FishProfiles.com Message Forums

i have all rooted plants in my tank with sand substrate. and in a lot of the areas i can see the roots coming out of the sand, (mainly around the amazon sword) its getting kinda nasty and messy looking, but i am afraid to trim the roots or even touching them, is there anything i could do?

Most rooted plants need at least 3 inches of gravel for their roots. It sounds like the roots have run out of room underneath, so they are basically pushing the plant out of the substrate. I'd try using a deeper layer of gravel. Don't cut the roots, though, or the plant may not recover.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

i do have 3 inches of sand for them, but still not enough it seems...

Sand is not that good for Plants, as it compacts & crush the roots.
Gravel is much better & the roots will pass & grow easily between the Gravel.


http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/s8xi5heh/my_photos
http://www.geocities.com/s8xi5heh/classic_blue.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buzaqq/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

eco-complete sand?

I don't know about Eco-complete sand, but if it's like ordinary fine sand, it will compact & the plant roots may get crushed.


http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/s8xi5heh/my_photos
http://www.geocities.com/s8xi5heh/classic_blue.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buzaqq/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

i havent seen/felt any hard chunks yet, but i only had eco-complete for 3 months... i do have some clams and malaysian snails though, hope they are working on that

Eco complete should be fine. Really large amazon swords can require about 5-6" substrate depth, if roots are showing on the surface your plant is probably root bound. Personally, I would pull the sword up (if you can, you have to do that very carefully), trim the roots with a sharp knife or scissors. You'll want to remove a proportional number of old leaves with the amount of roots you're trimming off. So if you remove 1/3 of the root system, pull about 1/3 of the leaves. It is also possible to split the rhizome and make yourself a new plant, just be sure to use very clean and very sharp cutting utensils. A new razor blade works well.

Once you've trimmed the root system you can plant the sword again, it will probably sulk a bit and stop growing but should be totally back to normal within a few weeks.

If you want to buld the substrate deeper toward the backo of the tank where the swords are, that would be ok....

Oh, one other thing, if you can see your substrate, you need more plants.

haha, indeed, need more plants, tried to cover the front with glosso and dwarf hair grass, but algae plague anyways, i'll try to move more sand toward the sword during next water change