Zikofski's Ada 60H (45) Iwagumi Tank Journal

[Zikofski]

this is my second tank and i decided to take a different approach to this tank, usually i go for a jungle style tank densely planted and lots of difference species but wit this tank i had been inspired by a load of videos and pictures online of the Japanese Iwagumi style tanks so if i wanted to do this style of tank i wanted to do it right from the very start and at the same time do a little side project comparing certain products with my older tank.
 
with this tank i decided to go all out and use all the ADA products i could use, so i went out and bought a ADA 60H tank, altho expensive its an amazing tank WOW, these tanks speak for the selfs clear clarity glass and almost 0 silicon work next to my clearseal 88L tank it puts it to shame, i had a few verities to look at and decided to go with a more box approach the ADA 60H (45) 60cm wide, 45cm deep and 45cm tall, this allows me to get some good depth and high for the style i want.
 
i went to my local ADA retailer, and spent just above £1,000 on tank, stones, substrate, and a few substrate additives, i also loved a few of the tools they where selling regarding plant care in the shop so i also bought them too this is the full list of things i bought.
 
ADA Cube Garden 60-H(45): 60 x 45 x 45cm  -- £324.99
ADA Lily Pipe Outflow P-2 13mm                    -- £98.03
ADA New Lily Pipe Inflow V-5 13mm               -- £122.54
ADA NA Thermometer J-06 White                   -- £19.39
Aquascape Pro Pinsettes S/Nano 160mm      -- £11.49
Aquascape Pro Scissors S-Curve 210mm      -- £34.99 +£25.00 (Tungsten Carbide Blades)
ADA Aqua Soil Amazonia (9 Litre) x2               -- £69.98 (£34.99 x2)
ADA Aqua Soil Powder Amazonia (9 Litre)      -- £49.99
ADA Power Sand Special M (6 Litres)             -- £73.28
ADA Penac P 200g                                          -- £37.99
ADA Penac W 200g                                         -- £37.99
ADA stones 30Kg                                            -- £300.00
Eheim Ecco Pro 300 External Filter                 -- £100.00
 
so enough of this boring chat 




 
for lighting i used my own custom made LED lighting 15x3W LED bulbs suspended above the tank


 
i decided to make a video of me making the scape for this tank its 35min long but may be of use to anyone who is struggling to scape a tank of this style the plant of choice was Cuba (Tropica Proserpinaca palustris 'cuba 1-2-GROW!) £5.50 from Aqua Essentials i got 3 tubs of it i also spread the plant into individual plantets which took me 4 hours to do but will allow for much better growth around the tank and a good spread for the carpet
 
so here is the video if anyone is interested and wants to watch it
 
http/youtu.be/eNeZhcDDJCo?list=PLdXy9ZOOjd28I10DRR3NSU7qBLJt1oX2x
 
and some pictures


 
i originally added Tropica Alternathera reineckii 'mini' 1-2-GROW! but sadly the plant died rather quickly so i removed and won't be adding any other plants just the cuba
 
Tank was setup on 26 July
 
i used a strict plan to try and allow large growth and low algae blooms but sadly it didn't work, as i did get huge amounts of growth and spread but very high amounts of algae, 
 
Week 1, daily water change, no fertilisers added and co2 above normal levels yellow on the drop checker
on 17th August i noticed large growth from the cuba, 
 
week 2 bi daily water change, added ferts and co2 still high
 
week 3 tri daily water change, adding ferts and co2 still high
 
week 4 weekly water change 50% normal dose of ferts EI method and still high levels of co2.
 
come day 22 (17th August), the start of week 3, as you can see large amounts of growth from the cuba on closer observation you can see the majority of the growth is dead centre of the tank which shows that is where the light is most concentrated

 
i then went away for a week holiday and on day 32 i came back to this :O

 
after a quick clean up and a large WC you can see cuba is still growing well

 
also i noticed before i went away the tank was high in ammonia, no i never added ammonia into the tank so i presume this has come from the decaying plants that i removed and the substrate, slowly the ammonia reduced and the nitrite that was produced and once they had subsided i moved over my amano shrimp from my other tank to this one and the clean up crew has begun removing the algae.
 
i also bought some cherry shrimp and was given some assassin snail by Ch4lie and moved over 15 copper harlequins 
 


 
 
that is all for now algae is almost gone and once it has finished i shall move the amanos back in and buy a few more cherries and also buy some of my loved Fantasy blue shrimp as where inspired thnx to mamashack with her blue jellys
 

 

[Dandyman3]

Awesome....................................................... 

 

 

Awesome....................................................... 

 

 

 
Awesome....................................................... 

 

 

 
Awesome....................................................... 

 

 

 
 
Will be good as you say to see some Blue shrimps in there. I haven't had the luck of being able to try with any Blue ones yet. And with the recent loss, only had crystal shrimps, amano shrimps, and cherry. I am glad to see the amano shrimps there. They are brilliant little ones

 

[sawickib]

Very lovely! Id get some more shrimp XD

 

[daizeUK]

Lovely ADA tank though I think I'd have chosen the shallower version for an iwagumi setup.
 

 
 
Aquascape Pro Scissors S-Curve 210mm      -- £34.99 +£25.00 (Tungsten Carbide Blades)

 
Am I reading that right?  £60 on a pair of scissors?

 

[Zikofski]

haha yep you read right they are, haha the true ADA ones are £120 so £60 wasnt to bad in my eyes they jave a special curve to help cut like carpet plants and stuff they do make it easier and are hardened so should never go blunt even if i cut through some gravel or substrate by accident there theconly pair i use now i have 4 other including longer pnes all cheap and these £60 ones are far nicer and easier to cut with than them

i was thinking the shallow one but i decided to go taller to give
me more height to work with as i didnt use all the rocks i bought and some where way taller than what i used

 

[Ch4rlie]

Very nice Zik
 
You have been spending your hard earned money here haven't you
 
Beautiful tank, i love these rimless tanks, much cleaner lines and easier on the eye, good choice 

 
Also love the LED light and the stand to suspend light unit from
 
 

 

Aquascape Pro Scissors S-Curve 210mm      -- £34.99 +£25.00 (Tungsten Carbide Blades)

 
Am I reading that right?  £60 on a pair of scissors?

 
Lol, yeah, very expensive scissors, only the very best for Zik?
 
Are you going to put a background on this tank, black?
 
(Where are the pic of assassin snails? )

 

[stanleo]

I love it! I want to keep my eye on this because I would like to start one of these in the future.
 
How did you save the cuba from the algae? When my algae hit that hard I could not get it off my baby tears well enough to save them and I lost then all.

 

[Zikofski]

thank you all.
 
@ch4 i will get a picture when i see them , and no i won't be putting a background on the back of the tank, from what i see most Iwagumi have a no background back to the tank not 100% why but maybe it would add another focal point away from the stones? i know with iwagumi the focal is the stones not the plants not the fish. a background would make plants seem brighter greener if the background was or darker origin and may take focus away from the stones
 
 
@stanleo, amano shrimp they are little angels, amanos eat the algae i have Rhizoclonium which is very common in new setups, amano's eat it when not kept fed, but another way i cleaned as much cut away as much of the algae without removing the plants and some of the plants i took out more of the single ones from the edges and rubbed them gently in clean water this removed 99% of the algae put back in and the shrimp has something easier to eat, i still have some large lump of algae at the front.
 
it also depends on what algae you have, i have some stag horn in my other tank and that is more destructive only way for me to remove it is to remove the leaf it self. have a look at this site http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm maybe this will help you
 
i have seem to have lost another cherry shimp only 3 left no idea where it has gone maybe eaten up by the amano's, i have also noticed a few amanos pregnant with eggs obviously there is no way of successfully getting these to hatch but i hope i can get my cherries to breed, once this algae has gone hopefully when i do a WC tomorrow il clean some more out and il soon move my amanos back to and into my other tank where they belong, i will then buy some more amanos and order some fantasy blue's, i am also doing a graph on my changing TDS to try and get a an idea on how my tank is changing day after day week after week

 

[Mamashack]

Just got back from a few days away so only just catching up.
Tank looking good, Zik! What temp are you running the tank and what's the nitrate level? Did you manage to get the TDS level steady? Cherries and other Neos are very sensitive to levels in excess of 20 ppm nitrate and need to acclimate slowly to change in TDS/GH. Were they shipped to you or did you collect them? Any stressful situations/conditions could have impacted their survival. 

 

[Zikofski]

i haven't tested nitrate levels but i shall try to remember to test them tomorrow before my WC, my temp tho is 23c its impossible for me to get TDS steady but it fluctuates steadily rising from 110 to 290 over a week which is within values you specify, i collected all shrimp from the LFS you went to Leeds north thats an hour long drive and i did acclimate them slower than i did my fish so no dramas so far other than two missing cherries. unclear why and i will never find out sadly. 
 
 
i have been checking the TDS every day to collect some information on the increasing TDS with regards to me adding my fertiliser EI to my tank obviously there are more variables food, shrimp and fish poop and plants, but so far i am happy with the results but i do need to collect more information through out the day to get a better and accurate understanding of what is happening regards TDS in my tank here is my information so far
 

 
 
anyone else who has any information on this please tell me, here is my EI regime
 
Day 1 - 50 % WC + (1/4 KNO3, 1/16 KH2PO4, 5/8MgSO4) + (2/16 TNC Trace)
Day 2 - (2/16 TNC Trace)
Day 3 - (1/4 KNO3, 1/16 KH2PO4, 5/8MgSO4) + (2/16 TNC Trace)
Day 4 - (2/16 TNC Trace)
Day 5 - (1/4 KNO3, 1/16 KH2PO4, 5/8MgSO4) + (2/16 TNC Trace)
Day 6 - (2/16 TNC Trace)
Day 7 - Rest
 
i dosed the same time every day between 9 and 11am before the lights turn on. lights are on for 10hr a day but i plan to increase this to 12hr for this next week to see if anything changes

 

[Mamashack]

Am not familiar with EI dosing really - is there any calcium in there?
Can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but in case I haven't - might be worth getting a GH/KH test kit. Or even just a GH test as that will indicate how much calcium and magnesium is present. KH tells you if there's enough carbonate/bicarbonate to buffer any swings in pH, TDS tells you everything that's dissolved in the water so altho it's an indication it's not always accurate on its own. The shrimp need a certain hardness to be able to shed their exoskeletons properly. If I have mentioned it before - soz!! 

 

[Zikofski]

no thank you its all helpful i don't dose Calcium but i do dose Magnesium with my EI dosing my KH for my tap water is between 1-2 and GH 1-2, but my KH and GH right before i did my WC this morning was GH=9 and KH=5 i can't quite remember exactly what you said before should be the proper values but also my TDS dropped to 135 today and after dosing my EI rose to 164 i see exoskeletons every morning almost from my amano's but non from my cherries yet altho they could have been eaten by the amano's by the time i wake upi also again took out some of my plants and cleaned them up and re planted them to get rid of some of this algae i think my amano's may have stopped eating them now

 

[Zikofski]

oh another thing that took my by surprise i checked my nitrate, 0 on my API test and 5mg/l on my other test at the end of the week thats made me a little more happy

 

[Dandyman3]

Done such a great job here... Can't wait to see more updates of your pics. 
 
I want to get mine up and running to a reasonable standard and this is inspiring! How are your plants doing? I seem to have had a bit of a bad period with them so looking into improving my tank. Do you find that the 'Eheim Ecco filter' helps keep the tank clean? I want to improve my filteration. I have two running at the moment which are having no affect really. There are loads of little particles floating around my tank or on the plants themselves and I want to help clear that up. Do you think the Eheim filter would be satisfactory for that? My tank is only 55l... 
 
You seem to do such a good job with clearing it. I need to get a deeper substrate for my tank that was my first mistake before. So will aim to do that first and give it a rescape

. Do you use a gravel vacuum? Or...? What do you use on water changes. 
 
Just need to master co2 for the plants and filtration for the water cleanlinesses so it can look perfect like yours

 

[Mamashack]

@ Zik - I'd be suspicious of that 0 nitrate on the API test - maybe the reagents weren't mixed enough - very rare to have 0 nitrate at all. What's the other test you use? I have both API and Salifert and the Salifert one is my preferred test - just have API as back-up really.
@ Dandyman - have you tried filter floss in your filter to "polish" the water? When are we going to see your tank? Heard a lot about it - would be nice to see it too.