guys have any ideas to use some here and there or behind the rocks etc do not hesitate to share it. We're open to any suggestion.



There is a strong urge for many to do this with these types of displays.

I'm not so sure it is a good idea, leaving it alone and simple often high lights the rock layout better.
Only you can be the judge of that and try a few things and see for yourself.

You might try some Tall hair grass, Amano does this on a few of his tanks.
Another plant might be some well trimmed domes of stem plants(Rotala green etc). The hair grass takes less labor.

These will not clash too much with the over all design. Needle leaf Java fern might also be a good choice.
Another idea is to add more Aqua soil and make the front to back slope steeper, Steep as the soil will stay and then carefully plant the rear section. You could slowly add more and more soil to the rear and allow the plants to grow in.

Or make multiple terraces with the rocks that will eventually get covered by growth.


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## viktorlantos (27 Mar 2011)

Recorded a few minutes video at the photo session. Thought i share it with you it has a different feeling watching it in motion.



hope you will like it.


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## Steve Smith (28 Mar 2011)

The scape looks amazing   I love the rock work.  What rock is that?


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## keymaker (28 Mar 2011)

Steve, this rock is imho the most difficult to be used in a hardscape of this kind. It is petrified wood from the Chinese-Mongolian border - the Continental Pole (!)  Problem is that it is really difficult to raise these rocks as they are more roundish. So I had to build a glued construction of 80 kg.  :idea: 

Hardscape only:





Present:


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## JohnC (29 Mar 2011)

You guys rock, thanks so much for sharing this.

Best Regards,
John


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## viktorlantos (10 May 2011)

Before the end of the day today i made some captures in the gallery. I just can't skip it  

















-- Around this time the IAPLC shooting is in progress and we decided to capture it without cryptos in the back. can't wait to share that photo with you guys later once it is possible.


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## flygja (11 May 2011)

That's one mad rock structure. You guys really have mad skillz.


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## keymaker (20 May 2011)

Thx flygja!   
IAPLC entry is done  A closeup:


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## Zerocon (20 May 2011)

How do you guys afford to do set-ups like this? Your budget must be massive!


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## Antoni (20 May 2011)

Good luck, guys!

I love this close up! It looks like the Grand Canyon covered in grass


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## keymaker (20 May 2011)

Zerocon said:
			
		

> How do you guys afford to do set-ups like this? Your budget must be massive!


Here's what I think: Aquascaping is never about the budget. It is about the nature. You can do great setups on low budget and expensive bad ones. On the other side just think how much one spends on gas or cars or u name it... Everyone with their own madness, right?


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## keymaker (20 May 2011)

Antoni said:
			
		

> Good luck, guys!
> 
> I love this close up! It looks like the Grand Canyon covered in grass


Cheers Antoni. It's probably not by chance. I love the GC. Love AZ.  one of the most inspiring places 4 me. Think of my previous tank "Sedona".


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## Antoni (20 May 2011)

So you have passed the right message!  Well done


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## mzm (7 Jul 2011)

Hi Viktor, I have now seen a couple of your setups and I must admit that I am amazed every time I see your work!

To you have a website with a gallery of the different tanks you have worked on or maybe even in this forum?

Regards,
Michael


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## viktorlantos (7 Jul 2011)

mzm said:
			
		

> Hi Viktor, I have now seen a couple of your setups and I must admit that I am amazed every time I see your work!
> 
> To you have a website with a gallery of the different tanks you have worked on or maybe even in this forum?
> 
> ...



Hi Michael,
Thanks for your nice words about our tanks. However this is a teamwork on our side. We have several tanks from the past years, but 3 of us worked on them, so it is not fair to say i am the only guy behind it  

Couple ones:
http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f= ... os#p166420
http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f= ... 90#p170515
http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f= ... 60#p131961
http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f= ... 30#p139387
http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f= ... =30#p90297
http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f= ... 40#p109242
http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f= ... A+in+store

There are some others too, but this is what i found quickly in the journal section 

also please feel free to surf on our flickr page where we publish a lot of other photos too: 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/viktorlantos/


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## mzm (8 Jul 2011)

Hi Viktor,

those are some amazing scapes! Thank you for posting the links! I will enjoy also going through the flickr album.

Well done to the whole team who worked on these pieces of art. I particularly like the cuba setup and and the one featuring the blyxa. I am currently trying to grow some blyxa and cuba myself however i cannot say that I am having the same results as you are and I really need to go through these forums in order to see whether there is some adice on getting these plants to thrive.

I have invested a lot in my setup, filters, pressurised CO2, TMC LED lighting, chiller (it gets very hot in Malta), EI dosing etc. but somehow I am not managing to get the results I see in these forums. The plants live but dont thrive...

Hope to see more of your setups in the future.

Regards,
Michael


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## keymaker (8 Jul 2011)

It seems you have the right tools Michael. You also have the right dosing approach, you should be sure that experience and patience will bring success to you. These are the best times: trying to understand and looking at nature, evolution of aquatic plants, finding the balance. (What is the GH - harndess of water in Malta? There are some great aquascapers living on your island, did you know that?)

Timing and setting CO2, adjusting flow and optimizing circulation, and even matching dosing to your water changes to achieve the best results is often tricky, but with patience it is inevitable...   :idea:


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## mzm (8 Jul 2011)

Well, as you may know, a lot of our water is obtained from the mediterranean sea and we have large RO plants which convert sea water to drinking water. As it happens I live very close to one of these RO plants and therefore my water is very soft. I can be lucky to get a GH reading of 1 and I have even had to use some crushed corals in my filters in order to get this up to around 5.

Yes there are a couple of very good aquascapers on the island and I spend most of my free time browsing the net and youtube in order to learn techniques, positioning etc. I am yet to find the right scape in my tank though and being a corner tank makes it that much more difficult to get the right scape going. Indeed I am yet to find a great corner scape.....


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## viktorlantos (28 Jul 2011)

#64 IAPLC 2011


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## icepotato89 (28 Jul 2011)

wow congratulations! world class


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## keymaker (28 Jul 2011)

Thank you. Can't believe I ranked 64.  It is just incredible.


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## Antoni (28 Jul 2011)

Wow, that is a top class! Congrats guys! That tank is very different and deserves the place!


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## ghostsword (29 Jul 2011)

keymaker said:
			
		

> Thank you. Can't believe I ranked 64.  It is just incredible.



Congratulations, waiting to see that picture.  


.


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## flygja (29 Jul 2011)

Recount! Should have been higher! Congrats keymaker.


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## keymaker (29 Jul 2011)

Thanks guys.   
Flygja, nice of you to say that,  but I really do not think it deserves higher ranking...  
I know the layout problems here and would do a couple of things differently if I had to redo it.

Here is the close-up again. I will post a full-tank picture later, when it is allowed.


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## Tom (29 Jul 2011)

Wow that's a nice shot!!


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## Iain Sutherland (31 Jul 2011)

that is an awesome looking tank!! well done on your placing. Also thanks for the links...
could someone tell me what the plant in the 6th picture on Viktor's flickr is?  Looks a bit like pennywart but creeping with individual stems/plantlets?
thanks


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## keymaker (31 Jul 2011)

easerthegeezer said:
			
		

> that is an awesome looking tank!! well done on your placing.


Thanks a lot!



			
				easerthegeezer said:
			
		

> could someone tell me what the plant in the 6th picture on Viktor's flickr is?  Looks a bit like pennywart but creeping with individual stems/plantlets?
> thanks


Do you mean this plant? Then it is Hydrocotyle Sibthorpioides (Maritima). This one though is Hydrocotyle Verticillata. Lovely plants both.


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## Iain Sutherland (31 Jul 2011)

Thanks Keymaker, those are the ones, will be adding those to my 'to do/try' list...Its quite long hahaha
I have what one variety of pennywart but it grows straight for the surface and prefers to float, is that a lack of light or the variety??
Need to find a way to get paid doing this hobby full time!! ooh and the skills to justify the job if guess 

Thanks again for this and the endless inspiration people like you provide to us mere mortals!!


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## LondonDragon (31 Jul 2011)

Congrats on the great placement  looking forward to the final photo


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## keymaker (16 Aug 2011)

Thanks Paulo, I finally got my letter too...   
Will post the images soon.


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## viktorlantos (17 Sep 2011)

IAPLC 64. here is the shot we sent to the contest back in may





A few thoughts here too:

The tank is the same as the HC so 3.5 month old approx on this shot.
The high res image is really good. We used a lot of lighting and a good camera to capture this moment. Actually an 5D Mark II with many light sources.

Did not thought we will have this tank completed for the contest as because fo the brasiliensis we had massive algae issues in the first few weeks. But since then this tank is just looks awesome. Still running and we trimmed the tank again at the summer. Crypts grown much bigger, crypto balansea is a dense courtain in the back.

Where is the crypt courtain on this shot? Actually we had that on the first few captures and also captured the tank without them. Then we voted internally which one is the best and this turned out to be a great decision. I do not think the tank would have earn the same ranking with the Crypto Balansea in the back.

This is a lovely piece of tank in our gallery and maybe strange to say but even with the 2x150 HQI with 7hrs a day this is a low maintenance tank. Trimming in every few months or more. We only do a weekly water change, daily fert dose and fish feeding.

Oh fishes. Popondetta Furcata was the best decision we made here. They are so nice in this tank. Swimming in team looks amazingly colorful. Super friendly and active fishes like no others. The fish become a popular fish in our country after people seen in this tank.

The photo capture is great, but would be better to have the fishes in one team. It's just so hard to do with this fish.

So just like HC in our other tank Lilaeopsis Brasiliensis is also a completed task now. We're glad this turned out to be a great success for us.

These are my thought only of course my business partner Keymaker is the one to credit here for his vision. But i wanted to share it with you guys.

This is also a honour to us that Tropica selected these tanks to display their plants like Hemianthus and Lilaeopsis on their website. But we had to wait til the IAPLC party.   

By the way, EI ferts, high light, powerful filtration (2x2080) Amazonia AS and Pressurized CO2 with external reactor.


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## viktorlantos (27 Oct 2011)

in situ shots 
the tank is still in perfect shape. by now this is 9 months old. brasiliensis is awesome. love that it's not needed any maintenance. just need to trim the cryptos in every 3 weeks or so. sorry for the reflection guys.


Green Aqua - Showroom by viktorlantos, on Flickr


Green Aqua - Showroom by viktorlantos, on Flickr


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## mzm (30 Oct 2011)

Great tank and results!

As always, very well done!!


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## keymaker (30 Oct 2011)

Cheers Mate, thanks!  

I'm actually starting to get some ideas to totally rescape this for next year's "go go go" 
Problem is that it is in perfect shape and as Viktor said no maintenance is needed, so I'm a little sorry to rip down something that causes 0 trouble in the Gallery.


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## mzm (4 Nov 2011)

I can fully understand your hesitation to rip down such a great tank and would feel the same!


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## schraptor (4 Nov 2011)

Looking really good   
I like it even more in the current shape, imho its better than the one seen on the photo below the tank.

As I read you use EI in this tank, care to share the regime and type of powders you use? What about micro / EC / any ADA products?


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## viktorlantos (4 Nov 2011)

Thanks for the nice feedback guys. 

We do use our pre-mixed EI solution on this tank. Daily fert sometimes with Easy Cabo.


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## plantbrain (20 Nov 2011)

Nice tank rock choice.

This plant is really easy after it fills in good.

While there's high light, the distance from the light is close to 90-100cm away from the front edge of the plants. 
This is about where 40-50umol of light sits in other ADA tanks I've measured.

I got thinking about the HC in the other tank you did not long ago.
I decided to do a different scape in a 70 Gal tank 90cmx 60cm x 45cm H, using HC.
I chose wood instead of rock, but used the wood like rock. 

I wanted to compare fill in rates/growth rates with HC using the submersed method vs the DSM, which I decided against having done it a few times.  For a slower grower like this tank you have, the DSM might have done better? Hard to say unless you compare the methods. 

I was looking at the growth rates and fill in rates of the HC you had and compared them to the DSM. I'd say they are faster based on what you stated. I agree that brasiliensis is a wonderful plant. I've seen some nice local examples here in the USA of this plant.

It also responds well to a mowing trim method.


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## keymaker (20 Nov 2011)

plantbrain said:
			
		

> Nice tank rock choice.


Thanks!



			
				plantbrain said:
			
		

> This plant is really easy after it fills in good.


Oh yes, it's such a thick carpet, it does not grow up, just gets more dense. In the 9-10 months we only had to trim once. No algae issues, no dying leaves, no maintenance needed. It is an absolute  low-maintenance plant in the long run. Also very attractive.



			
				plantbrain said:
			
		

> While there's high light, the distance from the light is close to 90-100cm away from the front edge of the plants.
> This is about where 40-50umol of light sits in other ADA tanks I've measured.


It definitely needs a relative high lighting, that would "go down" to the substrate level. I am sure that using HQI helped a lot in this depth.



			
				plantbrain said:
			
		

> I got thinking about the HC in the other tank you did not long ago.
> I decided to do a different scape in a 70 Gal tank 90cmx 60cm x 45cm H, using HC.
> I chose wood instead of rock, but used the wood like rock.


This is a great honor for us Tom, that you were inspired by one of our creations. Can not tell you how much.  
The idea of using wood as rock is really original!



			
				plantbrain said:
			
		

> I wanted to compare fill in rates/growth rates with HC using the submersed method vs the DSM, which I decided against having done it a few times.  For a slower grower like this tank you have, the DSM might have done better? Hard to say unless you compare the methods.


With all the great difficulties we had at the beginning I think I would not try this again "at home"  Nex time I think I would try DSM instead. The great algae-disaster almost made us give up on this setup and this plant.



			
				plantbrain said:
			
		

> I was looking at the growth rates and fill in rates of the HC you had and compared them to the DSM. I'd say they are faster based on what you stated. I agree that brasiliensis is a wonderful plant. I've seen some nice local examples here in the USA of this plant.


I am nowhere nearly as much afraid of HC as of Brasiliensis. I would go for a submersed HC carpet any time against DSM. For Brasiliensis - thats a whole different game.  But this is only based on one test in this tank - maybe the original difficulties with Brasiliensis were caused by other issues.


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## plantbrain (24 Nov 2011)

Well, it's just got me thinking again about a nice scape, but with a different twist. Most "New" ideas are just remixed versions of something we have already seen before, not True original creativity really..........I'm not sure we are able to truly do that.

The DSM vs the typical traditional method are good for this style of and layout. 
I think the DSM is a wildly popular method. 

However, I am not going to suggest it's that much better without doing several good comparisons with the traditional method. Algae disasters come and go. With this tank I have, it's a unique issue to keep the bio filtering, the driftwood waterlogged good, and I will be able to add amano shrimp is less than 2 week's time without NH4 issues.

So DSM is not applicable for this tank. New tank? Sure........

I was trimming all this Gloss recently, and I do not have a real mono culture iwagumi style in the home, so......HC is a little harder to trim and keep, but not that much different. Been here, done this before. Your journal got me thinking again.

So I planted it the HC last night finally.
I've seen some real nice Brasiliensis examples in recent times. I might have to try it.
I really have less experience with that plant.


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## plantbrain (24 Nov 2011)

This is awhile ago, but you can see how the Manzy burl fragments are very rock like, 
I kept the larger piece and then removed the glass//white sand and cleaned up some of the equipment inside the tanks, I also had not been sealing the wet/dry chamber either..........that was fixed.

Manzy has such a varied growth form where I collect it, these large thick burl bases that protect against natural low intensity fire and then the gnarled branches. Roots are lousy, but the rest of the tree is great. This is some of the most rock like wood I've ever seen.


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## m_attt (29 Jan 2012)

such a lovely tank, where did you get the rocks from? 

Thanks


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## viktorlantos (29 Jan 2012)

m_attt said:
			
		

> such a lovely tank, where did you get the rocks from?
> 
> Thanks



Cheers Matt,

These are kind of fossilized/petrified wood / stones. Similar or same like the ones Oliver Knott used in TGM event in the past. Probably TGM could help you with it.


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