bunched plants....

[jujubee]

Ok, so i bought some bunched plants today, some Red Ludwigia and some Anacharis. I had a bit of difficulty planting them since they don't really have any roots to anchor them in to the substrate. What is the best way to go about planting these kinds of plants? I was trying to plant them grouped together, like the anacharis all together and the red ludwigia all together, but it seemed tough. How does everyone here do it?

[Blinky]

I hold a few stems together, use my index finger to make a hole in the substrate and sort of slide the bunch into the hole - I try to get the stems (with leaves removed from the bottom) about 1" or more into the gravel and make sure at least one leafless node is under the gravel, since this is where the roots will grow from. Once the stems are in, I pat the flourite down around them, gently. Sometimes during the first day or two I'll get a floater, but the plants usually start putting roots out fairly quickly and stay put.
You can also plant stems individually or in pairs if groups of five or so won't stay down - sometimes I find if I plant too many stems together the middle ones will slide out.

[Mr.Firemouth]

Here's some info about your plants. All bunch plants are true aquatics and will grow wether they are planted or floating. This is because they primarily feed through the water column more than the substrate. For this reason substrate fertilizers will not be necessary for these plants. It is also not good to plant bunch or stem plants with big feeders like Amozon Swords. The swords will not fare as well with stem plants with out extra fertilizers just for them. It is best to stay with stem(bunch) plants in your theme. The red Ludwigia will require 2-3 watts of 5500k-8500k of lighting and C02 to look and grow their best. Otherwise they will be much more green than red. The Anacharis will grow well but will also do better with the extra light and c02. Leaf Zone is a good liquid fertilizer for these types of plants. Hygrophylia species will alo do well and moneywort and hornwort will go nicely to. Stay as close to 5500k-6500k on bulb selection because "blue light" will help the algea more than the plants.

Planting should be kept in groups by species so you can define areas, also plant them deep as mentioned in last post. Good luck.

[jujubee]

I have 28 watts of light over a 10 gallon tank, so thats 2.8 watts per gallon. WIll that be enough? Where would I find out if the light is in the 5500-6500 k range? The light that I bought is at this link: http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=24049;category_id=1875;pcid 1=1843;pcid2=

Thanks.

[Blinky]

That fixture says it comes with 50/50 bulbs, which (according to what I just read online) are half 'daylight' and half actinic. I don't know much beyond the fact that actinic bulbs are something used frequently in marine tanks (where everything needs A LOT of light).
I'm not sure your bulbs have to be in the range you mentioned in order for your plants to be happy (mine seem just dandy with 2.5WPG of 9325K CF) - you might want to find out from a really knowledgeable plant hobbyist before spending big bucks on new bulbs.

[beviking]

The K (for Kelvin) rating is how the light from a bulb looks to human eyes, usually referred to as reddish, yellowish, bluish. The plants could care less how the bulb looks to us as long as there is enough of it and it covers the spectrum adequately. There are full spectrum bulbs within reasonable price range (and outside the K range mentioned) that will work fine. See www.thekrib.com for more info
Also, I've read that the combo lights (50/50) burn out unevenly, that is, the actinic part fails b4 the rest of the bulb does.

[tanker]

Aquatic plants need light in the 6000K range. Actinic are for deep water marine tanks. also for the "blue" in SW tanks. Get a bulb in the 6700K range for plants.