# AMAZING MUST SEE!!!



## CichlidLover2 (Jul 31, 2005)

Well There is an LFS kinda near me that does customer tanks of the month and I was looking on their website and I found this....



















I KNOW. Truly breath taking its amazing! It could use maybe some larger rocks and some drift wood but its an amazing concept in my opinion! I was wondering are these plants easy to acquire and how long would it take to get it to spread like in the picture?

Does anyone have any experience with these plants?

Here is the BIO that was supplied with the tank info...

Hydor Inline 300w Heater
Compressed Co2- DIY inline reactor
Light: Tek 4x54w T5 HO 2x 10000k 2x 6500k 8hrs
Fish 40 green neon tetras, a couple otocinclus, 1 Amano shrimp
Plants:
Eleocharis parvula
Echinodorus tenellus
Echinodorus angustifolius


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## khaki (Jan 12, 2008)

truely beautiful


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## Zack2112 (Jul 11, 2008)

That is a really nice tank. As soon as I get my 60 cleared out I plan to do something like this with a carpet. You will most likely need CO2 and high quality lights to pull this look off. Not to mention a very nutrient rich substrate. It reminds me alot of one Takashi Amanos tanks. I think that would be your best place to start looking for info. Check out the ADA site as well as other planted aquarium sites. You should find lots of info. *** looked into it quite a bit and know that www.aquariumplants.com sells square foot sod like squares of microsword for around 35 bucks. Im not sure how long it would take to create a full "lawn" like in that photo, but those flats would definitely speed up the process, they would cover good area and have established root systems already. They have a great selection of plants. Never ordered from them but have heard lots of good things. Hope this info helps. Best of luck with your attempt!


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## CichlidLover2 (Jul 31, 2005)

Thanks for the info! What a coincidence the picture is of a 60 gallon! I plan on doing something like this but with only 3 fairly Large River rocks instead of the smaller ones he has. I am hoping to use more of the height of the tank that this guy missed. IMO it would look better if the rocks were a lot taller because it seems WAYY too empty. As far as filtration goes I am not sure what I would have to do yet, probably a sump of some sort. I wouldnt wanna disturb the aesthetic appeal with HOB's. Now as far as stocking goes I would love to add about 2 Male Bolivian Rams and about 4 or 5 Females, 20-30 Neon Tetras (or jumbos) and also add about 10 or so Amano Shrimp. Some harlequin rasbora would also fit nicely.

Anyone see any problems with what I said so far?


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## FLGirl1977 (Jul 24, 2007)

This is a iwagumi setup. Do a google search for iwagumi and or image search and you will see lots of awesome setups! Very nice, wish I had the time for these.


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## css virginia (Jan 29, 2007)

Very Nice...could use slightly more rocks and some driftwood...just my opinion...otherwise looks good to me! 8)


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## Guest (Nov 10, 2008)

Don't know iwagumi, but it looks very much like an Takashi Amano set up. Do a search for Amano. He is a world renowned expert in planted setup.


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## FLGirl1977 (Jul 24, 2007)

Iwagumi is a style I believe....whereas Takashi Amano is the person.


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## CichlidLover2 (Jul 31, 2005)

Thanks a lot guys! I'm gonna go look this up and try to start my own!

I'll make sure to post pics when I do!


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## trigger (Sep 6, 2002)

FLGirl1977 said:


> Iwagumi is a style I believe....whereas Takashi Amano is the person.


Yeah, that's the name I was looking for...


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## PikeNcichlids (Nov 6, 2008)

truely breath taking ..
i would love to get started on one someday


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

It's nice, but it's also far too "generic" for my liking. Ie done to death and they all look the same, this to me does not have anything that particularly makes it stand out.

A very nice tank, but stick a bunch of dwarf grass in, set up the kit and keep up consistency, you'd have that in no time. I prefer something that proves more of a challenge for the aquascaper, but that's just me.


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## Mindcrime121 (Nov 3, 2008)

These plants are very easy to grow and although they will grow much faster with aquatic soil, ferts, and CO2, it is certainly not required. These are not even a demanding plant in regard to light. The largest requirement in growing a tank like this is patience in letting it fill in, but as noted in a previous post, you can buy some grass-like plants in "sod" form which certainly speeds up the process.

This design would suit an arrowana or other mid to high water swimmer in a large tank, but otherwise it does look rather empty to my own personal taste as well. Not because it's "been done" but simply because I preffer a fuller looking planted tank. Something like this in a small tank would provide cover for live bearer fry quite nicely too though, so it certainly has it's uses, but ultimately, I think the aim in this case was artistic, to make use of empty space in order to make what little is there more contrasting.


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## zazz (Apr 5, 2008)

so lets see one with some malawi!!


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## JWerner2 (Jul 7, 2008)

I love those grassy plains looks! Link to the shop please?


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## Guest (Nov 18, 2008)

Mindcrime121 said:


> These plants are very easy to grow and although they will grow much faster with aquatic soil, ferts, and CO2, it is certainly not required. These are not even a demanding plant in regard to light. The largest requirement in growing a tank like this is patience in letting it fill in, but as noted in a previous post, you can buy some grass-like plants in "sod" form which certainly speeds up the process.


Are you saying this from your own experience? I had no luck trying to get ground cover to grow due to the height of my tank (30"). What kind of grass is this? If what you are saying is true, then I would go and get a lot of these and plant them all over my tank. That would be awesome!


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## UpandAdam (Nov 21, 2008)

I have had relentless struggles getting dwarf hairgrass to grow at all and I am running 2WPG through my 55g gallon. This plant is a little more touchy than some may think, yet again I have trouble with many live plants. Not sure if It is my tank size...


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

I've had dwarf grass growing 3x the length of my 75 with offshoots (ie I've had shooting branches that have spread to the length of 120+") under 60w of light, no co2, no ferts, in sand. So IME it's easy stuff to grow. I had to keep turning the shoots back on themselves, rather than separate, and made a nice foreground in no time.

With decent lighting, CO2 and a balanced fert regime I can only imagine the stuff overtaking a tank in no time.

Stuff like dwarf swords are pretty much the same deal IMO, lots of offshoots, easy to propagate, require a little more light than hair grass IME.

But, that's just my experience with those plants. Maybe I'm just lucky.


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