New 'Iwagumi' hardscape with DIY lighting.

Hii, it's been a while since I last posted and have just recently set up a new scape using an old tank (my very first tank) which is 35cm x 21cm x 25cm around 5 gallons. Most of the materials used were recycled from other tanks or were unused leftovers from previous scapes. It currently has black lava rocks and seiryu stones as the main hardscape. The substrate is built up using od cosmetic black gravel, and small lava rocks for beneficial bacteria and followed with aqua soil (old aqua soil topped with new aqua soil). I'm trying to achieve a "cliffside" look and want it to be an eye-catcher since it will be placed at the entrance of my house. The light used is one of those house spotlights that I found around the house and wired to a plug and the stand is just two pieces of driftwood that broke off from my other tanks zip-tied together.

I'm planning on doing an iwagumi style so I'll only be planting with dwarf hair grass for the carpet and some moss wedged between the rocks. Maybe some bucep or anubis as well. Would dwarf hair grass be the easiest to carpet assuming I'm not running co2?

For stocking-wise, I was thinking mainly crystal red shrimps, some snails and for fish a small group of 6, either white cloud mountain minnows, ember tetras or chilli rasboras. any suggestions?

Also, I'm a little worried about the lighting. If anyone here is an electrician and can just affirm for me if it's safe to use this lighting setup? mainly worried that it might overheat.

I'm open to any feedback suggestions or criticism .

 

Hey,

I REALLY like it so far. Curious on how it will develop.

 

For stock, i would do a microrasbora, seems small for white clouds

Without co2 most carpets are going to be harder, i have not had success with dhg in low tech but many others have so im not going to speak on that. I will say that if you did manage to get co2 that monte carlo would be a nice option as species only as it would carpet and droop over the rocks nicely

scape-wise, i think the seiryu does not work, it looks wrong having it next to black lava rock and i think that without it would be better. I'm not sure if it's integral to plugging the gap, but at the very least the rock in the top right should be taken out imo, it does not add much and i think that just plants filled in there would work well to make this a minimal scape with the one lava rock wall

 

Hey,

I REALLY like it so far. Curious on how it will develop.

I'll try and post some updates once I get things planted

For stock, i would do a microrasbora, seems small for white clouds

Without co2 most carpets are going to be harder, i have not had success with dhg in low tech but many others have so im not going to speak on that. I will say that if you did manage to get co2 that monte carlo would be a nice option as species only as it would carpet and droop over the rocks nicely

scape-wise, i think the seiryu does not work, it looks wrong having it next to black lava rock and i think that without it would be better. I'm not sure if it's integral to plugging the gap, but at the very least the rock in the top right should be taken out imo, it does not add much and i think that just plants filled in there would work well to make this a minimal scape with the one lava rock wall

So I could do microrasbora with shrimps and snails or microrasbora only?

Regarding the carpet in that case I might consider setting up a DIY co2 system that I used to have in one of my older tanks.

The seiryu rock at the sand area is mainly to cover up a giant hole with filter floss showing between the lava rocks. I didn't have any other lava rock left so I decided to use the spare seiryu I had instead. I might replace it if I'm able to find some at my LFS since they rarely carry it. If not I guess ill have to stick with that. But I think I will remove the one in the top left. Thanks for the suggestions and I really appreciate it

 

I figured it was to cover floss lol, i've done the same in a past scape, its off to a good start!

Microrasbora with shrimp and snails should be good, i would probably do around 10

 

Just planted my tank a couple of days ago, had some spare hair grass lying around and decided to use it. Went down to my LFS to buy moss and finally found a plant I've been wanting to use since I started aquascaping 4 years ago but could never find one. Hydrocotyle tripatita!!. I used it hoping to achieve a flowing look over the lava rock sort of like a curtain like Rye3434 suggested with monte carlo. The brown patches of moss are US fissidens and I'm worried that they might not turn green as they were the only pot of moss available at the lfs. anyone knows if they are completely dead or will they bounce back? I also added a DIY co2 system hoping that it might help the moss to bounce back. added 4 cherry shrimps from my other tank just to help clean up the tank a bit.

here are some photos. Can't wait for the carpet to grow in.

Some close of pics of the US fissidens moss.

 

Looks nice! I dont know about the fissidens, its supposedly a harder moss (i've never grown it, mosses are annoying for me), but mosses are also spore based and I've had moss start growing on rocks that had had moss previously on it but been dried out for months, so it is possible it will still grow.

 

Your setup reminds me of the videos I used to watch on youtube from Foo the Flowerhorn before he stopped posting. Very nice, looking forward to seeing the plants grow in.