Help! I am soo lost

[carey]

Ok, so I have a 34g tall tank that i am planning on making a betta tank and was told that plants would be a good idea. Sooo I just got a huge box of easy to grow plants today that I purchased from a fellow forum member here. I went to add them to the substrate but they keep floating away. :-(((

I have a small beige type gravel, not real deep either. What do I do now? I have like 50 plants all floating on the top of the water. Its after 10 so I cant run to petco for anything but I do have a bag of sand and a bag of crushed coral....Should I add one of these so I can get the plants to stay down?

I have no idea what I am doing, I guess i didnt plan this out too well.

Please help!

Thanks

 

[Rodeo one]

I would add the sand & use small rocks to hold plants down where u can. Floaters are gonna happen, just keep replanting , they ll stay eventually . Make sure u rinse the sand very, very well before adding it tho.


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[Dallascowboys16]

What plants are they? some are meant to float, others to be rooted, and some to be tied to driftwood/decor. Happen to know the names?

 

[Rodeo one]

Ok... Yeah...and what he said


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[Fresh2o]

For the rooted plants, tooth picks may be helpful in holding them in place until the roots grow in.


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[BTM88]

I had a similar problem with my plants floating after I first added them to my tank. What I did was slow the flow from my filter for a fews days to let the plants root without being pushed by the current too much.

 

[carey]

So adding some sand wouldnt be a bad thing? I'm not sure I have enough gravel for them to actually get buried, the roots that is. lol

Some have extremely long roots too so not sure what or how to bury those. I think they are low light stuff, I know there is an anubis but the rest were all labeled and i threw out the wrappings. lol

Lemme send a mesge to the member and ask what he sent me. hehe I will report back when he does. Some of the plants dont seem to have any root structure to bury. Some look like algae balls like macro algae used in salt water refugiums. Do I just let them sit on the sand bed?

 

[carey]

Here are the pictures of what i got. There were seven different kinds it seems. One of the balled up pictures actually came out to a really long vine with tiny little leaves on it. Anyways here are the shots

 

[carey]

 

[carey]

This is what I bought plus some goodies he said he would throw in. lol

20 medium to small water sprite 20 8-10 inch pieces of hornwort 8 20 inch mother plants

I only know what anubas look like the others I have no idea.
Please help.

 

[ktomminello]

Water sprite is good as a floating plant, you could always build your gravel up deeper in the back and fill the front up with the sand and push your taller plants in where the 2 substrates meet up, allowing the sand and gravel to combine as it falls into the roots being pushed down, that's how I saved my telanthera and rotala wallichii plants

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[Fresh2o]

Here are my guesses and recommendations. Stem plants are often trimmed and new roots will develop at the bottom end of the stem.
1) Guppy grass, elodea, or maybe anacharis. Stem can be planted in the substrate
2) A species of Hygropgilia? Large leaf fast growing stem plant. Stem is planted in the substrate.
3) Hornwort. Free floating although you can tether it using a rock to keep it in place.
4) Moss? Perhaps java moss. Typically tied to rock or driftwood using thread or fishing line. You mention moss ball in an earlier post (which simply sit on the substrate) but this does not look like a compact ball.
5) Water sprite? I think this can be planted or free floating. Not sure. Have not kept that since the 80s!
6) See #5
7) Either cabomba or ambulia. Stem planted in the substrate.

Good luck with this!



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[carey]

Thanks so much for the help guys. I guess i am stressing this just a bit. I usually have a plan when setting up a tank but I jumped on a good deal for the plants and wasnt prepared. lol

I am going to add the sand today and see if I cant get some of these plants to stay where I plant them.