Planting

[FishFreaks]

We are getting our new plants today, but i have another quick question. If it is potted, are we supposed to leave the cotton stuff there or remove it from the plant? also do we burry each individual stem or is it the whole plant together? is it a matter of preferance?

 

[FishFreaks]

oh and our plants are temple narrow leaf, micro sword and rotala indica.

 

[danski]

i asked that myself a while back and i think the most usual response was to remove the rockwool as best as possible to prevent it from clogging up the intake and after i talked to the guy over at aquabotanics where i bought my plants he advised me to seperate the stem plants. I think you just plant the plants whole that have a rhizome root (the ball). however i just planted my stem plants in bunches for now because of convenience.

 

[FishFreaks]

thanks! our rotala indica was pretty much yellow, im assuming its colors will come back?

 

[Mondego]

when removing the cotton stuff, be doubly sure you do not break any of the roots. it sounds easy enough but it is not. depending on the plant, it can have a very complex set of roots that may be very small and frail. leaving them in the pot does not hurt, and may be also more convenient, so if you are finding too many roots are breaking off, just dump the whole thing in, pot and all.

some plants don't take in nutrients from their roots (and are mostly for stabilizing the plants). if this is the case, than it won't matter if some of the roots break.

your sword plant may have fragile roots, and it will need them for gathering nutrition. i'm not sure about the other plants.

thanks! our rotala indica was pretty much yellow, im assuming its colors will come back?

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with proper nutrition they might, as long as they are not rotted yet. if they don't, than any new sprouts should still be healthy and green.

 

[FishSticks]

When I started my 55 gallon aquarium I planted a lot of potted plants and never worried about the wool stuff. During the next 7 months I went through a brown algae breakout, then a green algae breakout, then a hair algae breakout, then a blue green algae breakout and just recently a green water algae breakout. I tried to remove as much of the stuff as possible from the plants but of course by that time a lot of it was spread all over my substrate. Now I don't know if it's just me but ever since I got rid of all the potted plants and all the wool in the substrate (I completely emptied everything out) My tank has been cristal clear for the past 3 months with no trace of algae. I personally think the stuff is evil, maybe I just had a bad experience

 

[FishFreaks]

ok, great! thanks for the info, i'll have to do that.