From Iwagumi To Jungle The Journey So Far! Juwel Rio 125

The December FOTM Contest Poll is open!
FishForums.net Fish of the Month
🏆 Click to vote! 🏆

LondonDragon

Fish Crazy
Joined
Apr 25, 2007
Messages
217
Reaction score
0
Location
London, UK
Hi guys, so finally my Never Ending Journal came to an end and I am now going to try something different, I have decided to have a go at an Iwagumi.
 
Tank: Rio 125L, 81wx36dx50h cm
 
Filtration: JBL CrystalProfi e1500 which is rated at 1500lph, Koralia 1 rated 1500lph Powerhead (also have another Koralia 1 and a Koralia Nano that I can use if needed).
 
Lighting: Can use from 2 to 6 x24w T5 (2x6500k, 2x8000k, 2xPlantGrow), going to use 4x24w to start with, on for 7 hours per day.
 
CO2: Pressurised CO2 system, using a 5kg bottle, using a solenoid valve to shut off when not needed, it comes on 3 hours before lights on and goes off 2 hours before lights out. Using an UP Atomizer for diffusion, also have an Aquamedic 1000 reactor but decided not to use it this time.
 
Plant Substrate: 18l of ADA Aqua Soil Amazonia (From Aquajardin)
 
Hardscape: 15Kg of Dragon Stone (from Aquatic Design Centre)
 
Plants: 4 pots of Staurogyne repens and 6 pots of Hemianthus Callitrichoides "Cuba", all Tropica from ADC.
 
Fertilisation: Going to try out Tobis Mikro and Makro Special Ferts. Then will decide if I am going to get some more or make my own using dry salts. Have an Aquamedic SP3000 Auto Dosing pump which not going to use at the moment, might do if I starting making my own all in one solution.
 
Maintenance: 50% daily water change for the first two weeks, then twice a week for another two weeks, and from then onwards once a week (that's the plan anyway).
 
Equipment shot:
p1030307.jpg

 
 
Hardscape:
p1030258t.jpg

 
From the above shot replaced the most right rock with something with more texture and little bigger, might have not been the best idea but I preferred it over the rock on the photo. Forgot to take a shot before I started filling it for planting.
 
While planting it last night:
 
p1030269p.jpg

 
Left:
p1030272l.jpg

 
Right:
p1030274c.jpg

 
Top Left:
p1030265i.jpg

 
Top Right:
p1030264.jpg

 
Taken straight after filling it up and starting the filter:
p1030287v.jpg

 
In the morning it had cleared nicely:
p1030303cd.jpg


And 6 weeks later it looked like this:
 
 
p1040100a.jpg

 
 
p1040117a.jpg

 
 
p1040169t.jpg

 
 
 
 
Month later:
 
 
p1040555s.jpg

 
 
Video:
 
http://vimeo.com/23820732
 
And a couple of weeks more:
 
 
p1050374b.jpg

 
p1050379t.jpg

 
p1050382.jpg

 
p1050400p.jpg
 
The rocks turned a very light colour so I stopped cleaning them and gave it a more natural feel:
 
 
pict0254.jpg

 
pict0262f.jpg

 
 
Couple weeks later:
 
 
pict0308i.jpg

 
pict0281uo.jpg

 
pict0265g.jpg

 
 
Due to lack of time and work taking over the tank started suffering:
 
 
pict0680x.jpg

 
pict0674.jpg

 
pict0667b.jpg

 
pict0719.jpg


And eventually the HC had to go:
 
 
p1060677e.jpg

 
p1060680ar.jpg

 
 
And slowly started turning into something else:
 
 
pict0403hl.jpg

 
pict0385dc.jpg

 
pict0364c.jpg

 
 
And now looks more like a Jungle than a Iwagumi
smile.png

 
 
pict0083zs.jpg

 
pict0075d.jpg

 
 
Not sure what is going to happen next as my scapes tend to merge from one thing into another! Might get a new tank soon and start something else long term :)
 
 
Thanks for looking
smile.png
 
So lush! I do like the darker rock color as well.
 
Have you entered it in the tank of the month contest?
 
No no...thank YOU for sharing. ;)
 
Amazing tank in regards to your ferts what did you do after you ran out of tobis? Did you mix your own to his recipe orbuse another make ?
 
Beautiful tank, why rid of the HC? Did it get BBA in it?
 
LondonDragon said:
Due to lack of time and work taking over the tank started suffering:
 
ohmy.png
 I wish I didn't have as much time to make my tank look like that!
 
liamhuckle said:
Amazing tank in regards to your ferts what did you do after you ran out of tobis? Did you mix your own to his recipe orbuse another make ?
Thanks :) I started mixing my own dry salts according the the Estimative Index rules, and at the moment I am being lazy and just purchased the Tropica range of ferts which work just as well.
 
Ps3Steveo said:
Beautiful tank, why rid of the HC? Did it get BBA in it?
Thanks, the HC is high demanding and due to heavy work load I neglected the tank, forgot to dose it on daily basis, water changes not as often as I would like, no filter maintenance, if I had kept on top of that would have been easy to carry on, it just started melting away due to neglect.
 
Lunar Jetman said:
Due to lack of time and work taking over the tank started suffering:
 
ohmy.png
 I wish I didn't have as much time to make my tank look like that!
haha well keeping easy going species is not that hard, most people just have too much light for their tank and that's when they have problems ;)
 

Most reactions

Back
Top