How to keep plants where you put them

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jeffruth

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Mar 27, 2011
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276
Location
Kelowna
Ok so I have a start of a planted tank. However, I have pain in the butt loaches and corys. My tank is established with 53 fish. I picked up some plants. Dwarf hair grass and mini swords.

When I planted the grass approx one month ago I spent the next week replanting replanting replanting as my loaches and Cory go thru them and rip them up. They aren't eating them but they look for food chucks etc and up root them. When I put the mini sword in beginning of this week same thing. Come home and replant replant.

Anyone have tips as to how I could prevent this. Once they are rooted it's fine but getting to that point is tough.

When I planted, I stuck them down into the substrate approx halfway. Made sure the roots are well into the soil but not so far that the plant is buried. How much of the "green" part has to be above the substrate for the plant to stay healthy? I realize all plants are different in this respect but any general rule if thumb?

Any tips are welcome as I will be putting in many more plants and the busier it gets the more of a pain it will be to have to replant.

CO2 injected
2xT8 lights, 1 @ 6500K 1 @ 18000K
2xT12 light, 4600k?? grow lights
Dose with Flourish every 4 days @ 6ml
Lights on 8hrs/day

Cheers
 
if your tank is big enough corys wont uproot plants.
DHG will float if it isn't rooting, which means its pretty much going to die. I doubt your corys are doing this, loaches idk as I have never owned them.
DHG and mini sword should be planted in about 2/4" clumps so your planting to much if they even have enough plant to uproot. and you aren't planting deep enough.
 
Ok so I have a start of a planted tank. However, I have pain in the butt loaches and corys. My tank is established with 53 fish. I picked up some plants. Dwarf hair grass and mini swords.

When I planted the grass approx one month ago I spent the next week replanting replanting replanting as my loaches and Cory go thru them and rip them up. They aren't eating them but they look for food chucks etc and up root them. When I put the mini sword in beginning of this week same thing. Come home and replant replant.

Anyone have tips as to how I could prevent this. Once they are rooted it's fine but getting to that point is tough.

When I planted, I stuck them down into the substrate approx halfway. Made sure the roots are well into the soil but not so far that the plant is buried. How much of the "green" part has to be above the substrate for the plant to stay healthy? I realize all plants are different in this respect but any general rule if thumb?

Any tips are welcome as I will be putting in many more plants and the busier it gets the more of a pain it will be to have to replant.

CO2 injected
2xT8 lights, 1 @ 6500K 1 @ 18000K
2xT12 light, 4600k?? grow lights
Dose with Flourish every 4 days @ 6ml
Lights on 8hrs/day

Cheers
Plant along the edges of the tank and leave the middle open. With proper light, CO2, and fertilizer, DHG is aggressive and will run underneath the substrate and fill in the middle over time like a BOSS. Once the roots are established it will be harder for those rascals to uproot your plants.
 
Ok sounds great. When I got my plants then came in clumps aprrrox 3". I then cut them up into 1" clumps to plant. Maybe I made them to small. I will leave in bigger clumps next time.

It's a 90gal. The Cory just swim thru the plants but I think it's the loaches as they are poo heads...
 
Ok sounds great. When I got my plants then came in clumps aprrrox 3". I then cut them up into 1" clumps to plant. Maybe I made them to small. I will leave in bigger clumps next time.

It's a 90gal. The Cory just swim thru the plants but I think it's the loaches as they are poo heads...

I plant in small clumps. I started a Betta tank two weeks ago. in one week you can see the progression of growth.



 

I will look into this.

Another thought I have is whether I should use root tabs. I have playsand as my substrate. I originally wanted to go for a Cichlids tank but decided not to and now have gone tropical freshwater. Then I decided to go plants. Kinda did it backwards.

I don't have the desire or time to redo the soil. Love my rock setup and don't want to change it. Aswell half the foundation of rocks in buried in the sand.

Tank is well filtered and has high flow.
 

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I went out and picked up some Scarlet Temple and planted it. Hope it takes off. Added some Flourish root tabs to the tank. Placed them every six inches around the tank.
 

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Getting tired of re planting the Scar temple. How can I keep them in the substrate better? I have them in 1.5" deep but the flow of the tank keeps pulling them up. Not all, but seem 2-3/day. Any thoughts??
 
You could look into aquarium plant anchors. They are lead, but are supposed to be fish safe? Anyway, my LFS store uses them and the fish seem okay.
 
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