Got some plants!

[Malbri]

I bought a few plants today at the lfs. I just have them in a bucket of water now and I put some ferts in. How long can they stay in those little pots? Im wondering if its a better idea to plant them in my gravel to let it spread, or wait a few more weeks and keep them in the pots untill my 20 galln is ready? Anything else I need to do besides ferts?

 

[ddot]

the pots wont hurt anything, but the stuff inside the pots can sometimes irritate fish if it is the little yellow gro-dan cubes

 

[Malbri]

inside the pots it looks like this spongy material

 

[ddot]

are there fish in the tank?

 

[Malbri]

ya there are fish in the tank, but the plants are just in a bucket full of water at the moment

 

[Mgamer20o0]

just take the pots off the plants and plant them. the should be ok for a few days just being in water.

 

[ddot]

you could take them out of the pots and let them float in the tank until you are ready to plant. That spongy stuff is usually made of a fiberglass-like compound, and it irritates fish just like getting fiberglass on your own skin.

 

[Malbri]

ok, so its okay if they are just floating?

 

[Malbri]

Here are some pics, if you could help identify that would be great.

lets hope this will work, ive had trouble with posting pics

 

[Plecosterone]

That "spongy stuff" is rock wool. A type of insulation, sorta like the pink or yellow insulation in your walls only denser material. It is made differently but basicaly that is all it is. They use it in growing plants because it is firm and yet still lets the roots grow feely and water and ferts flow through it. many people say it doesn't hurt the fish, (probably true if it under the substrate and they can't get to it), but I usually try to carefully take as much as I can off before planting.