A Long Start, another Iwagumi story

[David Shanahan]

You’ll do fine. You get some good advice here from fellow scapers. I tend to not look at my drop checker, it just tells me when my Co2 is running out these days. I was hugely fortunate last year to visit ADA gallery. I walked around with one of the guys that worked on Oceanário de Lisboa for about an hour asking questions. He gave me tons of advice and walked me through bit by bit. My scapes have never looked so good and I don’t measure anything anymore. It’s all done by eye knowing what to look for in my plants, how to do proper maintenance, how to maintain filters etc. Nothing like having some face time with a professional. The plane ticket was worth it 😉

 

[steveno]

Cheers Planty,
You're probably right i think i got myself in a bit of spin trying to chase the recommended 1ph drop that i forgot the most important thing and just see what my plants are telling me, I've spent enough time look at them 😉.



I came across this the other day, on one of the threads on this forum, though i cant remember who's just took a copy of the image (cheers for posting it btw) 🙂.

Although i do intend to get some livestock in tank at some point, so it important that I'm not over injecting Co2 when i do.

Actually as it half term taking my lado with me to spent a few day in Lisbon next week, intend to spend a quite a few hours at the aquarium. Really looking forward to it, and fingers crossed later in the year planning on visiting japan and hopefully Niigata to visit the Nature Aquarium Gallery 😀. I recall reading about your visit on one of your threads, disappointed to hear you're not allow to take photo's thou.

 

[David Shanahan]

Yea, i really wanted to. Looks like you have to be a retailer if you want to take pictures.You might get lucky depending on the person that is in the gallery keeping an eye on you.

If you’re going to Japan, then highly recommend you getting a JR rail pass. I stayed in Tokyo, but did a day in Niigata. Not much going on there. The rail pass cost £110 but meant I could travel on any JR rail within a certain region which included the bullet train to a Niigata. It also included the train to Maki station where I got a taxi from outside the station. That way you can get to Sumida at Skytree town in Tokyo too.

I’d love to go to Lisbon and see that one too. Plans for my birthday maybe. Definitely go to see Fuji. I went on a tour from Tokyo with Viator which included Fuji, Lake Ashi, the Hakone ropeway and lunch for £110.

They also do city tours as Mario Kart. You get to drive around in a cart with a tour guide dressed as Luigi or Mario, or Donkey Kong. You need to book in advance. If I knew before I went it would have been on the list

 

[Kalum]

Where did you get the seiryu stone from? Looks great

 

[steveno]

Hello Planty,

Thanks for the suggestions, we will be likely be staying in Tokyo for 5 days but the misses isn't keen on going to Niigate 🙁. i would also love to do the mariokart tour but my lad is only 9 , I'm told we can only do family stuff and only stuff we can do together and traveling to Niigate to see the Nature Aquarium isn't consider family stuff. 😡, spoil sport!!!

Wondering if there are any ADA exhibitions in Tokyo, might be able to persuade the misses to go.

 

[steveno]

Hello Kalum,

Kalum said: ↑
Where did you get the seiryu stone from? Looks great
Cheers, the Green Machine, they were the biggest pieces they had at the time (a number of years ago), as suggested when I set up this scape I used what i had to hand, to get more height I used some lava stone in filter bags under substrate.

Thou to be fair if i was to do again i might try to get something more inert, so it didn't effect water, as you can see i have a bit of a difficult time due to them, thou i still like the appearance of them.

 

[Kalum]

Thanks Steveno, hard to find a place that shows pictures of the actual stones before you buy and with them being expensive it's pretty big gamble, I literally ordered some lava rock and egg crate earlier so good to know it works OK!

You seem to be getting on pretty well and just have a few new tank teething issues, there' nonly fun in it being too easy after all..... 😛

The released calcium from the rock would actually be good for me as I'll be keeping shrimp so saves dosing as much

 

[steveno]

Hello Kalum,

I actually when to the green machine and picked them out, they had a sand pit so i could try a few scape using different pieces, it wasn't to long a drive from Manchester, but its another thing entirely driving to Wrexham from Scotland. 😉

I've recently seen/ read a few threads about a few people ordering large stones and complete layouts online, thou its not the cheapest option. Here's Planty's ( sorry Plant, hope you don't mind)

https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/large-aquascaping-rocks-needed-40cm-or-so.50284/

Lovely betta you have in your avatar image, wont mind keeping one myself, perhaps in my nano tank as my next project 😀

 

[steveno]

Hello Ceg,

Further reading here:
https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads...ng-ro-with-tap-water.51704/page-2#post-510813

https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/60ltr-at-4bps.39305/page-2#post-510485

Thanks for providing links to these two threads, interesting reading, must have missed them or forgotten the discussion, they have given me a lot to think about, and a bit more of a better stir of what you were suggesting, thou would have been easier if you provided the links in the first place, rather than letting me fill in the gaps myself and completely misinterpret the point you were making 😳.

Cheers

 

[Kalum]

If only I had somewhere in Scotland like that, I'd be there in a heartbeat playing about in the sand like a 5 year old

Ah that's brilliant I read that thread a while ago while I was setting up my last tank and ruled it out but that's the exact sort of direction I want to go with my new tank so cheers for the reminder! Will shoot then an email tomorrow

Cheers he's a wee character, it's crazy how much of a personality they have, he's also the most chilled betta I've ever heard of or seen of and just does his own thing and seems to be doing well, a nano tank around 20-50L is a perfect wee setup for them on their own

 

[David Shanahan]

I actually when to the green machine and picked them out, they had a sand pit so i could try a few scape using different pieces, it wasn't to long a drive from Manchester, but its another thing entirely driving to Wrexham from Scotland. 😉

And here was me thinking Scotland was full of Rocks.

Hello Kalum,
I've recently seen/ read a few threads about a few people ordering large stones and complete layouts online, thou its not the cheapest option. Here's Planty's ( sorry Plant, hope you don't mind)

Yes, ordered online, but only because I was struggling to get anything of a large size and some of the stuff at Green Machine needed a second mortgage. I got Siryu stone from World of Water in Timperly, but they are a big retailer, so check if you have one near you and give them a call. They might be able to get some from their supplier.

 

[ceg4048]

Hello Ceg,



Thanks for providing links to these two threads, interesting reading, must have missed them or forgotten the discussion, they have given me a lot to think about, and a bit more of a better stir of what you were suggesting, thou would have been easier if you provided the links in the first place, rather than letting me fill in the gaps myself and completely misinterpret the point you were making 😳.

Cheers

Ha ha, yes, that's a good point. sorry....

Cheers,