Question of the Day So, how do you think you’re doing on your planted tank journey?

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Let’s hear from you.

How do you think you’re doing on your planted tank journey?

Give an honest and balance response. Bonus points for pictures - love to see the result of your work but also love to see the honest picture of where you are today. Nothing is too ugly with planted aquariums. Everything is just the current phase.

Bring it people!
 
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I have this really cool algae that turns old leaves black and slimy, been battling for a month! I think I'm doing pretty bad at the hobby overall. There are some moments where things go right, but it doesnt seem to last long...
 
I know I still have a lot to learn, both in knowledge and in skills, but I’m happy with my journey. I’ve gone from this in 2018 (and I thought it was pretty at the time)

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to this as of Monday:

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I just set the BiOrb up again (with live plants, lol), so once it’s had a chance to grow in a bit, I’ll put it in my journal.
 
I'm happy where I'm today. This is my only tank for now. I got into hobby seven years ago.

My current goals for my tank are to sort out that messy, jungle look. Throw out some plants (to much yellow/light green), add more dark green stuff.

Also recover stunted ammania golden if possible (next to pink flamingo crypt).

I also got myself a new light to replace one of the lamps. I replaced jbl solar natur lamp with chihiros slim wrgb 2 120cm. Now is the tank a bit to "blurple" imo. Have to work on that also.

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Nice topic and interesting to hear people’s stories.
I started 4 years ago, thinking to learn about high tech planted tanks and had a decent budget to do it “right”. I jumped in with a large tank and went through a few struggles and iterations:

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But I grew tired of the maintenance and constant fiddling to get it to look nice. I daydreamed about my simple low tech tanks of the past and decided to make a sudden switch to extreme low tech … I turned off the co2, tossed the active substrate and all but the least demanding plants and even put them in pots to make gravel cleaning as easy as possible:

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I was much more satisfied with the ease of maintenance and the plants were thriving. They outgrew the pots and I started shifting towards a jungle aquascape (ie. mish mash of plants that grow well and don’t get trimmed very often, lol), for both of my large tanks:

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I am very happy with where I’m at in the hobby now. My 4 tanks (68g, 84g, 10g, 4g) look beautiful all the time, only take 2 hrs a week to maintain, and still give me enough versatility to re-scape, change things up and add new plants and fish to keep my interest. I love the look of colourful high tech tanks, but don’t feel a great need to venture back there, again, for now, anyway.
 
This was my first planted tank when I was 14. It was a 10 gallon tank with some soil, rocks, and sticks I found in the yard. I didn't have a job yet so I could only get a couple cheap plants, 3 cherry shrimp and a betta. Also the goofy underwater light. Screenshot_20241206_123441_Chrome.jpg

Fast forward 6 years and I get this 350g As you can see my aquascaping and plant growing skills are about the same lol.20200618_174457.jpg

After about a year and a half of struggling to grow plants and growing lots of algae I decide to get CO2 and started to deep dive in the planted tank forums. With the help of the community I am soon able to create this aquascape below.20221221_131428.jpg

About a year ago my boss at work saw this scape and recommended me to plant a 1000G tank. This is the 1000G tank today.Screenshot_20241117_170417_Gallery.jpg

On my 350G I've gone back to no CO2. I've enjoyed the slower pace. Though even with the slower pace I have become behind on trimming. The tank is a little wild right now but I hope to get some work done on it now that I am done with a busy college semester. 20241205_111427.jpg
 
So I've had a busy work week and haven't had time to catch up here. I will do so tomorrow.

However, in the meantime, I'm happy to report that all of your pictures are like 100 times better than mine. So that says something.

I got into planted aquariums with The Optimum Aquarium book from Dupla back in the very early 1990s. So, I don't know if this makes you feel good about yourself or bad (thinking how can a guy who's been at it that long be so bad, this must be a tough hobby)...

Congrats all. Your tanks look amazing. Well done!
 
*Ci* said:
I turned off the co2, tossed the active substrate and all but the least demanding plants and even put them in pots to make gravel cleaning as easy as possible:
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@*Ci*, I have often fantasized about using pots to better control plants, placement and maintenance. This tank looks absolutely amazing and the plant health is extraordinary. VERY well done.
 
Art said:
So I've had a busy work week and haven't had time to catch up here. I will do so tomorrow.

However, in the meantime, I'm happy to report that all of your pictures are like 100 times better than mine. So that says something.

I got into planted aquariums with The Optimum Aquarium book from Dupla back in the very early 1990s. So, I don't know if this makes you feel good about yourself or bad (thinking how can a guy who's been at it that long be so bad, this must be a tough hobby)...

Congrats all. Your tanks look amazing. Well done!
Click to expand...
I think you’re selling yourself short though. 🙂
 
Art said:
@*Ci*, I have often fantasized about using pots to better control plants, placement and maintenance. This tank looks absolutely amazing and the plant health is extraordinary. VERY well done.
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Thanks, Art. In the late 2000’s I had this 125g goldfish tank, bare bottom with potted plants … this is the tank I was reminiscing about - even with messy goldfish it was so easy to care for!
If I ever decide I have room for another big tank, it will probably be just the same as this ~•♥•~

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Consider it rebooted the planted aquarium hobby in June after a 2 year hiatus and that was probably only a 6 month at most. I feel pretty good minus the consistent thread algae I am getting in all but the main tank, I've learned a lot in the last 6 months but have a lot more to learn. Considering I am cycling my 3rd farm tank, you can tell I am hooked. This will be the last one setup for awhile at least the full energy routine.

Unfortunately I am going to have to omit the main tank as I just submitted for the AGA but I can show you all my current tanks and a picture of the first attempt.

My First Attempt:
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Current farm tank #1:20241206_194951.jpg

current Farm tank #2:20241206_195002.jpg

14gal cube no co2:
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This tank was deep cleaned and plants were hydrogen peroxide dipped and cleaned as I ahve been strugging with hair algae in this more then the other tanks. I think I probably need to do more frequent water changes in it as it is new aquasoil but I have been busy with college this week specifically as I usually do the water change on it on Monday's.
 
I entered the hobby as a lockdown birthday present to myself and I still have my original tank running with no resets, so even though it hasn't been my main tank for a while now it's been with me from the beginning.

This is a little over a month after planting in May 2020:

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Lol, what even is this? Where are all the plants? I think I had to make another two or three orders before this even began to fill in. I can see a number of weird ideas I had here that didn't pan out.

Now it looks like this:
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It's still not the most beautiful layout of all time, but I still enjoy looking at it very much and I'm proud of how it has matured. As a system it's incredibly trouble free and has provided a great environment for my livestock; I have learned so, so much from keeping it. I don't know what I'm going to do with it long term, but for the moment I have no plans to tear it down. (Edited to add: the water is looking yellow because I just added a couple alder cones.)
 
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Art said:
How do you think you’re doing on your planted tank journey?
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Hmmmm…

I hesitate to say…

“Regarding the extent of self-enhancement, we found that participants with higher self-esteem rated their ability more favorably independent of their actual performance. Moreover, participants who perceived the task to be more difficult made more unfavorable self-assessments.”


I guess I will just say I think I am getting better…. At least I can say I am happier with how my tanks look. The plants look healthier and algae is far less prevalent, and my groupings and trimmings look better to me at least…

Ok, there are supposed to be pictures. Editing to add some in…

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Embarrassing early attempt…. But you gotta start…

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Still, a work in progress, but I like it a lot more… and I see potential as it grows in…. A few substitutions planned for the new year, but the general layout is good…
 

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Samolous Parviflora. It used to be in a lot better shape. It has taken a hit for unknown reason and largely melted away. I have lost so many leaves off of it. It just recently has started showing signs of of recovery..
 
Been in planted tanks (as we know it) for 23 years at least. And I'm still learning. There was a gap of a few years in between, but my current run with the current tank is about 10 years long.

I started with aquariums in my early teens, influenced by my dad. That's easily 40 over years ago. We had elodea and duckweed, but I don't think that really counts. Had other pets as well.

Stopped when school got too busy and my dad shifted to gardening.

Only got back into aquariums a few years after I started working and ended up in a company where my boss had a teef tank in his office and colleagues had a community tank with some plants. Got into some aquarium forums which turned out to be planted tank forums and that's where it all started (late 1990s). Got seduced into the hobby by Amano's photos!

Soon after, got married, got our own home and "poof" 4 tanks: 100cm planted tank, 100cm newt tank, 90cm Tanganyikan Lake tank and a 180cm (180G, 680L) Arowana planted tank.



Life happened, and those tanks were closed down 4 or 5 years later, which started the gap.

2013 New home, new tank: another 180G Arowana planted tank.

When it started...


Today (literally), 11 year old tank, 11 year old Red Arowana.
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Still learning about algae and fertilisation. Now more about the nuances in those disciplines, and finding my own system and methods. The hobby also speaks to my love of learning, tech, fiddling and DIY, and strengths/joy in troubleshooting and problem-solving.

Going forward, I may upgrade to a slightly bigger tank for the big guy. Logistics and space are the main challenges for that. When that happens, I will be looking into an automated water change system. Would also love a second smaller tank so that I can keep other fishes.
 
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