costarican triying iwagumi

[danielito]

Greetings from Costa Rica.

This is a new proyect for me, ive never done an iwagumi styled aquarium, ill like to hear some opinions, it doesnt matter if they are good or bad,,, is better to know if im doing something wrong before i get it started..
Today i just got an empty fish tank.. the things below are the ones im thinking on buying this week.


-Proyecto: iwagumi
-Dimentions:120 x40 x50 (64 gal)
-Light: 2 HQI lamps of 105 W ( I saw on intenet that with HQI u just need a lamp every 60 cm)
-CO2: Automatized co2 injector with ph regulator
- Uv canister Filter up 150 gal
-Substrate: Homemade : Natural clay, black soil,( in costa rica we dont have any commercial nutritive substrate) ( this 2 ingredients are mixed up for a 1 inch layer,then a 1 inch layer of river "bed" or sand and a 2 inch top layer of river gravel.
-plants: Hemianthus callitrichoides(80% of the tota lplanted area), llilaeopsis novae-zealandiae.(15%)
**Floating plants (20%)y hygrophila sp(5%)** This ones will be remove later on after they sucked the excess of nutrients
Water changes of 25 to 50% are going to be done weekly.
costarican water temperature is 25 ºC (77ºF)

Im triying to have it all ready to start during next week..
Thank you very much for your patience, and i apologize for my bad english

PURA VIDA!!

[Xianghao]

its all about the rock placement man. and for the HC to carpet, you may consider a dry start method? you can search the forums to read about it..

[myfishid]

Looking forward to see what Costarian aquascaping looks like

[danielito]

Hey really appreciate your advices, ill look for the dry method,, would taht method will promote a better or easier development of the HC

[danielito]

ok let me see if i understood the emmersed method

-i plant a small amount of HC every 2 cm all over the substrate.
-Then i have to moisturize the gravel preventing it from getting dry in fact leaving HC soaking wet, but no covered with water''
- put a small fan.
-cover the top with some plastic or glass.
- put heavy lighting.
-Hc will root in 2 weeks aprox.
-fill the tank the 4 -6th week. add high Co2 concentrations.

And thats it'? what about fertilization and CO2 at the emmersed phase?? ive been reading but it seems no one is agree to each other...


Please tell me if i get at least the general idea of the process or anything you can add ,, ill be glad to read it'''' thanks to all