Best Way To Plant Tanks In New Setup?

[nurglespuss]

Hi All,

I've planted plants into established/newly filled + setup tanks before.

In this case though, I'm aqua-scaping a nano, and planting the following plants into a nutrient substrate:

Hemianthus callitrichoides 'Cuba'
Eleocharis acicularis
Marsilea quadrifolia

My question is (now that I've checked the equipment works) more about water temperature than anything else.

1. should the substrate be 'damp' or under a cm or two of water?
2. should the water be at temperature (or will cold water with a bit of warm to take the edge off be ok?)
3. CO2 won't be added to the tank until the plants have been in for a week, is this OK?

thanks for your help!

 

[StandbySetting]

I'd plant the above with the tank filled with about 3-4 inches of water, that way it wont be disturbed when filling, cold water will be fine and the plants will be fine for a week, just try not to light too intensely or you may get algae problems, you might get a bit of leggy growth however.

 

[nurglespuss]

Thanks

 

[hensonc4098]

It's worth noting that the marsilea will go through a kind of transition phase, hence it will probably look quite yellow at the moment. They are grown out of water to increase the speed that they grow in the plant nurseries, so need to re-adapt when put back into water. Same may apply with the HC, it is sometimes grown in emmersed, humid conditions.

 

[nurglespuss]

Ahhh good to have that infor thank you

I'm just glad they stopped trying to float away! I hope they devlop decent roots soon

 

[hensonc4098]

No problems. I'm in the same boat with mine just now, although mine didn't float, but it's going through a horrid melty transition phase

 

[nurglespuss]

erg! melty

have you got crypts?

I've got new growth on all the plants, though I'm still yinkering with CO2 level...

 

[hensonc4098]

Yeah, but I've had them a while and they went through the same when I got them

Looking at the marsilea, it's not so much melting as just browning on the emmersed form leaves, but it does have green shoots that it's putting up of immersed form leaves now. Albeit rather slowly lol