Finally Updating Lighting

[love cichlids]

I knew I didn't have the proper lighting for a planted tank, only have 5 plants in there right now. In the next couple of weeks I will be buying t5 lights plus a ballast, since I have t8 lights right now. The lights are on sale until the end of July. So almost have my tank set up and I can buy some more plants and give them some fertilizer and watch my tank become full with plants. I have 2 plants in the plastic pots, can or should I take them out of the pots, they don't look good in the tank light that. And what is the best way to do that without destroying the plants.???

 

[Themuleous]

Yes def take them out of the pots. Pots and the mineral wool that they are grown in restrict root growth. Most seem to come out of the pot fairly easily for me but I do use a pair of scissors to cut the pot off sometimes. (Cutting the roots back on new plants in many cases is actually a good thing as it encourages new growth so I wouldn't worry to much about be ultra careful with them ) Then I just use some tweezers to remove as much of the mineral wool as possible without breaking to many of the larger roots.

For most plants its then best to bury them in the substrate, but some do best attached to a piece of wood or rock, but it depends on the plant.

Sam

 

[love cichlids]

Ok, thank you, good to know how to do it the right way instead of ripping the out of pot. Can't do it right now, need to do water change first. But first, resting, lots of housework was done today. I wish I only had the tanks to clean, then I would be happy

 

[love cichlids]

I did my water changes of my tanks and took the plants out of the pots, it looks alot better now.

 

[Themuleous]

Good good

 

[love cichlids]

But the really stupid thing I did was forgot to plug in the filter on my goldfish tank when I was finished, the last tank I did. I came home last night with fish on the bottom of the tank. OMG I didn't realize right away what the problem was, I went running for my spare air pump and plugging that in. Dah, filter not plugged in. They are ok. They went without filter or air for 12 hrs. They were not feeling well, but they sure perked up when I plugged in the filter and put the air pump on. They are fine today, thankfully.