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bonny Ultimate Fish Guru Engineer in waiting Posts: 3121 Kudos: 498 Votes: 7 Registered: 09-Mar-2003	Almost certainly been asked before. When you're potting plants that have that bit of foam around the bottom with the flexible weight wrapped around that are you supposed to leave that on permanantly, or just while the plant roots or not leave it on at all? Cheers
Posted 19-Jul-2006 12:08
LITTLE_FISH *** Little Fish *** Master of Something Posts: 7303 Kudos: 1997 Votes: 670 Registered: 20-May-2005	bonny, I would suggest to remove the entity you call foam as well as the weights before planting. The foam is a nutrient rich sponge that is used to get plants to grow fast, but in a tank it may leach too much stuff into the water column. Most plants can be planted into the substrate just fine without the weights. Ingo Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club
Posted 19-Jul-2006 13:09
bonny Ultimate Fish Guru Engineer in waiting Posts: 3121 Kudos: 498 Votes: 7 Registered: 09-Mar-2003	KK, thanks a lot. Will probably do that at home, planted them all with the foam and weights so will remove it tonite. The main thing i was concerned about is that when the plants grow that the metal band around the bottom would crush the plants.
Posted 19-Jul-2006 13:50
mughal113 Big Fish Posts: 343 Kudos: 160 Votes: 64 Registered: 16-Jun-2006	Hi bonny, little_fish, The band is actually lead (the soft metal) that helps the plant weigh down. I believe lead can finally react with the chemicals and decay in form of lead salt which are highly poisonsous, not sure though if the concentration is going to be deadly enough in a larger tank. What alternative method may be adopted to keep the plants down? Its my biggest headache maintaining my planted tank. Thanks (especially, I'ce badly failed in keeping the stem plants planted)
Posted 19-Jul-2006 15:45
GirlieGirl8519 Fish Master Malawi Planter Posts: 1468 Kudos: 1029 Votes: 35 Registered: 25-Mar-2005	If you have small enough gravel (~2-3mm) or smaller, you shouldn't have a problem keeping the plants planted. Actually the gravel that I just took out of my 55g was around 4-5mm and the plants stayed down. Just push the end of the plants as far as you can into the gravel. One thing that has really helped me plant my plants is some big tweezer things. I got mine online at DrsFosterandSmith.com. They help alot when planted stem plants. Here is a visual. I have the curved tipped ones. *Kristin*
Posted 19-Jul-2006 17:08
bonny Ultimate Fish Guru Engineer in waiting Posts: 3121 Kudos: 498 Votes: 7 Registered: 09-Mar-2003	I've got sand in my tank, lot lower mantainance and a lot more pleasing to the eye imo.
Posted 19-Jul-2006 17:11
mughal113 Big Fish Posts: 343 Kudos: 160 Votes: 64 Registered: 16-Jun-2006	Thanks GirlieGirl, looks like a really good idea. I too have sand in my tank but the level is around 2 inches only. I think I should have a deeper substrate bed for the plants. The thing I tried (and that worked for me) was wrapping a piece of cotton cloth around the stem to be planted at the bottom and filling that little bag with gravel and then tie it up using elastic threads. Then plant this bag in the gravel itself. Works great for holding the plants down but I had concerns for root growth.
Posted 19-Jul-2006 17:52
bonny Ultimate Fish Guru Engineer in waiting Posts: 3121 Kudos: 498 Votes: 7 Registered: 09-Mar-2003	Well i've removed the foam and metal from all of the plants except one. I'm gonna use this one as a control and see how it does. Yeah i know it's very unscientific as it's a different species of plant and may be more/less suited to my tank than others but it's worth a try.
Posted 19-Jul-2006 20:06


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