# 10 Litre 'Iwagumi' Project Tank



## BettaMummy87 (Jul 26, 2014)

So, I decided I would try and make a 10Litre (2 gal) home for my new import betta. Whilst i have technically got the space for a three gallon, I have a 2 gallon on hand, so I am trying that.  So many people on here successfully keep their bettas in a 1-2gallon home, so I want to see if I am comfortable with it as a home for a longfinned betta. I wouldn't do this to a plakat, of that I am sure. But thi new guy is a very longfinned OHM male. 

So, to start with, the tank and the location. Excuse the tate of my desk, please :/










The red circled area is *dark*, so I took a photo with flash to show where he will be whilst acclimating. 

Next, the hard scape. I Used three rose quartz stones (tight-tested XD), and designed it in the Iwagumi style. Due to the size of the tank, The are maybe a touch large, but I only missed out on a litre of water with all the rocks and substrate in, which I am pleased with. I made several attempts at layouts, including one shown in the first image below, but the final one provided the most tension, methinks. 



















Substrate is completely inert. Kiln Dried builder sand under a 'cap' of black (grey) aquarium sand. I added root tabs latedr with planting, well... one cut into four bits and scattered thoughout the tank. 

Then I left the filter in it and running, awaiting a heater. I added some vals and some Dwarf water lettuce from downsatirs, which are melting like nobodies business :/ 

Most of the planting is crypts, though, as I haven't had much chance to experiment with these and I really like them, epsecially in a nano aquarium. 

The crypts I have are:
_Crytpocoryne wendtii _'green'
_Cryptocoryne petchii_
_Cryptocoryne neveii_
_Cryptocoryne legroi

_I am also successfully growing some green algae.  [/fail]

This is the tank now, before a waterchange ready for his arrival. 










For cycling, I have been lax.... I started adding dosing up to 4ppm ammonia before the heater arrived, meaning to test and dose up daily once it was installed... but I just kinda kept on dropping in half a pipette of ammonia (about 0.3-0.5ml) ever day or four... :/ Whoops. 

So testing today revealed a 0ppm ammonia (last dose was yesterday, which is good), 0.50ppm nitrite and the faintest hint of (being cautious I would sya just belown 0.25ppm) nitrate. XD Lucky for me.  will keep testing with him in there to be sure, but looks good so far.


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

O my!!!!... It's so beautiful!!!... I'll be coming in a week to steal the tank and pick up the fish :lol:


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## BettaMummy87 (Jul 26, 2014)

litelboyblu said:


> O my!!!!... It's so beautiful!!!... I'll be coming in a week to steal the tank and pick up the fish :lol:


Haha, you can try. Can't wait for the new boy to get here. >.< 

And I've just ordered a crowntail female for £1.50  Because, well, £1.50 and I have a spare tank if she doesn't like the community, and I don't own a CT (Til saturday, then I do).


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## andakin (Aug 10, 2009)

Your tank is off to a good start. I would add more substrate to make planting easier.

To speed things up, you can swap media from your existing filters to make an instant cycle.


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## BettaMummy87 (Jul 26, 2014)

andakin said:


> Your tank is off to a good start. I would add more substrate to make planting easier.
> 
> To speed things up, you can swap media from your existing filters to make an instant cycle.


I seeded with as big a square of media from my 64L as I could jam into the top of this filter without blocking flow too much. XD Looking cycled (at least to NH3 atm, maybe N3) at present. Doing again with NH3 today, checking before starting the drip when he arrives to be sure. 

I can't 'plant' the crytps anyways, so more substrate just removes valuable swimming space. I have between 1 and 2 inches of substrate in there as it is


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## andakin (Aug 10, 2009)

Why can't you plant your crypts?


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## BettaMummy87 (Jul 26, 2014)

'Cos only their roots go in a little, the rhizome stays above the substrate... roots shooting off everywhere, they seem happy enough, so just leaving them to it. Two weeks and no floaters... well, except one which I have since tied to a lump of white quartz...


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

I don't mean to be a bubble popper, but the plants you used technically won't constitute an Iwagumi scape. Iwagumi set up used more minimal/short plants than you have such as: dhg, dbt (aka hc cuba), ug, glosso, monte carlo, riccia (tied down),.... sometimes mosses but usually not (typically faster growing short plants). If you want a low tech/light slow growing Iwagumi scape switch to mosses or crypt parva as a very short (but also veeeeery slow growing) crypts that won't dominate the rocks, would need a lot of plants to start with, it can take years for parva to fill in.
As a crypt tank though it looks nice, I've only had wendtii green and parva, wendtii spits out babies like mad! I'm thinking of switching my 55g over to mostly crypts in the spring when it warms up.


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## andakin (Aug 10, 2009)

The crypts I have don't have any visible rhizomes, at least I don't think they do. I just bury them and they seem to do fine. I hope I'm not doing it wrong.

I have never used sand or multi-layer substrate. I'm curious as to why you layered your sand. I imagine the two different sands are similar in size and will eventually mix.


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## Schmoo (Oct 3, 2014)

Where did you get those hunks of rose quartz? Love them!


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## BettaMummy87 (Jul 26, 2014)

Aqua Aurora said:


> I don't mean to be a bubble popper, but the plants you used technically won't constitute an Iwagumi scape. Iwagumi set up used more minimal/short plants than you have such as: dhg, dbt (aka hc cuba), ug, glosso, monte carlo, riccia (tied down),.... sometimes mosses but usually not (typically faster growing short plants). If you want a low tech/light slow growing Iwagumi scape switch to mosses or crypt parva as a very short (but also veeeeery slow growing) crypts that won't dominate the rocks, would need a lot of plants to start with, it can take years for parva to fill in.
> As a crypt tank though it looks nice, I've only had wendtii green and parva, wendtii spits out babies like mad! I'm thinking of switching my 55g over to mostly crypts in the spring when it warms up.


As far as I am aware, the speed at which they grow is not a limiting factor in Iwagumi. In fact, a lot of the very keen ones here in the UK have 2-4 setups in a tank per year, with complete recape each time! Faster is better then  Admittedly they run high tech, so everything is relatively fast, but there are a lot who do it lowtech. 

The creator, Takashi Amano, studied both Suiseki (the Japanese art of stone appreciation) and Bonseki (the art of creating miniature landscapes on a black lacquer tray), along with the key cultural tradion of the Japanese gardens, where the rocks are the focal point, and must be the defining factor, but it also aims to recreate nature. The inventor himself has used tall plants in an Iwagumi scape, though these are normall ylimited to only one or two species, and in the background. 

This is one of his, or at least he has the photography rights.  










I am tempted to swap two of the crypts around, moving that central one to the back infront of the heater, as it is taller, but that one will not grow as big as the one that is there now. Grases and mosses aren't happening in this tank. Too expensive for things that probably will not grow at all, as root tabs and the occassional addition of liquid CO2 is likely all that will happen. XD 

I believe most students of the planted tank, at least in the UK, now also count wood as being an acceptable focal in an Iwagumi style tank (eventhough the name itself means 'stone formation').



andakin said:


> The crypts I have don't have any visible rhizomes, at least I don't think they do. I just bury them and they seem to do fine. I hope I'm not doing it wrong.
> 
> I have never used sand or multi-layer substrate. I'm curious as to why you layered your sand. I imagine the two different sands are similar in size and will eventually mix.


The top sand is a bit coarser, but I capped it for the colour. The other sand is not aquarium sand, and wa bought to give depth without draining the bank balance (£5/5Kilos as opposed to £15/5kilos).

Crypts are rhizomous plants, for sure. 



Schmoo said:


> Where did you get those hunks of rose quartz? Love them!


My LFS stocks them. Spent ages rummaging through all the types for something I thought would offset the fish's colour, and would fit in the size constraints of the hardscape style. XD


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## BettaMummy87 (Jul 26, 2014)

He arrives today!  So I did another test today before the w/c: Ammonia O, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 20, so it seems it has cycled, but I will be testing it a few times thi week to be sure it will handle his bioload.  

Waterchange time and waiting for the knock on the door now. 

I am trying true drip acclimation for the first time. I have a vase below the tank, which he and his travel water will go into, then I can start the airline drip (using a tap rather than knots and have already tried it for drip speed. About 1-2 drips/second at present.


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