Brewboy74

I have a Flourite substrate. Everyday a few of my stems are floating up. Will these take root and stop floating away?

isenblatter

I think some of the more established members may be able to help a little more then I, but some questions that need to be asked are:What kind of stems do you have planted, what kind of any fish or other animals are in the tank with the plants?

Brewboy74

Fauna: 3 cory cats, 4 ottos, and 6 danios. They don't bother the plants so far. As for the varities I am not 100% sure. I got an assortment from Aquariumplants.com. Here are the ones that I think are in there.


Hygrophila corymbosa ‘Angustifolia’
Ludwigia Peruensis
Myriophyllum tuberculatum
Wisteria (Hygrophila difformis)


There might be one or two more that I missed. Hope that helps

jmontee

How deep is your substrate? I actually have 3 inches of substrate and I removed a couple of leaves from the bottms and planted very deep. The cories can tend to rustle up the substrate sometimes but the problem your having is not all that different from everyone else who starts a planted tank. They will eventually root and not float up. Also remeber that if they are just planted then they might take a while to get acclimated to your tank. Take heart and know that they will root and then you'll have so much you won't know what to do with it.

Brewboy74

I have 3 to 4 inches of flourite. It slopes from the front to the back. thanks for the incouraging words. It's pretty frustrating right now. Every time I have to replace one of the plants I seem to dislodge 3 more and it never ends.

The old man

3 inch substrate is what you need. Plant each plant by itself, not in bunches. Plant them deep. Trim enough of the leaves off the bottom to allow them to develop more roots from the stems. Once they get some roots they should stay down. What size is your tank and how much light you got will determine how long it takes for them to settle in.

Brewboy74

It is 29 gal. I have a 55 watt AH supply power compact system. As they float up I will replant them deeper than they were before.

thankgodforthesuffering

I suppose you could just shove them in deeper, but I have had problems with that method.....yeah sometimes it works but most of the time the bottom of the stem rots away, the plant then grows no root system and again your plants are floating. I use "plant weights." They are little lead strips that are made just for this problem. You cut them in a little quarter inch piece and wrap it around the base of the stem(not too tight tho you can crush the stem, which cuts off nutrients from getting to the rest of the plant). Then you drop the stem in the tank and it sinks to the bottom. This way the bottom of the stem sits atop the substrate allowing roots to grow and take hold. Good luck

Bert H

Try not planting just a 'naked' leafless stem. You can go ahead and remove the leaves from the bottom node or two, but keep the leaves above that and plant them into the substrate with the stem. The remaining leaves will act as an anchor in the substrate giving them a much greater chance to root and not float up. This is how I plant my stems and have no problems with them and I also use flourite. Every 2-3 weeks as you find you need to prune/uproot/replant, you can do a minor vac in the area to remove any dead and decaying leaves. My 2 cents.

hoppycalif

I used to resist using tweezers to plant stem plants, preferring to use my fingers. But, that doesn't allow me to get them really deep in the substrate. After watching a much more experienced "planter" planting stems I learned that pushing the stem down to the bottom glass, using tweezers, is the best planting technique. Now I do it that way and the stems don't float out. I have a silt bottom layer of substrate, which is where the plants like to send roots, so I give them a head start by planting so deeply.

The technique is to grab the stem with the tweezers so the stem end is at the tip of the tweezers, and the rest is up towards your hand. Then just shove the tweezers into the substrate as far as you can, slightly loosen the tweezers, wiggle it a bit to get the substrate to settle around the stem and carefully withdraw the tweezers. A little practice and you can do this pretty quickly and easily. You can also plant at an angle so even more of the stem goes under the substrate. Once planted, stem plants quickly grow back to the water surface anyway, so don't try to keep as much plant showing as you can.