90L Superfish Scaper Iwagumi

[Whagwan]

So I had a practise iwagumi in a 40L tank made with spare bits which gave me a taste for the format and taught me a lot. This is a tank that is directly to the left of my desk from which I work 3 days/week and game at most evenings so it gets a lot of attention.

I decided to upgrade this based on what I have learned. I took my time with this tank, several weeks spent getting the hardscape just right with lots of tinkering, minor movements and staring at the tank when I should have been paying attention to Teams meetings!

Equipment:
Ehiem 2213
Ista Max-Mix Co2 reactor
Wufan CO2 regulator (being replaced with my CO2 art Pro-SE from my other 240L once I upgrade that one)
Superfish Scaper 90L Tank
Superfish Scaper 90 light with S2 programmable controller.
Sunsun inline heater
Inkbird 306A heater controller.

Substrate:
Osmocote doped peat
Kayadama in mesh bags
Black sand capping layer

Hardscape:
Dark Ryouh stone.

Plants:
HC Cuba
Eleocharis Mini
Helanthium Tenellum Green
Cyperus Helferi
Vallisneria Spiralis

Current Livestock:
5x Tiger Endlers
5x Amano Shrimp

 

[Whagwan]

PS. The Ista Max-Mix Co2 reactor is really great at dissolving Co2 with no bubbles in the outlet stream. However it is incredibly leaky, and despite sanding burrs and silicone greasing + reseating the o-ring would still leak.

At this point I sealed the entire base with silicone which has worked well but mean I won't be able to clean it! I'll be looking to upgrade reactor once this one starts to not work/get clogged/etc

 

[Whagwan]

Absolute disaster, got home from a night's camping today to find it leaking from the middle front.

Saved the livestock but had to break the whole thing down so I can take the tank back and get a new one.

I'm absolutely gutted.

Saved all the plants in white buckets so hopefully ill be able to get it back to what it was.

 

[Gill]

That's a real shame. Hope you get it sorted

And also you have a nice mix of tiger endlers. And the flame 🔥 tail looks cool and the pin tail has some good stripes.

 

[Whagwan]

Like a phoenix from the flames!

In my rush to get everything set up again, I did an abysmal job of the vinyl backdrop.

Rather than try to do it again in situ, I've ordered a piece of twin-wall polycarbonate cut to size which I will apply the vinyl to.

Then I can just peel the current one off and fix the new one to the back with tape.

 

[Whagwan]

 

[LondonDragon]

Looking good, but you not going to get any work done with that PC!!

 

[Whagwan]

All growing in nicely. Turned out I hadn't made as much of a mess of the backing vinyl as I'd thought it just needed a couple of weeks to settle...

 

[Whagwan]

Moved out the endlers to another tank and changed to RO/tap mix to replace with green neons...

 

[Miniandy]

That's a really nice scape!

Did you swap out the broken tank?
What's the plan with the Cuba carpet, looks like it's getting thick?

 

[Whagwan]

Thanks, yes broken tank was swopped out and everything re-built/replanted to where it is now...

I'm going away for 9 days on Saturday (although have one day at home on the Thurs 3rd when I can water change) so I plan to trim the carpet on Thursday as I think it would be at risk of detaching if I left it till I got back.

 

[Whagwan]

Post first haircut...

 

[hydrophyte]

Cool setup!