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'Blue Sky' Iwagumi ...overgrown

Re: 'Blue Sky' Iwagumi adding O2

looking nice, that HC hole will soon fill in. Have you removed the SAE'S yet?
 
Re: 'Blue Sky' Iwagumi adding O2

ianho said:
Have you removed the SAE'S yet?

no mate. Still there. I'm not even going to attempt to get them.

Here's a short video clip after the trim. :thumbup:

Watch in 720p

 
Re: 'Blue Sky' Iwagumi adding O2

not to everyone's liking i see. 😀

Anyway, the sae's are going. They're slowly annihilating my HC. A real pain. :twisted:
 
Re: 'Blue Sky' Iwagumi adding O2

Tried SAE's once and never again, they are very territorial also, annoying fish!! The tank is coming along nicely, shame about the caves in the HC now, I am sure they will fill in quickly, keeping a close eye on the trimming, something that I need to learn for my next scape.
 
Re: 'Blue Sky' Iwagumi adding O2

It's been a while for an update on the tank.

About 4 weeks ago, i suffered a strange lack of growth on the HC. I've put it down to over trimming and the sae's

I cleaned the filter, changed back to a spray bar, and i'm not sure if it's coincidence, but I've changed to ADA NAG green, and like a miracle, the tank has bounced back with a vengeance!

The HC is doing good again, and everything is such a vivid green.

green-1.jpg

My estimations for the tank being finished are a bit, and actually, i'm seeing the benefits of letting a tank run it's own course.
 
Re: 'Blue Sky' Iwagumi adding O2

Piece-of-fish said:
Thats placebo effect of ADA bulb

yep. One things for sure though, my plants love it! Fact!!

It's a pig to do any decent sort of filming. Everything is green. In real life, i love it, but for pics and stuff...not so good. At least i have flash to fall back on for images.

So, i mentioned the nightmare i had with the tank...HC stopped, fish dig up HC, no real algae though.

The tank has sprung back into life again, and I've added a couple of riccia stones...thank Ed (a special dark green variety 😉 )

This is after a trim of the stems...yet again. And the foreground is coming back to life after a really tricky time.

Another month or 2 of TLC, and it should be done. I'm loving parvula too.

 
Re: 'Blue Sky' Iwagumi adding O2

That tank is looking so natural, I just love it. In the past I had some doubts about the shaping of the stems on the back..., but you have shown us the master class again :thumbup: It looks so complete to me now!
 
Re: 'Blue Sky' Iwagumi adding O2

Thanks Antoni, a really nice thing to say :thumbup:

Regards to stems, it's just repeated trimming. A cut slightly higher than the last, to achieve a bush, or thicket.

In this tank, due to it's size, i'm close to the limit with trimming. In a bigger tank, I'd have loads of trims left.

That said, i could hack this down to the ground and they'd still grow back, but with that comes issues with the over all strength of the plant...From past experience.

Quit possibly though, i could do what George did, and change the whole planting, but keep the rocks....ermmm...or just rescape! :lol: yeah, bring on a new scape!

Antoni said:
It looks so complete to me now!

A bit more 'blending' of the plants, and the rununculas to recover, and it's close to being done.
 
Re: 'Blue Sky' Iwagumi adding O2

thumbs up Mark!

Is the riccia dead centre as well as on the left? Did you cut out the hole the SAE's made?
 
Re: 'Blue Sky' Iwagumi adding O2

ianho said:
Is the riccia dead centre as well as on the left? Did you cut out the hole the SAE's made?

yes, and to the left. The HC is now crawling again, so i anticipate that area getting covered again.

I did cut out the affected areas, and was close to taking the whole damn Lot out...it was that bad. But time has been a great healer 8)
 
Re: 'Blue Sky' Iwagumi adding O2

First time when I saw this tank I immediately fell in love. It has a soul of the real nature aquarium.

What technique did you use to divide areas of HC and parvula, to keep them from mixing one with other? Stone?
 
Re: 'Blue Sky' Iwagumi adding O2

Sonnyarba said:
First time when I saw this tank I immediately fall in love. It has a soul of the real nature aquarium.

What technique did you use to divide areas of HC and parvula, to keep them from mixing one with other? Stone?

Thank you :thumbup:

I planted them quite far apart. Slowly, the grass is creeping forward, and starting to mingle with the front plants.

It was mentioned a few pages back about the lack of height with the substrate, but this particular look was what i was after. Just a bit of grass peering over the top. 😀
 
Re: 'Blue Sky' Iwagumi adding O2

Thanks for sharing the trimming technique, Mark!


A bit more 'blending' of the plants, and the rununculas to recover, and it's close to being done.

Yes I was thinking about the rununculas, that in the previous picture it has looked better and more bushy...

I think you will re-scape it after the recovery 😀 new plants, new hard scape and concept to bring new excitement to you and to all of us 🙂
 
Re: 'Blue Sky' Iwagumi adding O2

Antoni said:
Yes I was thinking about the rununculas, that in the previous picture it has looked better and more bushy...

Yes, it took a beating from my scissors. It's coming back now though. :thumbup:

I guess, one of the great things with journals, is you get to see all of the stages, before a tank is complete.

There are times in a tanks life, where things dont sit right, not due to design but lack of time, and the final image, is after the full amount of time.

icepotato89 said:
the shimmer of the MH is awesome, what kind of background is that?

One of the reasons i use Halides. The background is a graduated blue background. I guess you could make one with photoshop, and get it printed. 😀
 
Re: 'Blue Sky' Iwagumi adding O2

After the recovery, the tank is now on overdrive. Everything is growing at quite a pace again.

The rotala sp. green, is making the quickest recover to date.

The parvula is looking great. And the HC is giving off runners again, with nice big leaves.

Here's an angled shot from the other side this time.

snake-oil.jpg

After a few months of having to 'fight' to make a tank look half healthy, the power of ADA seems to be working, along with TPN+, co2 and a good light source.

I've not even done a water change in 2 weeks :shock: ...that's unlike me.
 
Re: 'Blue Sky' Iwagumi ...greening up nicely.

Well, after changing a few things, things have turned for the better as i mentioned.

I've intentional left the tank alone in terms of trimming, just to allow everything to recover properly.

It's really untidy at the moment, but now i'm confident again in trimming.

I'll cut everything today.

trim-time.jpg
 
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