# questions about first live plants



## 1RainbowBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

So I had some reward dollars I needed to spend at Petco so I got a couple plants for one of my bettas. He's a terrible tail biter and I'm hoping this may help. I've never had aquarium plants before. I got an anubia and (I think) water wisteria. I was reading about quarantining new plants, especially since they were in a tank with fish swimming around with them, and I'm wondering what the best way is to quarantine them without killing them. I've read 1:10 bleach solution, aquarium salt, rinsing with tap water, or just putting them in a bowl of water by themselves for a couple weeks. What have you done that has worked well? What do I need to look for, besides tiny critters crawling on the plant?

I was thinking of tying the anubia to some decoration or weighting it down with a little gravel or rocks. It came in a little plastic basket type thing. Does it need to be rooted in anything special? I just have gravel in my tank and don't want to add dirt or anything like that. For the wisteria would it work to attach it to a suction cup on the side of the tank so it can float? I'd like to have a plant in both the upper and lower levels of the tank. ;-)

I got these because the room is low light. I see shopko has a full spectrum light that supposedly mimics sunlight in today's ad. Would that be at all useful for plants? I only have a small west window and a patio door for light in the room, and it's on the north wall on the opposite side of the room from the tank. So not a lot of natural light and no tank lights.


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## tankman12 (Nov 13, 2012)

Anubias feed off of the water column so you can tie it wherever. The wisteria will usually float on its own so you can just throw it in. 

Quarantining plants isnt really needed.

For a light i would get a clamp light at home depot than a 6,500k cfl. Very cheap light and it works.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Tony2632 (Aug 30, 2013)

You can just plant the wisteria in the back. That plant can get huge and take over a tank if left untrimmed.


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

Be mindful with anubias, its rhizome (the horizontal 'bamboo' like part that leaves and roots grow from) cannot be buried, it needs to be completely exposed to the water column or it will rot and die. Many people tie them to decor to ensure the rhizome is never buried, but if you have long healthy roots the roots can be anchored in the substrate.
I use to have a decent anubias collection (rhizome rot disease on the last addition whipped them all out) and tied them to glass beads using fishing line, buried bead in sand and had rhizome above the sand, worked great.


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## Lettuce (Jul 12, 2014)

tankman12 said:


> For a light i would get a clamp light at home depot than a 6,500k cfl. Very cheap light and it works.
> _Posted via Mobile Device_



Any chance someone could link to a specific clamp light on home depots website? I just want to get something that is proven to work!


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## tankman12 (Nov 13, 2012)

HDX, 150-Watt Incandescent Clamp Light, CE-300PDQ at The Home Depot - Mobile

Or any other size. I use this one exactly for my reefs sump lights and used it on my 5 gallon tank for a while. Just make sure you get a good, 6,500k or 6,700k bulb.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Lettuce (Jul 12, 2014)

Oh ok, I have seen those before, thanks


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## 1RainbowBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

tankman12 said:


> Anubias feed off of the water column so you can tie it wherever. The wisteria will usually float on its own so you can just throw it in.
> 
> Quarantining plants isnt really needed.
> 
> ...


No quarantine? Should I at least rinse them in tap water or something, or would that do more harm than good? Just look them over closely then for any signs of critters?




Tony2632 said:


> You can just plant the wisteria in the back. That plant can get huge and take over a tank if left untrimmed.


At Petco it was just stuck in some gravel but some of the roots were actually floating around free. Is that okay? The roots don't need to be anchored in anything then? I'm hoping it will grow at least for awhile because if it goes well I'd like starters for my other tanks. 



Aqua Aurora said:


> Be mindful with anubias, its rhizome (the horizontal 'bamboo' like part that leaves and roots grow from) cannot be buried, it needs to be completely exposed to the water column or it will rot and die. Many people tie them to decor to ensure the rhizome is never buried, but if you have long healthy roots the roots can be anchored in the substrate.
> I use to have a decent anubias collection (rhizome rot disease on the last addition whipped them all out) and tied them to glass beads using fishing line, buried bead in sand and had rhizome above the sand, worked great.


Thanks for the tip. I was thinking of doing something similar with a couple rocks. Tie some fishing line or rubber band around the plant then anchor the line in the gravel. 



tankman12 said:


> HDX, 150-Watt Incandescent Clamp Light, CE-300PDQ at The Home Depot - Mobile
> 
> Or any other size. I use this one exactly for my reefs sump lights and used it on my 5 gallon tank for a while. Just make sure you get a good, 6,500k or 6,700k bulb.
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


I looked at the one you linked to. We don't have a Home Depot around here but I could try Menards for something similar. If it's made for an incandescent light it would work good for the type of bulb I need then? What is cfl? Sorry for the idiot question. I know nothing about lights for plants.  How long should I have it on each day?


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## tankman12 (Nov 13, 2012)

I never QT my plants, and i have a lot. If you want you can do a while qt tank. But i would just wash them under some water and your all good.

As far as the light. Ya just find one that looks like it. It says incandescent but you can use any bulb that fits. A cfl is one of those curly bulbs. If you have a walmart around, they have a aquarium compact fluorescent. Dont get the incandescent. The compact fluorescent works great and is the perfect spectrum. 

For the plants only around 6 hours is fine for them. If you choose to get a lot more, then bump it up to 8 or 10.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## 1RainbowBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

Maybe I'll do a short quarantine then. That way I can also move them to get a bit more light until I have the chance to get to Menards and/or Walmart and get something set up.

Thanks.


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## 1RainbowBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

Okay, got an aqua culture mini flourescent bulb at walmart. 6500K, 10 watts, 600 lumens, full spectrum light. Sound like the right one? There were a couple bare areas on the shelves, so I hope what I needed wasn't sold out. I also got a desk lamp with a bendable neck on it so I can adjust it. I didn't really have a good way to clamp a lamp on something.

Question: how far away should the bulb be from the aquarium or the plants?


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Yeah, sounds good. Position the light where you think it looks good; leave a couple inches away from the water so it doesn't give off totally unnecessary heat. Unless your tank is really small, though, you shouldn't have to worry about that.


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## 1RainbowBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

Thanks. It hardly gives off any heat unless I practically touch the bulb. Right now the bulb is about 4 inches from the side of my 2.5 gallon and it hasn't affected the water temp any.

So another question, how far away is too far? -- for the plants that is. If I decide to add live plants to another tank about a foot away from the 2.5 gallon, would the one bulb be enough for plants in both tanks?


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## Pippin (Apr 11, 2014)

Actually, I would quarantine your plants. Little critters can live on them for a quite a while, and some of them can make your fish sick. Well, my dad says that, and that stuff is his expertise, so I trust him.


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## 1RainbowBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

Pippin - I did quarantine them for a couple weeks, just as a precaution.

But only the anubia is doing okay. The wisteria has been losing leaves little by little and now there are only a couple left on mostly bare stems with roots.  They just seemed to get a darker more transparent type of green or turn brown and then fall off. I've been using the light about 6 hours a day and put some Florapride in there, but obviously it's not a happy plant. Anyone know what could be wrong? The tank is heated (about 80 F.), and cycled.


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## kittenfish (Dec 1, 2013)

Did you get it in its emersed or submersed form? If it was emersed it might be transitioning. Any growth at the tips?


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## 1RainbowBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

It came out of a big fish tank at Petco and was fully submersed when I bought it. It hasn't put on any new growth, just lost almost all its leaves.


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## kittenfish (Dec 1, 2013)

That's strange. Only thing I can think of is increasing the photoperiod, 6 hours is on the short side. If you can get a photo that would help.


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## Tony2632 (Aug 30, 2013)

Wisteria is actually a stem plant, so it feeds from the roots. Try adding a root tab, it might help. I used flourish tabs for a while, till I started making my own root tabs from 00 size gel capsules and dynamite slow release fertilizer. Just get the flourish root tabs for $10 from your LFS or pet chain stores like petsmart and petco. I recommend flourish just because it's easy to understand. One 6500k daylight CFL bulb with clip on lamp is enough for a small tank. You can position the light a few inches from the water surface. The basic light time for a planted tank is 8 hours. I own 3 ponds, from my understanding natural light can cause a lot of algae. I make my own DIY pond filters with a UV build in to keep my pond water clear. So I wouldn't recommend natural light for a planted tank. 

People actually float wisteria before with great success. Only because it's a extremely easy plant. The plant is so easy, it feels like I can grow the plant in gasoline with great results lol.


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## 1RainbowBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

Thanks. I didn't find any root tabs at Petco so I'll check amazon, and also increase the time the light is on and see if that helps any. But the poor thing has lost all its leaves now, so I don't know if it can survive. Would the anubia like a root tab? If I use a root tab would I stop using the florapride then? 

Also, does Prime keep fertilizers from working?


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## Tony2632 (Aug 30, 2013)

Anubias doesn't feed from the roots, so no it doesn't need a root tab. Anubias, java fern, moss, or any floating plant feeds from the water column for nutrients. Sounds like florapride only has Iron and potassium in the bottle for nutrients. From the looks of things florapride chould work for you, since you don't really have a lot of plants. Since I feel like typing I'll explain the macro and micro nutrients in basic terms. 

Macro nutrients is the main nutrients for plants. They consist of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphate.
Micro nutrients is pretty much your trace elements. They consist of Iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc, and many more other nutrients. 

A lot of people run low tech tanks with very few plants. Reason why I recommend flourish comprehensive supplement fertilizer. It contains everything I mention above, in smaller dosage. 

As for prime removing or stopping fertilizer from working. I'm sure it doesn't since pretty much almost every single person who owns a planted tank uses prime.


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