Panther's 1ft Tank Journal
 

After taking a long break from planted tank and reading so many posts on bro JadeIceGreen's 30cm Community Build thread, I'm inspired by the many beautiful tanks set up and finally decided to come back into the hobby with a small tank.

This is my first time having a tank journal as well, hope to share and learn from everyone albeit a very simple setup. Let's start:

I have a small tank (30cm x 20cm x 25cm)
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/galle...tank_thumb.jpg

Decided to go with Iwagumi layout, attempting only with 3 rocks (Sanzon Iwagumi) mainly what i have left over from a long time back and did not go acquire any new ones.
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/galle...2305_thumb.jpg

Did a rough arrangement of how I think I may want the formation to be with the limited rocks I have first.
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/galle...4491_thumb.jpg

Got a bag a new GEX soil and lava rock chips to act as filter media and also to prop up the base.
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/galle...8580_thumb.jpghttp://www.aquaticquotient.com/galle...6847_thumb.jpg

This is how the arrangement looks after pushing the lava rock chips inwards so it wouldn't appear at the sides of the tank. The height of the lava rock chips is about 2-3cm.
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/galle...5651_thumb.jpghttp://www.aquaticquotient.com/galle...5199_thumb.jpg

The soil slopes from a 4cm height from the front to about 12cm at the back
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/galle...ront_thumb.jpghttp://www.aquaticquotient.com/galle...side_thumb.jpg

The hardware is the easy part, now with the plants.

I initially intended to only use 1 type of plant which is Hemianthus Callitrichoides (Cuba) or commonly known as HC. I have failed twice with this plant always having it die or melt off even after a very good start. After seeking guidance from a friend from another forum, I decided to make another attempt at it.
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/galle...0/hc_thumb.jpg

Later, decided that I wanted to add some background to the scape but did not want high light plants or plants that will grow tall quickly so eventually decided on mini-xmas moss. To keep them down, I tied them to some small left-over lava rocks instead of wire mesh to give them a more natural look upon grow out.
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/galle...2406_thumb.jpg

The lava rocks act as support to the big rocks as well.
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/galle...0737_thumb.jpg

...and let there be lights!
http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/al...?dl=1310404999

Realised the pictures I inserted were too small to see anything. I attach the FTS again.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6015/...e433e0cb_z.jpg

This is a non-CO2 tank, so I'm only dosing excel for the carbon intake of the plants and operating on a 2 x 9w light set.

For filter, it is just a normal Boyu Submersible Filter SP-602E.

Hi, bro. Quite like your scape. You gave me some ideas on how to use my flattish rocks. Where do you get those lava rock chips from? So far, I've seen mainly those larger ones like 2in in size.

Thanks, I've been following your thread too and given me inspiration to start.
I don't see all rocks being as beautiful as in those award winning scapes in the LFS....not many even if there are. So I figures as long as there some good details on the rock, they can either be piled together to form a huge rock or supported (like what I did) to present the nicer side of the rock. The flat side would ultimately be concealed.

The lava rock chips can be gotten from LFS, I got mine from Y618 and I've seen them at NA as well.

Nice iwagumi you creating. Maybe can change the background to white instead to make your rock standout?

are you going high tech for this nano? else might have some difficulty in growing HC in my opinion..

nice simple scape despite the limited space :) but i still feel the substrate can be thinner? :) thanks for sharing

nice n simple set up ! thanks for sharing!

simple set up which looks great. Thnik i should start setting up one too.