Rooting Plants In Gravel Substrate

[homerhotspur]

What am I doing wrong, everything just tries to float to the top? Nothing will stay fixed. Is it best to take the plants out of the containers or keep them in? By the time I had finished yesterday, the fish must have thought a Tsunami was coming! I tried digging holes in the gravel or firmly twisting the pots into the gravel to no avail. Is there an obvious method that people use. Also, I bought an air pump system which came with an air 'stone'. I wrongly assumed this would be heavy as in ' a stone', but this also keeps floating off the bottom.

 

[Sunny_Bee]

Most potted plants I've had stayed on the bottom, but if you have any river stones you could tuck one into the pot to keep it anchored. Airstones do need to be held down as well, you can buy suction cups that will do this, they attach to the air tubing, or you can try to burry it in the gravel. I've also placed heavy rocks and decorations on top of the tubing to hold stones down.

 

[tenohfive]

The trick is that when you're setting up the tank (or I guess you could do the water change) fill it to half full, then add the plants. I take them out of the pots and sponge - carefully, so as not to rip off the roots. Then I dig a pit in the gravel, put the plant roots in it, then grab a couple of handfuls of gravel from around the tank to pop over the top of the roots.

 

[CentricOregon]

I superglued a flat stone to the bottom of my airstone to keep it down, never floated since lol

 

[Axleuk]

What am I doing wrong, everything just tries to float to the top? Nothing will stay fixed. Is it best to take the plants out of the containers or keep them in? By the time I had finished yesterday, the fish must have thought a Tsunami was coming! I tried digging holes in the gravel or firmly twisting the pots into the gravel to no avail. Is there an obvious method that people use. Also, I bought an air pump system which came with an air 'stone'. I wrongly assumed this would be heavy as in ' a stone', but this also keeps floating off the bottom.

I have used pebbles to keep my plants down. With the airstone i have buried it under my gravel with the airstone slightly angled upwards at the nose so the air has a chance to flow to the tip as i was having problems with the air only coming out just after the ube connector.

 

[Corleone]

I remove the pots (You generally want it out anyway, and IME they grow far better without it), and dig an X shaped trench in the gravel, then bury the roots along the trenches with the stem in the center.

Until the roots take hold, they can be hard to keep down. You can get some small weights that will attach to the stems, I've had very good results with those. If you have a big apple snail (I call mine Bulldozer), they're prone to uprooting new plants as they plow around like drunks.

 

[tangokitty]

I would get some plant weights and use those to hold them down until they root. Also buy root tabs to feed them. you can also use a weight to hold down the airstone, that's what I have done it is easy just twist it around the air house losely above the stone.