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A more conventional Iwagumi (Final shots @ 22 weeks)

Re: A more conventional Iwagumi

George Farmer said:
Stunning. Already.
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Cheers George 😀

Eboeagles said:
A more conventional Iwagumi!? A classic Iwagumi more like!

Very nice, great composition, you make it look so easy!
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I'm glad you think it's a classic 😀
When i say its more conventional I mean it's the first time i have conformed to a style. I've always prefered complete creative freedom but i'm actually finding it very satisfying.

ghostsword said:
Eboeagles said:
A more conventional Iwagumi!? A classic Iwagumi more like!

Very nice, great composition, you make it look so easy!
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That is the issue, they make it look so easy, but a iwagumi is far from easy.

With so much stuff on show it is hard to hide bad design.
.
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Luis, I spent hours gazing at the arrangement and tweaking it, then gazing and tweaking and so on.
It's never easy, but then if it was it would be no fun 😀

Cheers,
James
 
Re: A more conventional Iwagumi

Thanks Mark, I'm really glad you like it. 😀

Cheers,
James
 
Re: A more conventional Iwagumi

Hey James, this is superb.

I love the moss selection. The tank already looks great with them. :thumbup:
I am missing these moss focused tanks nowadays. They looks very natural in most cases. This will be a perfect example of that. :angel:
 
Re: A more conventional Iwagumi

Thanks Viktor 😀

I am becoming a fan of mosses, they do seem to give a natural mature look to a scape.

Cheers,
James
 
Re: A more conventional Iwagumi

Looking very nice James. Have to warn you about the Riccia and hairgrass combo though, I ended up manually picking out a lot of Riccia from my hairgrass!
 
Re: A more conventional Iwagumi

Tom said:
Nice clean setup - gonna look great filled in 😀
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Thanks Tom


flygja said:
Looking very nice James. Have to warn you about the Riccia and hairgrass combo though, I ended up manually picking out a lot of Riccia from my hairgrass!
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Thanks Flygja,
That's a good point, i've mixed HC and Riccia a few times and the riccia can be plucked out with tweezers to stop it swamping the HC. However, this is not so easy with hair grass as I tend to accidently grab the grass and uproot it. I wonder if the excess riccia could be syphoned out from amongst the grass if it was done regularly.

Cheers,
James
 
Re: A more conventional Iwagumi

James, syphoning can be done to remove some of it first but its not the end-all solution. Riccia's shape is like a multi-pronged grappling hook and will lodge itself into the grass. My advice is to maintain Riccia as often as possible, by removing it from the tank and doing all the trimming/re-tying outside the tank. Trimming Riccia in a tank is a nightmare, especially if you have hairgrass or Helanthium tenellum or mosses.
 
Re: A more conventional Iwagumi

Looking good James. Hope all is well with you 🙂
My tank is still going good 😛
 
Re: A more conventional Iwagumi

flygja said:
James, syphoning can be done to remove some of it first but its not the end-all solution. Riccia's shape is like a multi-pronged grappling hook and will lodge itself into the grass. My advice is to maintain Riccia as often as possible, by removing it from the tank and doing all the trimming/re-tying outside the tank. Trimming Riccia in a tank is a nightmare, especially if you have hairgrass or Helanthium tenellum or mosses.
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Unfortunately my use of Riccia doesn't lend itself to being removed. I don't find pruning it too bad, as long as I remember to turn my filter off first, then it floats to the top and i collect it with a net.
I know I can successfuly pluck Riccia from moss with small needle nose tweezers, I'll just have to improve my skills for keeping the grass clear of it.


mlgt said:
Looking good James. Hope all is well with you 🙂
My tank is still going good 😛
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Thanks Ricky
Glad to hear your tank is going well.

Cheers,
James
 
Re: A more conventional Iwagumi

Nice rock work James, good to see you back too 🙂 another one to watch 🙂
 
Re: A more conventional Iwagumi

Thanks Paulo, much appreciated.


Update

Day 7. Started to get some BBA in the moss so decided to spot dose it with easycorbo

Day 10. Seriously damaged the moss with the spot dosing.

Day 14. Weeping moss on the left had on the left of the tank was all dead and had to be replanted

Day 27. Mosses are recovering nicely, new moss on the left is growing and the Riccia and grass are now visible.


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CO2 45 bubbles per min
1ml ADA K daily
1ml ADA step3 daily
2 drops ADA green gain weekly
2 drops ADA phyton git weekly
2 drops ADA ECA weekly
70% water change weekly

Cheers,
James
 
Re: A more conventional Iwagumi

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photos taken today.

Well, the mosses seem to have recovered and are growing nicely.
I still feel the scape looks a little scruffy, but i hope that will improve once the moss matures.
The Riccia and Grass are growing fast and have been pruned a couple of times, i'm open to suggestions on the shape of the riccia, the shape in the current shot was what i had in mind all along , but i'm not yet sure if i like it.


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Cleaning the rocks has been a lengthy weekly task, and leaves the rather unatural effect of mostly clean rocks with algae where the toothbrush won't reach. Hopefully the addition of some amano shrimps will solve the problem.


Cheers,
James
 
Re: A more conventional Iwagumi

Thanks Tom 😀 .
HM is a good suggestion, it might well creep over the rocks at the back more naturaly than riccia.

Cheers,
James
 
Re: A more conventional Iwagumi

You are so good with the nanos, great eye for it.

Would it be crazy to add some dash of colour to it? Maybe some rotala indica at the back? Just three or four stems, to add some red to it.
 
Re: A more conventional Iwagumi

Gorgeous mate. Superb photography too.

I'm temped to go for another Iwagumi myself after seeing this. Top Class.
 
Re: A more conventional Iwagumi

ghostsword said:
You are so good with the nanos, great eye for it.

Would it be crazy to add some dash of colour to it? Maybe some rotala indica at the back? Just three or four stems, to add some red to it.
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Thanks Luis.

A splash of red could look good, however a few isolated stems would just get laid flat by the current as the tank is turned over 20 times per hour.


George Farmer said:
Gorgeous mate. Superb photography too.

I'm temped to go for another Iwagumi myself after seeing this. Top Class.
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Thank you George, much appreciated 😀
I'm planning another Gumi myself, i,ve got to get a 60cm setup first though.

Cheers,
james
 
Re: A more conventional Iwagumi

Update
The scape is 8 weeks old now and is finally starting to look more as i envisaged. The weeping moss is begining to creep over the lower stones and i feel the Riccia is looking a little more natural. Still, I think it's going take at least another 8 weeks before the scape looks fully mature.

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Have added 4 amano shrimps to help keep the rocks clean, I'm still spending 2 hours scrubbing them once a week and the amanos then seem to clean the bits i miss.
Unfortumately, however, the BBA has returned. Had I kept up a small daily dose of liquid carbon I may have prevented it, but after killing the moss with spot dosing I over reacted and stopped dosing all together.
I have now resumed dosing, but will also look for the cause of the problem. I'm convinced that CO2 and ferts are not to blame. It could be that the cherry shrimp population has now got so high that the bio loading is massive or that when I rescaped the tank I didn't clean up properly and left a layer of mulm under the rocks and moss stones.
I shall thin out the cherry shrimp numbers throughtout the next week, not quite sure how to address the mulm problem.

Cheers,
James
 
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