[Bolbi]

Dimensions: 59x20x15cm - 17 liters or 4.5 gallons
Lighting: Chihiros RGB60
Filtration: Eden 501 (sponge, ceramic rings)
Substrate: Pool filter sand, gravel 1-3mm, peat
Hardscape: Seiryu stones, Lava rocks
Plants: Fissidens sp. 'Khao Sok', Utricularia graminifolia

Setting up the hardscape

Egg crate is placed to the bottom. This helps to rearange the stones easily without troubles with sliding on the bare glass bottom:

Sand is placed in front and gravel at the back, just to cover holes of the egg crate. Then stones are arranged. Lava rocks act as barrier and they will be covered with Riccardia sp.:

All rock sctructure is connected to one piece. I have used super glue (cyanoacrylate) and powder made of topsoil and sodium bicarbonate. First apply gel type super glue to the joint, pour some powder and drop some liquid super glue over it. This makes junctions super strong:

Powder:

At the background where Utricularia will be planted I put some peat, to make ideal growing conditions for this plant:

Peat is capped with gravel. Utricularia graminifolia doesn't like nutrient rich supstrates so this should be ideal for it as it likes slightly acidic enviroment:

Next step is planting, stay tuned!

 

[mistergreen]

Looks good!

 

[Michael]

Wonderful stone placement in the iwagumi style! I can't wait to see it planted.

 

[Noahlikesfish]

You should put like big hairgrass and emerge it in the back to look like sea oats. It looks awesome! It gives some nice ideas for my tank I’m planning on setting up

 

[Bolbi]

Thanks for comments!

You should put like big hairgrass and emerge it in the back to look like sea oats. It looks awesome! It gives some nice ideas for my tank I’m planning on setting up

This tank will be covered with glass lid as I am planning to keep Boraras maculatus - well known jumpers. However, I like that idea. Maybe in version 2, just have to replace gravel with aquasoil for hair grass.

 

[Noahlikesfish]

Hairgrass or sag can grow gravel easy

 

[Noahlikesfish]

and I also might add a couple twigs if I were you. if you kept it trimmed like giant hairgrass or spikerush would be good for that area, you could just cut holes and put screen over it and the grass grows through

 

[Noahlikesfish]

Holes covered in screen

 

[Noahlikesfish]

Wait I have the perfect fish idea, you should do Taiwanese dragon goby. They get ridiculously small and could go with the rasboras if there’s decent flow. Also they change color and inhabit similar environments to your tank

 

[Bolbi]

Wait I have the perfect fish idea, you should do Taiwanese dragon goby. They get ridiculously small and could go with the rasboras if there’s decent flow. Also they change color and inhabit similar environments to your tank

Interesting fish! Only problem, don't know where to get it...

Change of plan - Decided to plant Fissidens sp. 'Khao Sok' instead of Riccardia. This Fissidens growing great in low-light / no CO2 tank, even better than with CO2 (brighter color) but it is slowest growing moss - 2-3mm per year in non CO2 tanks.

Moss is applied by yogurt method

 

[Noahlikesfish]

You could probably find them pretty easily. Your lfs could order them or you can get them online I assume, they are much more common in Europe than the USA but they are easy to get here

 

[Bolbi]

After 3 weeks of dry start for Fissidens, Utricularia graminifolia (from invitro) was planted and the tank is now flooded:

 

[Bolbi]

As expected, diatome algae has appeared. I have thrown in 5 Clithon corona snails.

You can see the cleaned algae where the snail passed.

 

[Bolbi]

Just a few days after my last post I had BGA bloom and it killed all my plants. I manage to get rid of it by covering the tank with black foil for 7 days. Later, when all cyano has desapeared I let the tank running for a few weeks with lights off. When the tank has stabilized, I plant it again - this time with Riccardia on the rocks. This is how it looks now:

 

[Bolbi]

Riccardia is ready for first trimming:

 

[mistergreen]

Good job keeping it relatively algae free. Try adding a bushy stem plant in the back.

 

[Bolbi]

Good job keeping it relatively algae free. Try adding a bushy stem plant in the back.

Maintaining ~20 aquariums doesn't allow me to do that. 😁 Well, there are some slow growing stems like Myriophyllum sp. 'Guyana' - this could look nice (maybe for version 2.0). But for now want to keep it as it is. There is some hairgrass at the back but it is still low.

 

[Bolbi]

A tip how to trim Riccardia; For trimming Riccardia it is best to use curved scissors. This liverwort is very fragile and can easily detach, so be careful. When trimming, press down with open scissors and then cut - this way Riccardia will not detach from the hardscape:

Spring scissors are great for precise trimming:

Algae eating crew - Clithon corona:

How it looks today:

There will be more shrimps soon!

 

[Bolbi]

Sundadanio axelrodi 'Blue'

 

[Bolbi]

Today 📸