plants floating away

[Paul]

I put some cabomba (not sure of the spelling) in my 20 gallon tank. When I clean the tank, it tends to come dislodged from the gravel and float to the surface. What is the best way to anchor it to the bottom? Tie a weight to it? I would prefer not to use a lot of gravel in the tank, as it collects waste material. Thanks.

I have gouramis, swordtails, tetras, and a platy, and they all seem to like hanging around the plants.

[125gJoe]

Originally posted by Paul
I would prefer not to use a lot of gravel in the tank, as it collects waste material. Thanks.. How deep is your gravel? You may need more. You can buy 'plant weights' they work great...

[Paul]

The gravel is maybe an inch deep around the plants and less elsewhere. I'd much rather find "plant weights" than add more gravel, now that I know there is such a thing, in order to keep the water clearer. Thanks for the suggestion.

[carpguy]

You can get little strips of lead that wrap around the bottom of the stems. Bunches of stems often come with these. IMO they're not great for the plants and you'd be better off with more gravel.

I don't "deep clean" my 2"+ deep sandy gravel -- I just let the flow suck up the debris. I just use the hose without the bigger vac tube. It makes it much easier to navigate around the stems and the more concentrated flow lifts stuff up from a 1/2" away.

[OrionGirl]

I'd look into a small pot. You could coat it with gravel so it would blend, or just leave it uncovered, but then you could put gravel/aquatic potting substrate in the pot, and put hte plant in there. Easy to move the plant around without disturbing the roots, and you don't need to add gravel.

Or, there are many plants which do fine floating. Anachris, hornwort, etc.

[Bruddah Chrispy]

Cabomba doesn't put down very strong roots. When I had it in my tank (in fact I may still have a stalk or two) I did the following:

Snip the top of the stalk to encourage lower branches to grow. When you've got a branch that's grown a bit, bury the original stalk (you may wish to prune it a bit first). This effectively makes the original main stalk a anchoring system, and the branch becomes the new main stalk.

If you've got a couple of branches on the same side of the stalk, even better. They become two plants standing side by side.

HTH.

[Paul]

Thanks for all your advice. I went with carpguy and 80gJoe's suggestion about the lead weights on the bottoms of the plants - but on hearing OrionGirl's reply, I might try potted plants sometime - I like the idea of being able to move them around. From an esthetic point of view, I would rather have the plants root naturally, but the gravel just seems to accumulate too much debris, which makes the water cloudy. I have another tank with no real plants and the water is completely clear. Now, the fish might be saying we'd rather have plants and cloudy water than no plants and clear water. But it's hard to tell what they're thinking.

[Dangerdoll]

If you go with plant anchors, they don't need to be tied because they (weights) are made so they can wrap around the stem. They are pretty flexible. They usually come about 20 to a pack, and I get them from one lfs. If you go to a lfs that doesn't have these, just ask the people at the store if they've got any and they might just give you what you need.

[Flohrie]

Try here: http://paul.aaquaria.com/Planting/Planting.htm

He doesn't like using lead weights and he's been doing it for a while so I wouldn't suggest them.

[punch]

go to the Plantguild (on line) they have plant weights that are NOT like the lead strips. I think they are much better.
.http://www.familychest.com/plantguild/html/plant_weights.html