I 1st tried this in my Bichir tank, which is an old acrylic 55 gallon, that had a hole cut in the top, for the old style test tube type heaters… I bundled a group of 4 - 18 inch long stalks the size of the hole, suspended by the top growth, and let it dangle in the hole… that was a year and a half ago, and the tops have grown 18 to 20 inches long, and the roots, that were about 4 inches above the substrate, grew down to the gravel…
Next came my actual use of the lucky bamboo, as a fixture, rather than just a plug for a hole, and I suspended 20 stalks along the sides of my Hillstream tank… that tank had a group of Tin Foil barbs in it, at the time, and to keep the Tin Foils from moving the stalks around, and for cover for the Hillstream’s, I piled 2 to 3 inch diameter rounded river rocks, on the ends of the tank, up against the bottom of the stalks, so the roots were in the rock piles… these are doing well, but not as well as the suspended clump in the Bichir tank…
Next I added a printed Bamboo forest background to the Hillstream tank, and I had a few extra stalks, which I bundled together with some green silicone bands, and I added some plant weights to the bottom, and installed them into the bubble waterfall in the Hillstream tank, with some stainless wire bent “S” hooks, under the top silicone band placed just under the top growth… these roots grew quickly, and when I had to move them, to relocate the Tin Foils recently, were almost hard to pull up… the tops were growing equally as fast… they add a more 3d effect to the background matching color wise, nicely… so this last week, I added several more bundles, using a heavy epoxy coated fishing weight on the bottoms, to help them stay straight, until the roots grow into the substrate, being in the bubbles… but the plants seem to thrive much better in the bubbles, than even being suspended, and thrive better suspended, than with the roots covered…
Interestingly, one stalk, in the rock pile, has sent out a couple new shoots, that are submerged, while it has tops out, that are emerged… these are the new ones… BTW, the loaches all love having them in the waterfalls…
This is one of the new shoots, from the rock pile plants…
Next came my actual use of the lucky bamboo, as a fixture, rather than just a plug for a hole, and I suspended 20 stalks along the sides of my Hillstream tank… that tank had a group of Tin Foil barbs in it, at the time, and to keep the Tin Foils from moving the stalks around, and for cover for the Hillstream’s, I piled 2 to 3 inch diameter rounded river rocks, on the ends of the tank, up against the bottom of the stalks, so the roots were in the rock piles… these are doing well, but not as well as the suspended clump in the Bichir tank…
Next I added a printed Bamboo forest background to the Hillstream tank, and I had a few extra stalks, which I bundled together with some green silicone bands, and I added some plant weights to the bottom, and installed them into the bubble waterfall in the Hillstream tank, with some stainless wire bent “S” hooks, under the top silicone band placed just under the top growth… these roots grew quickly, and when I had to move them, to relocate the Tin Foils recently, were almost hard to pull up… the tops were growing equally as fast… they add a more 3d effect to the background matching color wise, nicely… so this last week, I added several more bundles, using a heavy epoxy coated fishing weight on the bottoms, to help them stay straight, until the roots grow into the substrate, being in the bubbles… but the plants seem to thrive much better in the bubbles, than even being suspended, and thrive better suspended, than with the roots covered…
Interestingly, one stalk, in the rock pile, has sent out a couple new shoots, that are submerged, while it has tops out, that are emerged… these are the new ones… BTW, the loaches all love having them in the waterfalls…
This is one of the new shoots, from the rock pile plants…
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