Planting new plants

[Dogface]

Today I bought some new plants at the LFS. I bought Amazon Sword, Moneywort and Mermaid weed. The Moneywort and Mermaid came with some kind of tie at their base. Looks and feels like lead? How do I properly plant these? I just placed them in the substrate with the ties on for now. Any suggestions? Should I seperate them? If I try to seperate them, it is difficult to keep them rooted to the bottom. They just keep floating to the surface.

[SegaDojo]

i'd remove the lead... it can contaminate the water and poison the fish.

you can just shove the stems deep into the substrate.  You shouldn't have any problems keeping them planted down if you've got regular sized gravel (~2mm) and atleast 2" worth of substrate.

you should check out the link at the bottom.. it has tons of info for both beginners and "experts".

http://www.brainyday.com/jared/aquarium/info.htm

[Cillana]

Those little bands aren't made of lead. They are a mixture of magnesium and zinc and are not toxic to fish.

[dattack]

Usually I remove the weights so I can plant the stems individually.  However, since you have a problem with planting them, you can always use rubber bands to tie them together and push the stem in the gravel.  How deep is your gravel anyways where you are unable to plant the plants?

[SegaDojo]

even if their not made of lead, you shouldn't use it b/c if it is attached too tightly, it'll either crush or "strangle" the plant... causing the bottoms to rot.

[ryanp15]

I would say to make sure you have deep gravel and shove it in really good. That always works for me. I don't ever leave those waits on just in case. They are probably not really toxic but I remove them anyways for my fishies sake! I used some rubber bands on my giant hygro to keep them together cause they were so small at the time. Good luck with the new plants. ;D

[Dogface]

I guess I should be a little more forceful with sticking the plants in deeper. I have a 3/4" sand base for my anaerobic layer with a 2"layer of fluorite and a 2" layer of small gravel. I was afraid to pierce through to the sand layer. I am going to remove the weights and distribute my plants throughout the tank. I put together a DIY CO2 injection system and I am amazed at how quickly my plants are growing. The system is injecting into my power filter at about 1 drop per 7 seconds. The plants are very healthy. Any opinion on my setup would be greatly appreciated. It is a 20 high.
Thanks...

sounds good to me. hope you enjoy it!

[Matt Nace]

Dogface---

What recipe did you use  yeast?  sugar?

If you put the DIY in a heated water bath, It will put out even more. I keep my bath around 82 f. I get 1-2 a second.

Always push your finger in the sub first, then take the plant and go in again with your finger, pushing the plant down, taking your free hand to cover up the stem.

The bands can cause stem damage( camboda , foxtails are really prone to it). But I do bury then on occasion, just to get the plant started, and to give it something to hold onto the flourite with.