Plants

[Wingman001]

When buying plants is it correct to put them in your tank with the plastick thing on the bottom on?

[2time]

No take off the basket and as much as you can of that foam stuff.

[Carping]

So what do you use to keep them together? Mine tend to start drifting off after a day or 2.....

[Zafgak]

Agreed - The substrate in the plastic pots will eventually cause the roots and plant to rot - I keep the plants in a pot, in a quarantine tank for about a week and then take the pot off and the substrate before I plant. The substrate can be peeled off in layers - carefully - so as to disturb the roots as little as possible..

[carl p]

agree with zafgak, i dont wory about quarantine 2 much, u can try and put some rocks on ure plants roots to keep them down or, ive taken a match and removed the head, and tied it to the roots horisontaly and buried that in the substrate and it kept it from coming out. or burie it in the substrate and sqeeze it between 2 rocks until the roots are settled and then remove rocks

[antonis]

I tried planting directly into the gravel but it becomes a pain during the weekly cleaning, as I always seem to dislodge the plants. So I cut the bases, about 60 mm, off the bottom of 450 ml cooldrink bottles. Then with a mini soldering iron melted a number of holes in the base, filled it with pool filter sand and gravel and planted therein.

So far it seems to be ok for the plants ( in use for approx. 1 month) and I can move and re-arrange at will. The clear plastic bases are nearly invisable in the water. For a bigger garden use a 1 lt bottle.

[Carping]

Busy setting up my new 400 liter tank and will be getting my plants this weekend. That sounds like a good idea antonis thanks

[Henk Hugo]

I plant my swords in large teracota pots - works great

[antonis]

I forgot to add that cutting the plastic bottle evenly can be a pain. I use a fine toothed bandsaw. However freezing water in the bottle and getting someone to hold the bottle down on a towell on a work surface and then cutting around with a hacksaw also works. Use a fine blade.

Anton

[Foxy Smurf]

I tried planting directly into the gravel but it becomes a pain during the weekly cleaning, as I always seem to dislodge the plants. So I cut the bases, about 60 mm, off the bottom of 450 ml cooldrink bottles. Then with a mini soldering iron melted a number of holes in the base, filled it with pool filter sand and gravel and planted therein.

So far it seems to be ok for the plants ( in use for approx. 1 month) and I can move and re-arrange at will. The clear plastic bases are nearly invisable in the water. For a bigger garden use a 1 lt bottle.


thats a cool tip :smile1:

[Wingman001]

are we talkig about planting the plants directly in the gravel?

[solex69]

No, we're talking about planting them directly into the substrate. Gravel is yucky term :)

And that old-school coarse pebble-like 'gravel' is useless (in my personal opinion of course)