# progress on my first true planted tanks



## yyankeeyankeefan

these are my tanks so far. can't wait for them to be finished off! just waiting on the plants to finish my son's and my daughter's tanks and fill in some spots on mine.  then i will be happy with them. these are my first attempts at planted tanks. so lets hope all goes well


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## GwenInNM

yyankeeyankeefan said:


> these are my tanks so far. can't wait for them to be finished off! just waiting on the plants to finish my son's and my daughter's tanks and fill in some spots on mine.  then i will be happy with them. these are my first attempts at planted tanks. so lets hope all goes well



It looks nice! In the first photo (tank) you may need to watch the anubias. They are a plant that doesn't like lots of light. If you start some floating plants that will help shade them. I've found at my lfs a floating plant called "frog bit" and it's so cool. It's in the profiles here on this site. 

Gwen


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## fish monger

You do a nice a job ! Wish I had your eye for planting. 

I'll just repeat some info I've seen here and elsewhere, keep and eye on the mondo grass (not an aquatic-will start to decay). The bamboo plant should have its leaves out of the water.

Again, nice job.


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## GwenInNM

fish monger said:


> You do a nice a job ! Wish I had your eye for planting.
> 
> I'll just repeat some info I've seen here and elsewhere, keep and eye on the mondo grass (not an aquatic-will start to decay). The bamboo plant should have its leaves out of the water.
> 
> Again, nice job.


I didn't know that about the Mondo grass - bought that myself at Petsmart once (cheap) but it did exactly that, got all funky and I had to throw it. Won't touch that again, so I second what you say. Watch that plant for sure!

Gwen


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## yyankeeyankeefan

fish monger said:


> You do a nice a job ! Wish I had your eye for planting.
> 
> I'll just repeat some info I've seen here and elsewhere, keep and eye on the mondo grass (not an aquatic-will start to decay). The bamboo plant should have its leaves out of the water.
> 
> Again, nice job.


i found out the hard way that these two plants were not aquatic. i bought them and then started looking into a fully planted tank. and found out after the fact. but i have had them both in there for a month and they are doing fine. i bought them fully submerged so they haven't been doing to bad. i am going to let them run their course and see how they do. in my son's tank it is just floating so it is getting some air. want to see what one does better.


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## fish monger

I was sucked in by the mondo grass also. Let's face it, it looks really nice in an aquarium. I have had mine for about four months and it's still in good shape. Nothing wrong with taking a wait and see approach.


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## fish monger

I got my mondo grass at Petsmart also. When I asked the young lady if it was an aquatic plant, her eyes kind of glazed over and she said "it could be". That should have been my clue. I guess I just really wanted it to work out.


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## yyankeeyankeefan

i know, they assume it is but don't do the research


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## Norbert

Did I just saw bamboo...:-D

nice tanks and that root broken in half looks awesome. Plants will grow up in time, they look nice so far
apart from that tank with pink substrate unless you want to put in there Alice from Wonderland


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## yyankeeyankeefan

Norbert said:


> Did I just saw bamboo...:-D
> 
> nice tanks and that root broken in half looks awesome. Plants will grow up in time, they look nice so far
> apart from that tank with pink substrate unless you want to put in there Alice from Wonderland


yes there is bamboo in the tanks. i love the way they look 

the tank with the colorful substrate is my daughter's tank. she is 2 and picked it out herself. personally i think she did a GREAT job at helping me put things where she wanted them. especially for her age.


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## yyankeeyankeefan

just an update on the bamboo. i have seen some slow growth on the leaves. i was surprised considering it has been fully submerged. i am kind of keeping progress on it to see how long it takes until i will need to get rid of it. but so far so good. been about 3 months and is still there


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## Deadstroke174

First thing first, GO YANKEES!!! The tanks look awesome, you did a hell of a job!!


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## Chesh

Aww! I love her tank! She did great - and so did you, on all 3! I can't wait to see some progress pics in a month or so!


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## BradSD

The broken stump is the best part, good eye.


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## yyankeeyankeefan

wanted to update you guys on my tanks. sorry lost connection for a while, so here are my updates. 1. the bamboo is doing great. growth isn't as rapid as i expected but it is going. had an unexpected die off in my daughter's tank again with the guppies. though the endler hybrids seems to be living hardier. had a couple of crypts that became uprooted and rotted and i didn't notice as they were just barely out of the substrate..... so the ammonia from that killed the guppies. but thankfully i was able to catch it before it became a complete killer in my tanks. my son's tank has become a jungle wonderland! lots of crypts in that tanks. very happy with the growth rate in there. :-D


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## yyankeeyankeefan

sorry about the quality of pictures. need to get a better camera. the two smaller tanks were just cleaned so they are still in the process of completely settling.


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## yyankeeyankeefan

the mondo grass created a horrible mess and it was a complete pain to uproot. i don't recommend trying it out and seeing how long you can keep it alive like i did. sadly petsmart doesn't label it....and seels it as a truly aquatic plant.


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## LADY K

tanks look great. i really like first one.good work


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## fish monger

Great looking tanks. You might be out of the woods with the bamboo. Its leaves are at the top now, right ?


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## yyankeeyankeefan

fish monger said:


> Great looking tanks. You might be out of the woods with the bamboo. Its leaves are at the top now, right ?


on my 20 gallon tank the leaves have grown out of the tank. in the 60 they have not but i am seeing constant growth in the 60 as well. in fact i left one floating and had one planted. the planted one grew while the floating one showed no real growth. so i think the bamboo in the 60 will do ok too. i have planted the second piece after this 3 month long experiment.


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## yyankeeyankeefan

progress on the tanks. have changed a couple things but like the new looks of it


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## fish monger

Your tanks look very nice and very healthy. Good job.


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## yyankeeyankeefan

thank you. i am having good luck in these two tanks. very steady growth. i am hoping to get some crypts to grow super big in the 20 tank.


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## FranksTanks

Looking good!!

Planting and "sculpting" tanks has become such an art! I think from what I have seen is that the hard thing is trying to strike that perfect balance between asthetics and functionality.


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## Chesh

I think it's time for some updated pics  Everything looked BEAUTIFUL back in October - hoping things kept on an upward path for you  Lovely tanks!


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## yyankeeyankeefan

yes it is time for new pics. will upload some new ones.


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## yyankeeyankeefan

this is the 60, after the recent remodel.








i put the sword plant from my son's 20 into the 60 









this is my son's 20 as of now









this is palo (one of my bettas)









i will have to get pics of the other two tanks up soon.


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## Chesh

Looks like things are growing wonderfully over there! I can't wait to see the others - I really like how you did Palo's tank - I think it looks really neat with half of it being a nice shady area for him to rest - did you make the rock sculpture? Looks nice


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## yyankeeyankeefan

yes i did make the rock structures. it was lots of fun, it's a pain in the butt though to get everything to stick together with rock sealant, but it was a fun project to do. will be doing more of them i hope.


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## yyankeeyankeefan

this is paco's tank atm. 









this is how my son's 20 looks right now









and this is my daughter's 30. we had to take the ordainment out because they were getting chipped and broken


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## Sqbear46

Nice tank. I've had my bamboo in my tank for over year and it's still growing under the water.


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## yyankeeyankeefan

mine is doing awesome. when i first bought my bamboo i got two of them and as an experiment i left one floating and one in the gravel. the floating one didn't grow but didn't rot either. but the one in the gravel is almost up to the water level now...so that is good.


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