My first Iwagumi 1 ft aquascape

[GaspingGurami]

Looks like BGA on your soil.

Use diluted fert and spray on with a spray bottle?

No glass cover, use Glad wrap or Cling wrap to seal off the top?

[Shadow]

BGA grow emerse?

I did not use fert after that incident and I don't think glass cover is necessary, so far it grow, so I guess it should be ok without cover.

[danbryans]

This is just my observation on the tanks I set up the same way. I'm not getting any BGA on the gravel. The main difference I think is, mine is sealed with plastic wrap to keep it humid. I have a 2.5gal (sunlit)and a 15gal(36w PL) set up this way. The 2.5 is going on 3 weeks now and the 15 about 1 1/2. The HC is fillin in nicely. Sorry for the hijack.

[Shadow]

It is not hijack at all. You provide us with good info, keeping it humid might be the answer

[hebi]

for my 10cmx10cm cube tank, i did not face any algae problem growing HC emersed under a 27W light. but i did not fill too much water until you can see it, only until the soil is wet, then i will top up a little water every few days. hope this helps

[rwalker]

I think water level is crucial. To quote from Tom Bar

"
1" layer of ADA aqua soil, filled the water to about 7/8" depth
"

With water level above the substrate and with plenty of lights, algae actual growths without any competion from the plants unlike in a fully submersed tank.

Shadow, keep us posted with the progress.

[KeIgO86]

I believe emersed hc will melt away as much as 50% or more when you flood the tank. I had alot of loss while my emersed hc converted to submersed in the past.

[Shadow]

That what I fist though, but not according to Tom Bar, that is why I'm trying it out now. According to Tom Barr:

Plants often melt because their roots are damaged.
Less so due to the transition between emergent to submersed conditions.
Aquatic plants are good at that, this occurs in nature, uprooting and transplanting does not, the plants just melt/die.

[KeIgO86]

i see. All the best in your attempt. Do keep us updated.

im not too sure about hc. But looking at plants like crypts and lobeila cardinalis, their emersed leaves are so different from submersed forms that they definitely melt away in order to change.

[Shadow]

Crypts sometimes will melt just because of large water change

[Shadow]

Time for update:

I decided to flood my tank, my hand itchy, can't wait until HC cover all the substrate . The bad news is after 5 days of underwater, some of the leaves are starting to melt. Refer to picture below, as you can see some of the leaves start to turn brown. Hopefully new submerse leaf will grow. By the way I only add water until about 2 cm from the substrate surface.

Curent fertelizer dossing are:
Wonder-gro macro and micro
Seachem Excell

Emerse


Submerse

[Shadow]

2nd weeks and it getting worst . Hopefully new submerse leaves grow before the whole thing melt. I wonder if I did something wrong

[shrimp999]

How long is your lighting period before and after submerge?
Maybe you can bring up the water level and start inject CO2?

[Shadow]

same light and same periode, 9 hrs a day. EI dossing, no CO2 injection, using excell instead. Unless excell causing HC to melt, excell does do that to some plants. The good thing is the steam is not melt, so I'm hopping new leaf will grow.

[shrimp999]

Last 2 weeks i am using excel to deal with the BBA on my rocks. HC around the rocks all melted. Luckily all the BBA gone and now my HC start to grow back nicely. I injected CO2 with 3 to 4 bps during the recovery period.

HC are easily melted with direct contact with excel. As for now you can bring up the water level and start inject CO2 rather than using excel. Just my suggestion.

[Shadow]

oh man... need to do water change then. Thanks for the input.

Problem is this tank is at the office, don't think they will allow me to bring in CO2 tank

[vurbul]

Hi Shadow,

Any update on this tank. Thinking of restarting my nano with this method.

[sonique]

Hi Shadow, don't mind I sidetrack a little bit. Where did you get your rocks from..?

[Shadow]

Biotope and NA but I have not seen this type of rock (granite) at NA for a while now.

Any update on this tank. Thinking of restarting my nano with this method.

I do not have photo, but I would say that HC is growing new leaves though the old leaves are melted. Two possibilities, firstly due to Excell, secondly due to converting from emerse to submerse.

I will flood the whole tank today and see if the HC which is not submerse yet (on top of the slope) will melt.

[Shadow]

Here is the photo, what my 1ft Iwagumi had become. Very bad photo though, taken using borrowed Cannon EOS 350D. Not use to with DSLR yet, don't know how to set