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60P Variations

Introduced fish to this one on Friday. Went with Tanichtys micagemmae, I believe they are called Vietnamese Cardinal Minnows in English. Bought 20 of them and they have settled in OK.
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I know they are not the most traditional choice for iwagumi. Shoaling rather than schooling, but they are very active and not shy at all. They offer nice viewing for the mornings. I tuned the CO2 down and placed a cover on the tank temporarily. Aquarium store warned me they can be jumpers. Hopefully this does not become an issue and constant worry for me.

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Strangely some of them have tried to swim up the lily pipe!😱 This is the first time I have observed this kind of behaviour. These are called juovakardinaalikala in Finnish. ”Line cardinal fish” But juova can also mean ”drinking”/”person who drinks”. So, might be some drunken misbehaviour, this extreme stream surfing!😅

Plants are still adapting. Some melting and dying of the old leaves, but I do see healthy new leaves also. Diatoms are almost completely gone. Or would be if I could bother to clean the glass pipes.😝

Does someone here have experience with Lilaeopsis macloviana? Interesting, tubular, hollow leaves, quite brittle. Came as a in-vitro plant, shed some blades but has now started to spread. And of course trying it’s best to ruin my distance illusion in the back of the tank. 🤣
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In other news: Finland has switched over to daylight saving time last night. It is called summertime in Finnish.
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Tad too early and optimistic one could argue.
Have a nice Sunday, everyone!
 
So, more like monthly updates, it seems.
Not smooth sailing, I’m sad to say. Greyish brush algae has taken residence. Tried to fix the situation with nutrients, few stems and lastly Excel dosing.

After that the algae was mostly on both Helanthum species’ leaves. I guess they don’t like Excel. Was it the same with Vallisneria? I recall reading something like that from somewhere. Could be the leaf structure thing? They are quite similar.

L. macloviana is aggressively spreading around. I have left it do that for now. I hope more plant mass will help with algae. Interesting plant, but I do not think it really suits the ambience I am after.

Introduced two in-vitro cups worth of E. vivipara. Hoping it will fill in the background up to surface. Other Eleocharis species are doing well, so it might succeed.

Quick morning snapshot of the situation now
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I have spent most of my aquascaping time with the last tweaks of this year’s contest scape.
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Oops, total disaster.
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Algae, all kinds, everywhere. This is basically what neglect looks like. Inconsistency with ferts and increasing amounts of daylight with already powerful light unit. We have 19 hours of daylight now and both morning and especially long evening sun is reaching this tank somewhat.

Pearlweed strands that I inserted got crazy, hair grass carpet is as thick as I have ever seen, but all is covered in algae. Holiday season and more neglect is approaching.

So, I decided to try something. Do a makeover, partially start again. Fix the parameters, best I can and hope for something salvageable come end of summer.IMG_2953.JPG
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Everything out. Trying to reuse L.macloviana partially and introduce some new plants. Using different approach and haphazard way to "scaping". Attempting to rescue some of the hairgrass/mixed carpet by putting plants in plastic wash basin, giving them an Excel bath and then blackout. Modelling somewhat MJ Aquascaping`s GPD scape.

If somehow at the end of summer season this is OK, get those fish in there also. So, that is the goal I am setting up for myself with this redemption attempt.
 
BTW: no problem downloading images or anything. Seems like today´s issues have been successfully fixed . Good job, thank you!
 
Hello from the other side of summer! My summers are mostly spent away from the scapes. Should have known that a restart near almost complete abandonment is not a very good idea. Still wanted to give it a try. Results were not that great. After vacation time, about three weeks ago I had to do another restart.

My idea for the second variation was, as stated earlier, a sort of a modification of the iwagumi. More of a river or a stream scene, using partly the same materials.

LED lighting was kept to a minimal, due to the fact that this tank receives both morning and evening sunlight in long northern summer days. I did visit the scape about weekly, did waterchanges, fed the fish and cleaned around the tank. Fertilatisation was a bit erratic, Co2 was off.

Plants did not do too well and that opened up the opportunity for algae. I found out that especially L.macloviana did not like the replanting at all. I had a really strong plants, bucketfull of them. Lost most of them.

I got BGA! That crowned the failure. I have not had that problem in years, decades maybe. The cause for this is still a bit of a mystery to me. And that problem still persists and haunts me in this current, second restart. Problem might be in partly reused aquasoil or the new substrate material WIO biotope bed that I wanted to use.

At the moment the BGA is not overwhelming in volume, but persistent in the glass little above and little under the substrate line. I have not had test kits anymore in recent years. I grew confident, overconfident as it now seems. I am suspecting imbalance, nitrate defiency, judging from the pale and struggling plants. Second restart also propably messed up some of the bacteria, so I am enjoying a diatom, brown fuzz algae stage as well.

Not really enjoying this now, but I am reluctant to give up the idea altogether. I am leaning towards another restart but I will give this iteration a few weeks time with rigorous maintenance.

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I am basically trying out a lot of different plant species to see what could thrive, or at this point at least survive, in here. Managed to buy minilotus, N. helvola from another Finnish hobbyist. Hope I can keep at least that one alive.
 
I hope things are improving with your algea........

Out of interest, how do you find the tank size for scapeing? I currently have a standard 60P 60x30x36, but always feel the depth limits me. I do like the height of the tank though, as I am short, so this maeks maintenance is easy (I dont have to use a stool or step). I was looking at upgrading to the 60P 60x45x36 , but think perhaphs it is not much of an upgrade. I looked at a 90P, and I am not sure if the height of 45mm might be a bit high, and also a bit big for my room. I have seen a WIO 75P that looks a happy medium 75 x 40 x 40 (120L), so a little bit taller and wider, but not a standard size so can limit me for if I want a lighted background, finding a stand for it etc.

I would be interested to know your thoughs 🙂

Thanks
 
Hi, nice journal and tank, for your information the hakkai stones actually available in Europe are all from Indonesia.

Hakkai from Japan are totally banned from export.

Not sure for how long we will get the Indonesia one but they sure look as good as the Japanese one. 🙂
 
Hi there, after a year of silence from my part it is nice to see some posts after my inactivity.

@CooKieS thanks for the info, my comment on Japan river was a joke really, but it is still interesting information.
@keef321 my thoughts might arrive too late, but I like the dimensions I have got and the added water volume. I have a sort of 90P also(90x50x50cm) and I think that is another category altogether, big or at least medium tank. 70 cm might be a good option, but 45cm depth versus 30cm depth is a big increase in 60P tank. Of course it is still just 15cm but it is a 50% increase in depth also.

That previous iteration never really took off, it was a constant struggle and after a while I decided to call it quits and concentrate on my other tanks. Home environment is going through some changes and that 60P has been sitting empty for half a year.

A new variation is on the horizon though, might still take a while to get it going. One tank is going through a dark start and another is waiting to be dismantled and disposed to be replaced with something new.

But for this 60P I have been soaking spiderwood in a bucket for most of the summer. When the opportunity presents itself I will be starting variation number 3. Island layout, big on H.pinnatifida. You might have seen something along those lines somewhere.
 
Hi @finniche , welcome back 🙂 and thanks for your reply.

I delayed upgrading to a larger tank in the end, because I changed my tank over from hard water to soft water (RODI), and wanted to see if I could grow plants I was struggling with before, before upgrading to a new tank / aquascape. So a larger tank is still on the cards!!

Interestingly I noticed a theme with the 60Px36x45 aquascapes that I have seen, in that they seem to be either iwagumi or island style, I assume due to the fact that the depth of the tank lends itself to this? As it will be my only tank, I am thinking the 90P looks like it would be more flexible / offer more options in this sense, do you agree from your experience?
 
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This time a little faster response. Changing plans is very familiar to me too. For sure 90P offers more options scapewise, fishwise etc and as I mentioned it is in my mind in different, bigger category than 60cm aquariums. I recommend it if you have the space and budget for it.

Interesting observation about the scape styles. In UK you have had(and I guess still do) the option of the 60cm tank that has 50cm depth. I actually planned originally to have that, but getting one shipped here turned out impossible, so the 45cm was the best available. In those 50cm deep ones I have seen pictures of all kinds of scapes. My 60P45 is located in a kitchen corner and will be viewed from two sides so triangle and island compositions are the obvious choices for scapes in it.
 
Yes we can still get the 60cm x 50cm in the UK.
I think the 60P45 lends itself to a corner, which is why I am also leaning now more towards the 90P. Thank you @finniche for your help. I look forward to seeing the progession of your tank 🙂
 
So finally I have the next variation in the 60P up and running.

There has been a little bit of chaos in our home. Kitchen walls painted, new layout of furniture and all the aquariums rescaped or replaced.

Had the plants and the fish and shrimp housed in this 60P in a temporary location. So I decided to do the hardscape as basically a one piece: wood glued to a piece of slate. Tried to minimize the time fish were in a bucket.

Been wanting to do a sort of a ADA pastiche for a long time. Island composition featuring H.pinnatifida UK.

Had access to a mature filter so planted and put the livestock in on Day 1.
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Let’s see how this one turns out.
 
Looks cracking!
 
Day 5 update. Never have I ever seen water so clear. Don’t know if it can be seen from pictures. I am using Seachem Purigen and carbon.
Water tests are showing ammonia and nitrite at zero. Livestock doing well.
I have Juncus repens from pots and Eleocharis vivipara in-vitro planted in the back. Also couple of Rotala hra stems that have lived in a bucket for a good while. Tiny leaves. Java moss tied with cotton thread on wood and Riccia tied with fishing line on small rocks. Buce Kedakang in cracks between stones. No signs of growth yet.
Two things to worry about: the feature plant Pinnatifida UK is shedding leaves and showing signs of melt. I’m hoping they adapt before they are completely gone.
Another thing is the filter outflow. I have Oase Biomaster 600 now in this and clearly oversized pipes. When I first started the filter the outflow was too deep and too near the substrate in the back. Result was uprooted plants and moved soil. I don’t have a good alternative in my reserves at the moment. So I have filter foam piece as a “muffler” on the outflow as a temporary fix. This obviously ruins the inline CO2 distribution.IMG_5860.jpegIMG_5862.jpegIMG_5863.jpeg
 
Thanks. Yes, that has been my own experience also on previous occasions. I have found it a good practice not to divide the plants to too little portions at the start.

But I have also read about other people’s experiences of complete melting of in-vitro pinnatifida on the first days of a new scape.
 
finniche said:
When I first started the filter the outflow was too deep and too near the substrate in the back. Result was uprooted plants and moved soil. I don’t have a good alternative in my reserves at the moment. So I have filter foam piece as a “muffler” on the outflow as a temporary fix. This obviously ruins the inline CO2 distribution.
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Hi,
Could you not temporarily move the outlet to the front and and direct it across the front of the tank where the plant growth is lower, by the time it has circulated round the back it should have calmed down a bit. You can then return it to your ideal location once the stems have gained a bit of muscle?
finniche said:
But I have also read about other people’s experiences of complete melting of in-vitro pinnatifida on the first days of a new scape.
Click to expand...
This can happen to quite a few different species, George Farmer candidly revealed that several types were lost in the initial stages on one of Tropica's Youtube vids, when they were preparing show tanks at their laboratory.
 
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