Have you ever been bamboozled into purchasing an "aquatic" plant from a store? It's completely submerged in the water, so you think, okay, it'll work in my tank. It has what I want or need.
But then you find out it's not aquatic at all. It likes water but it needs air. It's a bog plant, semi-aquatic. For example, Dracena. It will be fine in a tank as long as its leaves are exposed to the air. Which is usually the case with most other plants like it. So you have three options:
Take it back.
Take it out and plant it in a pot in your house.
Just let it drown in the tank. It'll live a couple months. It'll be cool. Just a plant.
But I wanted my plants still IN the aquarium. I saw how to make Moss Walls, which I intend to do at a later date but I'm leaving my Java Moss alone for the juvenile shrimp to hide in until they grow larger. Anyway, this inspired me to have an idea: create a plant box.
So I did.
My plants kept falling over each other in the box so I LOOSELY secured them via zip ties.
I've had this in my 20 High shrimp breeder tank for about a year now and it still works just as good as the day I created it. I've been thinking about using AKADAMA, which is bonsai soil, or hydroponics substrate with root tabs so I can grow emersed plants such as the lucky bamboo or pothos or something like that.
But then you find out it's not aquatic at all. It likes water but it needs air. It's a bog plant, semi-aquatic. For example, Dracena. It will be fine in a tank as long as its leaves are exposed to the air. Which is usually the case with most other plants like it. So you have three options:
Take it back.
Take it out and plant it in a pot in your house.
Just let it drown in the tank. It'll live a couple months. It'll be cool. Just a plant.
But I wanted my plants still IN the aquarium. I saw how to make Moss Walls, which I intend to do at a later date but I'm leaving my Java Moss alone for the juvenile shrimp to hide in until they grow larger. Anyway, this inspired me to have an idea: create a plant box.
So I did.










My plants kept falling over each other in the box so I LOOSELY secured them via zip ties.

I've had this in my 20 High shrimp breeder tank for about a year now and it still works just as good as the day I created it. I've been thinking about using AKADAMA, which is bonsai soil, or hydroponics substrate with root tabs so I can grow emersed plants such as the lucky bamboo or pothos or something like that.