noobie question: how to i anchor plants?
- Thread starter swimfast
- Start date
Some people use those lead weights for plants until they take a hold in the gravel/sand. There is some debate whether they are safe for a tank. I personally don't use them.
It might be that some of your fish are uprooting them. Other than that, try to push them in about an inch and press gravel around the stem. I can get annoying, especially if your tank is pretty deep. You will also have more trouble if you have bigger and/or faster fish in there as the will be bumping into the plants and they will keep coming up.
Really, no advice there, just keep at it. Maybe someone has developed a better system out there...
It might be that some of your fish are uprooting them. Other than that, try to push them in about an inch and press gravel around the stem. I can get annoying, especially if your tank is pretty deep. You will also have more trouble if you have bigger and/or faster fish in there as the will be bumping into the plants and they will keep coming up.
Really, no advice there, just keep at it. Maybe someone has developed a better system out there...
I'm fairly new to plants, never had much success with them. But the last lot I got seem to be doing ok. Falcon is right, I dropped my new plants (with the lead weight) to the bottom of the tank, and they have now started to root themselves into the gravel. I'll wait a litte longer til the roots look well established, then remove the lead weight.
If you just stick the stem into the gravel as soon as you get the plant, it'll rot then die.
If you just stick the stem into the gravel as soon as you get the plant, it'll rot then die.
Anacharis stinks as a rooted plant. Yes, it'll grow "roots," but they are worthless IME. You'll be better served by using anacharis as a floating plant.
I find anachris to be easier than most stems, I make sure the bottom inch or so is clipped clean (sometimes I'll leave a few leaf bases as barbs) and the stuff it into the substrate. Within a couple of days it has pretty good roots, which hold well enough. It is a stem and never gets he grip that most plants do, but it stays rooted in all of my tanks after a couple of days. one of those tanks houses some pretty unfriendly monsters. my Primary complaint with anachris is that it isn't a good floating plant because it close to neutrally bouyant, and any water movement send it down through the tank to wrap around something.
I kind of wonder if Timmain42 and I are growing the same kind of anachris :joke:
Dave
I kind of wonder if Timmain42 and I are growing the same kind of anachris :joke:
Dave
We probably are. I've noticed significant differences in the same plant stock when I move it to a similar-but-not-same-condition tank, which is why I threw that "IME" in there. 
interesting.... my anacharis havn't really rooted at all. I have a pretty strong current on them - I have a penguin 200b right above them, maybe i should put my rock there and put them out of harms way. I also have a big gravel substrate, they were sitting in the tank when i dug it out of storage. I'm probably going to switch that at some point, i'm going to have to empty the tank for big move(fortunately i think i have convinced my parents to start an aquarium of their own and take my fish).
so my question is now: how important is the substrate?
so my question is now: how important is the substrate?
Depends on what you want to grow. Stem and rosette plants will do much better, generally, with a rich substrate (and hey, it doesn't have to be Flourite or Onxy, Schultz's Aqualic Soil from Home Depot -$7 for 10#- will work too). If you're just growing attached ferns, anubias or pelia, natural gravel should be just fine.