New to planted tanks need some help

[Apriladflover]

I am starting a new planted tank I also have an established 29 gallon I'm going to be adding real plants to I have a maybe stupid question can you glue the java ferns and different plants that can be glued or attached to fake decorations or do they have to be actual rocks and wood also I ordered a pack of plants and none of them are labeled I'm not sure what 2 of them are maybe I could take pics lol I need some help bad lol

 

[Aiken Drum]

You can glue rhyzome plants, mosses etc to anything. It doesnt have to be natural rock or wood. What you are glueing them too is purely acting as an anchor.

If you are glueing make sure the glue is cyanoacrylate. As far as im aware all superglues are this, but there could be some that arent so i would check the packaging.

Personally i like to be able to easily remove my java fern to trim it down, remove plantlets etc as it would overgrow the tank if allowed to grow freely. So ive taken to tie wrapping the rhyzome to a plant weight and strategically placing a small rock in front of the plant to hide the weight. I can then easily and quickly lift out the plant, trim it down, and replace it without disturbing the aquascape.

 

[Apriladflover]

Hey one more question I just saw a video that I was supposed to disinfect and quarantine the plants I didn't do that ��now I'm worried about my fish in the tank with the plants is there anything I can do ?

 

[Aiken Drum]

I guess it depends on where the plants come from.

You can bleach treat plants to kill off any pest snails that may hitchhike in on your plants, kill off any algae. And rinse to remove any pesticides. I tend to buy plastic packaged Tropica plants that are laboratory grown and guaranteed to be free of any of those things, or my fish store is simply careful with how they store their plants in their plant display tank and ive never had anything hitchhike in. So beyond just rinsing them under the tap ive never needed to disinfect plants.

If you didnt disinfect the plants there shouldn't be a risk to your fish. You just might start to see snails pop up in the future which you may not like and could get a bit out of hand if you overfeed your fish for instance and waste food will support an exploding snail population. All you can really do now is wait and see. If you are worried you didnt rinse the plants and there could be pesticides you could do a big water change.

May be a bit late, but i will link episode 1 of a good youtube series on setting up a simple planted tank. You dont need to get as technical as they do with selecting lights, substrate etc, but it goes through the process of what you should consider.

https://youtu.be/66Xt4qglbNc

Also a video on some easy plants.

https://youtu.be/DpOVZEhBQ2c

 

[Apriladflover]

Thank you so much I'm having problems identifying some of the plants none of them were labeled these are the first plants I've ever gotten if I take pics do you think anyone could help identify?

 

[Aiken Drum]

Yup. Post some pictures. Im not great at identifying plants ive not personally kept, but you never know. And other members keep plants obviously.