Bought 2 plants, need some advice

abcdefghi

abcdefghi

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Jun 6, 2007
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So yesterday I was in the LFS and decided to pick up a couple of plants, to see if I can get them to grow, and if I can to eventually switch out all my fake plants for real (especially as my fake plants are falling to bits after less than a year). I asked the employee for a couple of low light plants and he pointed out a few plants to me, so I picked 2 of them and got them home. The plants I got are echinodorus bleheri (amazon sword) and cryptocoryne wendtii (red wendtii).

I decide to do some research online this morning and while the crypt looks ideal, the amazon sword requires medium light and a nutrient rich substrate or additives. At the moment I have a sand substrate, so should I start looking at additives? and if so what type? I have 104W of lighting over a 55G tank, is that enough light? Currently both plants are in pots, that I have buried about two thirds into the sand, at some point I will root them properly in the sand. Should I leave them in the pots? (its kind of like a plastic pot with large openings all around) or should I take them out of the pot and somehow plant them in the sand? Will both these plants form new plants as they (hopefully) grow?

Any advice will be much appreciated, I really want these to grow as I am fed up with the plastic plants looking like crap in my tank.

Thanks.
 
Right now your tank is around 1.8 watts per gallon. I think the crypt would do fine but the sword might have some trouble or at the very least grow really slow. What size tank do you have? Swords can get really big. Also, for the sword to grow a little better I would aim for around 2.5-3 watts per gallon. Swords and crypts get their nutrients through their roots so you can give them root tabs and dose as per the instructions. They should be available at your lfs.

Some other low light plants you might want to look into to are java ferns, java moss, and the different types of anubias.
 
Oh, also, take the plants out of the pots and if they are in a wool like substance, take that off the plants too. That is rock wool which they grow the plants in and will just muck up your water if you leave it in the tank.

Be careful with the crypts. Try not to move them around very much. Just pick a place in the tank for them and leave them. They hate to be disturbed and will "melt" if they get upset.
 
If the lighting is in the right spectrum (ideally, it's in the 6500K-10,000K range w/o too much blue), 104W should be adequate for those plants.

Swords get very large when happy and they are root feeders, thought they can pull some nutrients from teh water column too. They also tend to develop extensive root systems, so I'd take it out of the pot and plant it in the sand. If you want the high $, low maint. way - get Flourish root tabs and put one well beneath the swords roots. Repeat every few weeks.

If you were planning on using liquid ferts, you can get a transfer pipet or syringe or turkey baster and inject some of your ferts solutions into the sand near the sword.

As to the Crypt - plant it and don't worry about it. If the leaves melt away, try to remove the goo but leave the roots as it will probably grow new leaves.
 
The crypt is an excellent choice. Definately remove it from its pot and as squawkbert mentioned, don't be surprised if some leaves melt (go transparent and die). They recover nicely and will grow well in the lighting you have. They will send out runners of baby plantlets and are a great choice for your tank (can youtell they are one of my low light favorites?). Good luck!
 
Squawkbert said:
If the lighting is in the right spectrum (ideally, it's in the 6500K-10,000K range w/o too much blue), 104W should be adequate for those plants.

Swords get very large when happy and they are root feeders, thought they can pull some nutrients from teh water column too. They also tend to develop extensive root systems, so I'd take it out of the pot and plant it in the sand. If you want the high $, low maint. way - get Flourish root tabs and put one well beneath the swords roots. Repeat every few weeks.

If you were planning on using liquid ferts, you can get a transfer pipet or syringe or turkey baster and inject some of your ferts solutions into the sand near the sword.

As to the Crypt - plant it and don't worry about it. If the leaves melt away, try to remove the goo but leave the roots as it will probably grow new leaves.
Click to expand...

Thanks, the lighting I have is 4 x CFL bulbs in a DIY hood, when I made the hood I made sure to get the recommended daylight 6500k bulbs.

I had not really figured out what ferts to use, I may try the tabs for now and see how things go.

Will the plants be OK in the pots until Wednesday? I am carrying out a water change then and it will be easier to move things around and get them planted in the sand then.

Also, I am likely to be moving house in a couple months are plants easy enough to move? Do I just take them and as much of the roots as I can from the sand, keep them wet and get them back into the tank as soon as I can.

Have to say I am excited about finally getting real plants in there, its a 55G and ok its only 2 plants, but I am hoping to get them growing well and then replace all the fake plants with real.
 
It should be ok until wednesday. Yes, when you move, just pull them up and put them in ziplock bags. I ship plants moist/dry, so don't worry to much, just try to avoid excessive heat and squishing them. Sounds like you are going about this the right way! Best of luck, you will really enjoy plants.
 
Ok, so I ended up planting them both yesterday in the sand and putting in some Flourish tabs with them. The pot was pretty hard to get off the crypt, and I tore some roots getting it off, hopefully it will be OK though.

The one question I have is that I could not get all of the roots of the crypt buried in the sand, its not quite deep enough where I put the plant and about a third/half of the roots is above the sand line. Is that going to be a problem? I can probably move some of the sand around thats in there to make the sand deeper in that area if I need, but its going to be a bit of a headache having to remove all the decor to move some sand around.
 
Hi :)

wouldn't it be easier just to add some extra sand (stones, gravel) around the plant? I had actually the same problem (the ground was not deep enough and crypt kept floating up from time to time)- I gathered some pretty stones from the seaside, boiled them and placed around the plant. It was 4 months ago- now the plant is so big that I have to divide it :)
 
ymeramees said:
Hi :)

wouldn't it be easier just to add some extra sand (stones, gravel) around the plant? I had actually the same problem (the ground was not deep enough and crypt kept floating up from time to time)- I gathered some pretty stones from the seaside, boiled them and placed around the plant. It was 4 months ago- now the plant is so big that I have to divide it :)
Click to expand...

That might work, I think in the back of my mind I know I am moving in a couple months and I am trying to also think of the easiest way to move things.

The sand is much higher in some places than others, and I have some slate I could break up, so I am sure I can think of something.
 
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