Guide: Iwagumi Maintainance (Intermediate)

Plant Hobbyist

Sep 4

Maintaining Carpeting Plants

Lush mats of green carpeting plants is a staple of Iwagumi and high tech aquascaping in general, it's appeal is undeniable. Like all plants however carpeting plants will eventually outgrow their environment and unlike long stem plants, neglect of carpeting plants can completely crash your entire scape- total and absolute cataclysm- think im being dramatic? keep reading..

This article is meant for intermediate hobbyists and covers the basic form of carpeting plants maintainance, the hassle of Iwagumi and the fundamental methods of Iwagumi maintainance in general....so a bunch of random ideas I thoought about while cleaning my 100L Iwagumi tank.

Overgrown Montecarlo

Essentially once the thickness of the carpet hits a certain point, light and Co2 stops becoming readily availble to the lowest section/growth of the mat leading to root death- as a result the entire mat dislodges from the substarte and floats up- so no issues right? WRONG

Carpeting plants are valued for their aesthetics, forming thick, lush and compact mass of green- this also means they keep detritus, plant wastes and many other nasties locked and packed beneath their roots- when the mat floats off....well think of it like a biological bomb going off- all those locked away nutrients and dusts are now shot free into the water column, hence CATACLYSM...if not managed.

My Iwagumi

This is my most posted tank on my Instagram for sure, but here it is clearly overgrown...and yes I knwo its not your traiditonal Iwagumi, but it has the spirirt of one and it'll do for what we are chatting about today.

pay close aatention to the build up of organics/detritus within the substrate, that is one of the biigest problems that occur as tanks get older and in this case it's almost impossbile to vacuum out due to the 'Cuba' mat covering it.

I have a light panel background on this tank which further accentuates the Cuba mat when overgrown, the middle picture shows how an uneven carpeting mat complteley throws off the scapes aesthetics.

Some Specs

100L tank, Low Iron thick glass
HC Cuba is the carpeting plant, Bucephalandras, Anubias white, Riccardia, Fissiden, Eriocualon Parkeri, litorella uniflora and Rotala Bonsai.
Inert sand and gravel to slow the growth of plants as musch as possible.
In-line Co2 injection, Jet filter running at 1500L/h with WEEK P90 Pendant light
Dragon stone and occupied with ONLY Black crystal Shrimps
I dont fertilise, I dont feed the tank and I do Waterchange MAYBE once every 2 weeks if Im not too busy.
The Tank would look SIGNIFICANTLY better If I dose and do weekly maintainance, but...meh

The Trim method

Not a lot to say here, any videos on youtube will tell you to use curved aquascaping scissors and thin out the surface of the mat.

It's a messy job best done during water change, the cuttings will go absolutely everywhere and the tiny plant folickle will get stuck in rocks, moss and everywhere else you can think of, it sucks, theres no avoiding this with the trim method and it's absolutely necessary to trim down your mat- Iwagumi sucks for this single reason.

But wait! there's more! those tiny bits of leafs? if too many are left in the tank it can clog up filter inlet, if too many gets sucked into your filter then you'll need to clean your filter to avoid a tank crash and the fun just keeps coming! Keep in mind that this tank isnt using aquasoil..with aquasoil the carpet would grow MUCH faster and the brekaing of the soil will magnify the negative effects of organic build ups for a significant margin.

"ok dude, you keep complaining about this..whats the solution? lets get to that!"

There isnt one. I've optimised this tank to grow as slowly as possible BECAUSE I dont like doing maintenance work on my scapes and I'm still subjected to clean up work, if you want to run an Iwagumi then this is part of the deal, if you run an Iwagumi or any heavy carpeting plant scape ON aquasoil then this is your life every 2 months or so (less if you are optimised)

The shrimp issue

The right front corner of this tank is the hotbed for my shrimplets, it has the lowest flow and plenty of hiding spots, I made a point to trim this area the LEAST because there so many shrimplets sitll needing safe harbour.

The trim here is what I call 'first round' I plan to do another clean and trim next weekend to level out the carpets, why didnt do it tonight in one go? because it was 11pm and I cant be *****, in all seriousness I want to see how plants recover and I need to do a substrate vacuum to complete the process- I jsut didnt have the time or the inclination tonight.. follow me on instagram South_Scape_Aquatica if you want to follow this tank.

Advanced Methods

There is no better solution to maintaining your carpeting plants using the trim method...for Intermediate hobbyists....but YOU are special aren't you? you are advanced, you are experienced, you ride the special bus to the special school in the special district..hell I bet you wear special equipment while clenaing your aquarium, a helmet perhaps? if you dont are you even trying to get good at this?

The Great Reset (Profitable and Longevity)

Simply put, harvest a palmful of your carpeting plant (roots and all) strip the entire tank as a mat which is easy enough if your carpet has gotten to adequate thickness, sell off the plants and deep vacuum your substrate. scrub the glass, hardscape and replant from your preservation stock.

This method allows you to profit off your plants, completely resets your organic build ups via deep vaccum and allows your to extend the time until your scape gets grown in again, is your aesthetics going to take a hit? yes, thats the only downside. Depending on your routine your tnak could be fully grown in again within months or weeks.

The Quartering (Longevity and Aesthetics)

This method is for those who want to take the lushness of their carpet to the next level, imagine your carpet into a grid, trim and cut away 1cm grids into your carpet, vacuum the substarte and do your general maintainance. It's hard to imagine I know but the finished product should look like your scape look instact but 'gridded'.

The tank will bounce back within 2 weeks, the carpet will become whole again, you've renewed the life of the scape via substrate vaccuming and when the mat grows back it will be thicker and more dense with soft transitions between the grids that was cut out and the grids that was'nt, creating contours and definition to an otherwise bland green mat.