Got them planted...now what

[gale]

I got my aquarium plants but they are just stems, no roots. How do I plant them? Do I leave the twist tie thing on the bottoms (they are bunched plants) or take it off? Just stick the stems into the gravel? Hurry I don't want them to dry out!

ETA: ok I did some searches and found out how to plant the plants. Now what? It looks horrible in there-leaves and pieces of plant floating, all clogging the suck tube of my filter. Is that normal? Do I need to get that stuff out somehow?? I think I just have too many in there-I need to get my 2nd tank set up and put some in it. This tank is a 20 long and I think there are 10 plants-5 of them hygrophilia and 5 hornwort. Is that too many?? (they were on sale )

 

[gale]

Is it ok if the fish are eating some of the plant things floating around? It does look more clear now-I just need to do some rearranging when my dh is here to tell me if it looks ok. It's hard to see without standing back and with my kids it's impossible to do a whole lot.

 

[konrad05]

Um to answer the first question, just put the plants in with the metal anchor thing, it'll help them from getting uprooted, unless your gravel can hold each individual stem when you seperate them. If leaves are floating around, take them out to prevent your water parameters from changing, and you can cut off a few dead leaves from the plants, but not too many. I don't think too many plants is bad, post some pics!

 

[gale]

we have a hitchhiker! I found a snail that obviously was on one of the plants. Do you suppose there are more? He's a cute little bugger-I hope it's not a problem that he's in there.

I rearranged the plants and there were leaves and needles everywhere, and clogging the suck up tube again. The fish seem to be more active than before, especially the cherry barbs.

As far as pictures, well...a decorator I am not. lol. We have goofy ornaments and neon gravel-my kids are the ones picking everything out for the tank. It is colorful though. As for the plants, I have them covering the heater tube but when I used them to cover the aerator tube it looked way too bushy right there so I moved that plant. So the air tube is visible. I also put them near the filter area but then the leaves kept sticking to the tube and the water rushing in was taking off more leaves so I moved them. So the filter area is all unplanted. I'll get the hang of it...someday.