# Wabi-Kusa Stem-Mix



## The_Iceman (19 Jan 2015)

Hi UKAPS,

since I started my 60P with my stem plant Wabi-Kusa,
I wanted to repeat the emersed growing of aquatic plants.

Long story short: 2 weeks ago, I made a new Wabi-Kusa with the remaining Moss and some trimmed stem plants from my tank, added some Riccia Fluitans and put it into a plastic box.

Sind then, everything is growing in nicely and I can already recognise some species.

Hopefully it will grow like the ones before.

I made it a little bit bigger, like the original, japanese ones (9 cm) with Sphaghnum Moss, some Akadama and NPK fertilizer in the middle.

At the moment it looks like this:






aaaand this:





Inside my Wabi-Kusa Box 





Cheers,
Chris

*PS: The small one on the right (6,5 cm) is my Glosso-Kusa


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## Greenfinger2 (19 Jan 2015)

Hi Ice,  Loving it  Don't keep them to wet


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## The_Iceman (19 Jan 2015)

Hi Roy,

thanks! 



Greenfinger2 said:


> Hi Ice,  Loving it  Don't keep them to wet



You mean, because of mould?


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## Martin in Holland (20 Jan 2015)

Just a little water under the WK is enough, but I also had success with more water.


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## Greenfinger2 (21 Jan 2015)

Hi Ice, 
""You mean, because of mould? ""   Yes mate

To much water makes mine go mouldy  I find  the best way is just to keep them damp with mist spraying.

Saying that i have a lump of wood that is half submerged in water with just moss growing on the upper half " Will be adding more plants later.
so far no mould in sight Although i did soak the wood first for about a month At that stage some mould did appear this died off " gave it a dose of liquid Co2"  after a few days gave it a wash then planted up the moss. So far so good


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## Martin in Holland (22 Jan 2015)

I had some mold on my WK, I found that dumping the whole ball under water for an hour once a week helped.


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## The_Iceman (22 Jan 2015)

Thank you Martin,

as soon as I see any signs of mold, I'll try this! So far the Moos seems to keep it away.
Still spraying every day, as not all of the plants changed to emersed grow, yet.
But I can see some emersed stems already.. 

Growth is not really fast like in the tank, as I don't have any additional light source at the moment. Perhaps a cheap light for the desk will do the trick?!





Cheers,
Chris


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## Martin in Holland (23 Jan 2015)

Adding more light will help for sure. Mine are placed in a room without windows, so I have an old fish tank light above the WK for 14 hours per day, I have to sell some WK because they are starting to grow into each other.


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## The_Iceman (9 Feb 2015)

Ahoi UKAPS!

Finally after 2 days with some light over the Wabi-Kusa, I can see the grow kicking in!
Made some shots from the bottom of the bowl... looks even better "under water" 



 



 



 

Cheers,
Chris


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## parotet (9 Feb 2015)

Hi Chris 

I use a Led Gu10 7w bulb, cheap and more than enough to grow my emersed setups, mainly moss. A 12 hours photoperiod and some ferts boost their growth. A friend of mine did a special fixture for me but any desk lamp will work.
If you want compact growth you will need more light...

Jordi


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## The_Iceman (9 Feb 2015)

Thanks Jordi,

hmm.. perhaps I've to build something on my own. 
Have seen a nice how-to for an IKEA desk light, where the original LED gets changed to a CREE high power LED... could be perfect as a WABI-KUSA light. 

Chris


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## Martin in Holland (10 Feb 2015)

Looking good...great shots too


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## Greenfinger2 (10 Feb 2015)

Hi Ice, Looking fab


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## parotet (10 Feb 2015)

The_Iceman said:


> Thanks Jordi,
> 
> hmm.. perhaps I've to build something on my own.
> Have seen a nice how-to for an IKEA desk light, where the original LED gets changed to a CREE high power LED... could be perfect as a WABI-KUSA light.
> ...


Hi again Chris 

This is the lamp with the 7w led Gu10 I was mentioning, used in my moss and emersed aquatic plants setup





And this is another option, a cheap IKEA desk lamp with a 1w led light which is not enough for steady growth, but in my case it works as this moss setup receives quite a lot of indirect light





Jordi


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## The_Iceman (16 Feb 2015)

Thanks Jordi,

I'm back from my trip to IKEA 

Got something nice, could be a little bit stronger though...
Next week, I'll replace the LED inside with something "proper" 



 

The shadows look nice 





Cheers,
Chris


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## Alexander Belchenko (16 Feb 2015)

futuristic-kusa.


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## Greenfinger2 (16 Feb 2015)

Hi Ice, WOW that sets of the W-K beautifully  

Think i will be making a trip to Ikea soon


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## The_Iceman (16 Feb 2015)

Hehe Roy 
Btw: Ordered a CREE XP-G2 R3 and a 700mA constant power source!
This will put the small desk light into overdrive


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## Greenfinger2 (16 Feb 2015)

Hi Ice , 

Its a fab Light  Looking forward to seeing how the Cree light works 

Try just a matt black back ground and the same under the W-K ?/


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## The_Iceman (18 Feb 2015)

Ahoi UKAPS,

operation successful! I more than doubled the light output! 

Hard to tell by just looking at this pic, but it's a raygun now... should have round about 250 Lumen.



 





Cheers,
Chris


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## The_Iceman (21 Feb 2015)

Ahoi UKAPS,

may I present:

My Wabi-Kusa, ON THE ROCKS:




 



 



 

I can really say, that MORE light makes a big difference.
Plus, I don't know if it helps, but during the light period, I'm adding a little bit BIO CO2 (glas is covered with foil).



 



 



 



 

Cheers,
Chris


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## Wallis97 (21 Feb 2015)

That looks amazing


From Alex - Internet names may vary. Comment not fit for human consumption. Contains small parts.


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## Greenfinger2 (21 Feb 2015)

Hi Ice, That looks Exquisite   Top job mate. Love the rock idea  
Adding more Co2 ?? They would get enough from the air  Mind you the plants look fab


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## The_Iceman (23 Feb 2015)

Hi guys,

hmm... maybe I need some help here.
As some of the plants are already touching the foil, when is a good time to remove the foil and how should I do it?
I'm still covering the glas every day and only remove it for 1 hour in the morning and evening.





Cheers, 
Chris


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## Greenfinger2 (24 Feb 2015)

Hi Ice, Depends on the room temp ??? Do what you are doing and keep the foil off longer each day until the plants adapt.
You could trim the taller plants so they can stay under the foil longer if its too cold. Mind you then they wont flower if kept trimmed 

Mine are ok during the day its night time when the heating go's off then the temp drops and the plants suffer  Cannot wait till summer


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## The_Iceman (24 Feb 2015)

Cheers Roy!

Will give it a try


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## The_Iceman (8 Mar 2015)

Hi everyone,

nothing special "to report" at the moment. Everything is still growing quite well:





















Had to cut a lot the last weeks, which went directly into the spare-part box :





Cheers,
Chris


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## Piotr Kaleta (15 Mar 2015)

Hi Ice. Could you tell me in details how did you modify your TIVED IKEA lamp? I would like to do the same but I'm not that confident. Thanks


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## The_Iceman (17 Mar 2015)

Hi Piotr,

there is a tutorial in German available here:
https://translate.google.de/transla...ojekt-mehr-licht/#post6147&edit-text=&act=URL

I used Google translate for the Translation.
Should do the trick 

All credits to Marco in this case!

Cheers,
Chris


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## Piotr Kaleta (17 Mar 2015)

Thanks a lot Iceman


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## The_Iceman (22 Mar 2015)

Hi guys,

it's time for a small update.
The root system of my WK Ball looks stunning. 

Apart from that... it's still growing! Perhaps I'll let it grow out of the bowl completely... let's wait and see.

Here we go:








Cheers 
Chris


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## The_Iceman (31 Mar 2015)

I guess I owe you a little update:





The bowl seems to be to small now 

Cheers,
Chris


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## Alexander Belchenko (31 Mar 2015)

Is there any bowl there? Jungles!
Very nice.


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## The_Iceman (31 Mar 2015)

It was not in the bowl in this picture


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