Mikeymikemike's Shallow Reef Iwagumi - SPS Edition: Updated July

March 30, 2023

16 hours ago, Lebowski_ said:

Hold up…TJ Burton?

This is hairdo from Oakville. If you are who I think you are, what’s up dude lol seeing you everywhere these days!

come back mikey

Hahahaha yeah buddy it's me!
I'm good man! Hope you're doing well! We should catch up 🙂

January 9

On 11/2/2015 at 9:19 PM, Mikeymikemike said:

Hello Everyone, this is my first reef tank and it has been an interesting journey for me.

Current FTS June 26 2016

Week 8 Mid December

Week 6 Update Late November (Night photo with gel lens filters)

New 24 Carat Gold Torch and green and gold torch added and MAME skimmer

Week 5 Update Mid November

Week 4 update Mid November

12K

16K

Week 3 Early November

I started in the planted aquascaping side of the hobby about 2 years ago and since then I have learnt a lot thanks to the support of my friends in the hobby.

I've made a few scapes and in my time they have all taught me many lessons about proper maintenance and keeping water in check.

World rank 88.

When it comes to the reefing side of the hobby, I wanted to start a reef tank with some inspiration from the planted side of the hobby. And so I decided to create my Iwagumi style layout.

"The term Iwagumi was originally used to refer to a Japanese gardening style in which stones were used as the bones of the garden, to provide its structure: if the stones are well placed in the garden then the rest of the garden lays itself out. Japanese gardens used stones, shrubs and sand to represent landscapes in miniature, so they could show a mountain scape by using carefully placed stones or represent the ocean or a lake with a pool of raked or unraked sand. As the popularity of gardening led to the emergence of underwater gardening, which we now know as aquascaping, the tradition of Iwagumi naturally inspired and influenced aquascapers. Iwagumi is one of the most striking and simple formations, representing a mountain scape or Buddhist triad so it is well suited to aquascaping." - The Green Machine

The main objective is to have a nice scape without the addition of corals, hard-scapes are the bones of an aquascape and so corals should compliment and bring out points of interest rather than distraction. without plants and corals, a good hardscape can still make for a aquarium.

This was the concept using seiryu stone. I liked the way it looked and started to look for stone that would match.

My lfs had some "real reef rock" and I have been hearing a lot about this sustainable alternative.
It's a good option because it does not break down and release phosphates, it is man made, it has more detail in it than other alternatives I have seen and it means I wont get hitchhikers and pests.

This is the outcome

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Week 1 Late October

And so this was the result after a week and I'm still waiting for this scape to evolve. My plan is to let the zoas carpet the substrate (not completely) to get a more natural appearance.

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Tank details

FIRE 3ft shallow
Filter: Sicce Eko300 with carbon, phosguard and a floss filter for polishing the water. (cleaned/swapped bi-weekly) and glass skimmer lily pipes.
Light: Nemolight

Dosing
Zeobak, stability, sponge power, coral vit, amino acids, aquavitro fuel, calc and alk. RO top offs.

Water changes 50% bi-weekly for the first month to stave off diatoms and i'll monitor water parameters over time.

I'll post more updates as they come

If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them.