Some Planting Questions...

[Ansel_Tk1]

Hi All - hope some kind souls out there will put down their thoughts and give me some guidance...

Today I purchased some glosso (2 small 'pots') and intend to make the 'ol glosso carpet in my 65G tank.

I've got the right CO2 and light I think.

My question is, I've read the excellent posts on moss planting but I'm not quite sure how to plant the glosso for the same effect. It is in the rock wool (I think that is what that stuff is!) in the pots. Do I just pull out and plug it into the substrate, rock wool and all? Or do I have to pluck it out and place it in one by one into the substrate? If so, how far apart?

As for the rock wool, I have 4 other plants in the background and got them the same way. In my ignorance I just plunked them down in a little hole I dug in the flourite, rock wool and all. Bad/good?

Thanks for your thoughts!
Dan

 

[George Farmer]

Cut up each plantlet and plant individually with tweezers. It's a PITA but if you have the right light, CO2 etc. you'll get a full carpet in a few weeks.

Expect the odd plant to float up. Just keep re-planting until they take hold.

 

[Ansel_Tk1]

Thank you George - is a plantlet one stem with a few leaves?

Also, my tank is 36" high. Just wondering if you had any experience with tweezers or a tool that exists out there that might make this a little easier. I suppose I could drain half the water out though - right?

thanks again

 

[George Farmer]

One stem with a pair of leaves, one either side of the stem.

36" deep, wow! Draining the water is a good idea.

What lighting do you have? Standard fluorescent may not penetrate too well.

 

[Ansel_Tk1]

Hi George - I have a compact fixture with 2x96w lights (50/50 and actinic) - do you think that will be ok?

Thanks - I am really shooting for the beautiful carpet you have in your photos!

 

[Themuleous]

Not sure about the 50/50 but you're gonna def need to change the actinic bulb, its designed for marine tanks and will produce lots of blue light, which is a recipe for algae disaster!

Get either ones designed for plants (the pinned lighting article has a list of good tubes) or try to get triphosphor tubes as these have a light spectrum with peaks in the blue, green and red light, the mix should give good plant growth.

Sam