How to plant aquarium plants? How to plant aquarium plants correctly
Once you have purchased your aquarium plant, washed and disinfected it, it is time to start planting it. It is best to plant plants in an aquarium with soil and a small layer of water, about 5 cm above the ground. If your aquarium is not new, then we work with what we have. Beginning aquarists make quite a mistake common mistakes when planting plants in an aquarium.
Always start planting from the rear window. This rule applies not only to correct landing how much to good manners and compilation correct design. The front part of the aquarium should be free of plants, or planted with small plants that form a grass cover on the ground.
Avoid bending the roots to the sides. Plants with a strong root system, such as Cryptocoryne or Vallisneria, should have straight roots without bending. To do this, make a hole in the soil with a stick and plant the plant deeper than the root neck, cover the root with soil and then slightly stretch the plants up to the root neck, so the root will always be straight and even.
When planting plants, it is very convenient to use special long tweezers for aquarium plants in cases where your aquarium is full of water or has already been started. Using tweezers, it is easy and convenient to grab the plant by the root without damaging it and immediately deepen it in the soil without first making a hole. Using this method, you can plant a large number of small and large plants in a short time.
Arrange the root system of plants in accordance with its natural growth. As we have already described for plants with a powerful root, it should be completely buried and directed downwards. Plants like Aponogeton and Echinodorus have flat roots that grow in a horizontal plane.
A wide shallow hole is made for them, the roots are fanned out in it and sprinkled with soil. Plants with a tuber or bulb are planted so that the tuber is not covered with soil on top. Mosses and ferns can be tied with a thread or fishing line to a stone or driftwood on which they will grow; after rooting, the fishing line or thread should be removed.
Do not plant different types of plants next to each other. Young plants tend to grow and reproduce. If two are planted nearby different types When the plants grow, one of them will be in excellent condition, and the other will be in poor condition. A taller and faster growing plant will always dominate a shorter and slower growing one. To do this, you should conditionally divide the aquarium into sectors and plant a certain type of plant in each of them in groups in accordance with your taste and preferences.
Avoid planting dense, fast-growing plants. Fast growing plants should be planted at a certain distance from each other, because growing in a short time, they will prevent each other from receiving nutrients and light in required quantities, which will eventually lead them to a deplorable state. If you don’t know how to plant a plant correctly and at what distance from each other, then look in the directory for its adult sizes. Some particularly large plants are planted in aquariums in a single copy. back wall or in corners, while the distance to neighboring plants can reach 20 centimeters or more.
Plants that feed exclusively through the root system should be properly planted in fertilized soil or in pots with specialized soil for aquarium plants. Such plants include Cryptocoryne, Aponogeton, Echinodorus. Nowadays there is a greater variety of fertilizers for aquarium soil, some of them are applied at the root of large plants immediately at the time of transplantation; they should not be neglected, especially when growing such types of plants.
Remember that every transplant of a plant in an aquarium is a lot of stress for it and a temporary stop in growth. This stress can be avoided or minimized by using small plant pots. In them you can periodically change the location of your extension without disturbing the root system, and if you choose them correctly in size, they can be very well camouflaged in the aquarium soil.
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Living plants provide natural healthy aquatic environment for any aquarium, they serve as protection and shelter for many small species of fish and fry. Each plant has its own conditions for successful growth, some are very capricious and require special care, others are unpretentious and adapt to various water parameters. The latter are optimal choice beginner aquarist.
Step #1. Choose plants that require the same conditions as your fish. Lighting is usually set at a ratio of 2 watts per 4–5 liters of water. So for a volume of 100 liters you will need light bulbs with a total power of 20-25 watts. These are approximate average figures!!!
Step #2. Beginners are recommended to purchase unpretentious plants, such as Hygrophila varifolia, Java moss, Anubias dwarf, Cryptocrine, Vallisneria.
Step #3. Use fine gravel or coarse sand as a substrate. Reliable rooting is possible with a soil thickness of 4–6 cm. If possible, mix new soil with part of the old one from a mature aquarium in a proportion of ¼ (for example, you can ask friends or acquaintances). This is relevant for a new aquarium and will provide initial feeding to the plants.
Step #4. Before placing the plant in water, carefully examine the leaves; there may be snail eggs on them. Uninvited guests will be out of place.
Step #5. Most rooted plants are sold in pots/containers. Carefully remove the plant and use a toothpick to untangle the roots.
Step #6. Use a pencil or wooden dowel to make an indentation to fit root system. Cover the roots. Floating plants can simply be placed in an aquarium.
Step #7. Plants require 3 to 4 weeks to acclimatize, during which time they will live off stored nutrients. Therefore, there is no point in adding fertilizers; they will not be absorbed and will only pollute the water. In the future, the fish themselves will fertilize the soil, no worse than expensive additives.
Growing plants in an aquarium is no less a science than keeping fish. Compliance with all the rules of aquarium gardening is the key unique look your small underwater world. To do everything correctly, you will need to follow a number of rules. It is best to buy plants from pet stores from warm tanks.
It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that they have a juicy, bright green appearance and are free from damage and signs of rot. Don't buy right away large plants, since small and young ones take root best in a new place. It is not necessary to transport purchased plants filled with water in any container; it is enough that they remain moist and warm.
You cannot plant such plants right away. Before this, you need to remove traces of rot from them, obviously damaged twigs or leaves, remove snail eggs and filamentous algae. It would be a good idea to disinfect them in a weak 2% solution of potassium permanganate or 1% alum for 5-15 minutes. After which they must be washed in water.
Before planting algae in the aquarium, remove any roots that are too long, depending on the thickness of the soil in your aquarium. This further stimulates the growth of the root system in a new location. Plants should not be planted very close to each other. Some species, such as Vallisneria and Sagittaria, can short term give many lateral shoots.
When planting, you need to make sure that the growth bud is above the soil surface. The roots should not be squeezed by the soil; water should have free access to the root system. However, the roots must be completely covered. Also, before planting algae, you need to read special literature or consult with experienced aquarists.
The fact is that the root system of plants behaves differently in each species. Some roots grow to the sides, while others, on the contrary, grow only downwards, which should also be taken into account when planting. When keeping fish species in the aquarium that like to burrow in the ground, such as janitor catfish or goldfish, the best option Planting plants can be considered an option for planting in pots.
This can also be used to prevent plants from growing uncontrollably. On the other hand, if it is necessary to wash the soil, in this case it will be easy to take out the pots and then put them back in place, without any damage to the roots. Plants are planted based on the number of plants per fish, the better.
But it should also be remembered that plants should not occupy more than a third of the soil area. At night time aquarium plants absorb oxygen, and their excess can lead to oxygen starvation of the fish. You can also tell some rules for placing plants according to the area of soil.
In the background it is best to place dense and large plants, on which the light will fall from above. Medium-sized plants are best planted along the side walls. It is best to plant low-growing shrubs in the center of the aquarium. There is no need to plant anything in the area in front of the front glass of the aquarium, otherwise you will not be able to fully observe the fish.
Beginning aquarists who decide to practice growing plants, questions are often asked on forums: how to apply fertilizers, how to supply CO2, how to plant, how to prune, what to do with black coating on the leaves, etc., etc.... They are usually advised to “achieve balance”... And this is certainly true , but all these are general words, there are no instructions like: “How to achieve balance in an aquarium, step by step...” Lately, I have also often been asked about similar topics, and the idea came to me to write such instructions based on my own experience. Why not? After all, we all launch new banks and use the same launch schemes and parole...
In order to immediately avoid the wrath of the great gurus who are always and everywhere, I will give a photo of my aquarium (at the bottom of the article) and what it looks like at the time of writing this opus. Since the launch, all this has gone through all types of algae without chemicals and technical means such as CO2 cylinders, external filters, UV lamps... Conventional lamps daylight T4 6400k cost instead of standard ones, as I wrote earlier... There are no super-spectrums or similar super-funds for super money!
My instructions will most likely be multi-variant, and the number of options will depend on the goals of the aquarist and the initial conditions.. However, it seemed to me possible to average this out, so to speak)) Therefore, I decided not to take the initial conditions into account at all! No no, I don’t have a fever and I’m not delirious)) But since we need to achieve balance, it means it doesn’t exist yet... and that means that the initial conditions are as they are. Well, I think it will be clearer later...
I'll start with the simplest option: aquarist grows plants for himself and the speed of plant growth is not important for him. If only it was clean and free of algae. An aquarium gardener does not grow plants for wholesale sale, does not trim them after three days, and does not have technical devices such as CO2 installations and expensive UDOs, which by the way, for example, I didn’t need at all. As I already wrote, I use my own self-mixer)
So the first option and let's call it:
Growing plants in the simplest way.
We have an aquarium 1 or 6 months old with a flip flop, a beard and a black coating on the leaves, the water is clean but from time to time green threads come out, sometimes blue-green (for example in the soil or at the roots)... Light in the aquarium is simply very important. LIGHT AND NOT SUPER LAMPS! For example, I have ordinary fluorescent lamps, but: 100W for 140 liters...Let's start, as was suggested before, with a change of water. But first, let's take a couple of steps. For this we will need clay balls and self-made udos, which are described below.
Step one:
We densely plant the aquarium with plants such as valisneria, hornwort, hygrophila and, for example, rotala indica... In short, in addition to what we have, we add cheap but very unpretentious plants that grow quickly and are designed to eat up excess nitrates and phosphates. I select plants in this way so that there are both lovers of nitrates (hornwort) and big fans of phosphates, or rather quickly absorbing them - as a rule, plants actively produce aerial roots and are ready to eat not only leaves... Rotala, by the way, contrary to popular belief, eats both nitrates and and phosphates, well, that’s true, by the way... The main problem is the number of fish and organic matter in the water. That's why
Step two:
We cultivate in the soil, EXACTLY IN THE SOIL, a culture of nitrobacteria. I would recommend Nitrivek, I use it myself during startup.. Why in the ground? Because since there is a lot of organic matter in the water, the filter (simple, with a sponge) needs to be washed often! Once a week and thoroughly.
We dig clay balls into the soil of the plants, which you can make yourself, if only there was clay. This is necessary in order to introduce less water into the water... After feeding, we begin to change the water.
The first week - every other day by 30%. The second - two days later by 30%, the third week - once by 50%. Then change the water weekly by 25 - 30%. And it’s important: we try to keep the temperature, if possible, no higher than 25 degrees! The point is that when low temperatures plants that have not yet started to grow properly will have an advantage in the supply of nutrients over algae. With more high temperatures plants have less chance only if they have not already begun to actively grow. Algae will start much faster!
At this stage we are not pouring any water at all! We only hope for fish. The number of fish can be calculated approximately like this.
Optimally 7 cm per 10-12 liters of water. Those, if you have a jar of 120 liters, then it is advisable to have no more than 12 fish in there, the size of which is about 7 cm... This is of course approximately and rough, but the principle is clear, fish best manufacturer fertilizers, but also organic matter, and we need it in such a proportion that it has time to decompose and nourish our grass. The goal is for bacteria to quickly decompose organic matter and for plants to assimilate it faster than algae.
Step three:
We take a time out... About 2-3 weeks... We change the water and don’t do anything.... The aquarium is a self-regulating system.. The clay does its job in the soil.. We don’t interfere and wait for the biological balance to manifest itself, and this will happen approximately in 2-3 weeks. How to see it? Just. You will see that the filter begins to clog more slowly, the water is always clear, and you wipe the glass from plaque less and less often... and... you trim the rotala once every 10 days and the valisnria begins to spread its shoots throughout the jar... All this is still not in perfect condition, but it is clear that the life of the grass has begun to spread throughout the volume..
Now we are one step away from what we want!!!
Step four:
This step depends on the results of the previous steps. Namely:
If the algae disappears in the aquarium, and the plants begin to grow, then there is no need to give additional water. In general, there is no need to get into the biosystem while it is healing itself! Then, when the cleanliness comes, you will feed the plants leaf by leaf and improve their size, but for now just watch the miracle: everything grows by itself! This is truly a miracle, nature regulates itself very effectively without our intervention and chemistry... You can add more complex and beautiful plants)
If cleanliness has already arrived, then during the scheduled water change, we begin fertilizing with self-mixer. Very careful! Macro and micro + separately iron citrate. Slowly. We continue to keep the temperature low. If the temperature is reduced to 23-24 degrees. then you can increase the number of fish by 50 percent! Temperature and light are the most important factors, and in my opinion temperature is more important.
That's all! It's simple. but there are some small additions.
- if the aquarium is young, less than 6 months old, then the denser you plant it, the better.
- if the jar is older than 6 months, then the planting density will affect the amount of CO2 in the water, the rate of UDO absorption and metabolism, and it can be changed arbitrarily by changing the amount of UDO and the amount of CO2, respectively.
- if the light in the aquarium is less than 0.6 W per liter, then CO2 is not needed at all when planting 30% of the volume of grass. If the light is brighter, then either give the mash CO2 or compact the planting.
- I will separately note the usefulness of adding cherry shrimp, Beeline snails, etc. to the aquarium. There will be several times less organic matter and, accordingly, black plaque too. With thick grass, cherries will survive even with barbs and cichlids - it’s been tested, I’ll even publish a video soon.
Aquarium plants not only add beauty and liveliness to the aquarium, but also serve as a breeding ground for its inhabitants, purify the water, increase oxygen levels, and, one might say, improve health. Therefore, the question: ‘How to plant aquarium plants?’ is very important.
An aquarium is not a jar of water, it is a microsystem in which a lot of processes simultaneously occur among the inhabitants of this microcosm. And no two aquariums are alike. Therefore, aquarium plants must be chosen carefully enough so as not to change the existing ecosystem - aquarium residents are extremely conservative in this matter.
The plan for planting aquarium flora should be thought out in advance, since frequent plant replanting have a detrimental effect on root system , and not every plant can quickly adapt to new living conditions (even if everything happens in one aquarium, the plant forms its own, so to speak, aura, to which it is already accustomed)
If you look at root system , then it’s easy to understand how deep the plant needs to be buried in the ground.
Aquarists often encounter this problem - you try to root a plant, but it just doesn’t want to and floats up. Here’s a life hack: take a stainless steel nut and tie the root zone of the plant to it, and can be planted. Now the plant will definitely sit securely in the ground.
A prerequisite is that the nut must be made of stainless steel (it’s easy to check - stainless steel is not magnetic).
At the stage of planting aquarium plants, you need to take care of decorative elements . How and in what quantity to place decorative details is a matter of taste, but please note that due to the decorations the volume of water is reduced, and in addition to shelters, the fish also need space for swimming.
How to plant rosette aquarium plants
Rosette plants are easy to identify and resemble broom plants. Popular:
- Echinodorus
- Sagittaria
- Cryptocoryne
- Aponogeton
- Samolus
These are quite large plants with dense rhizomes. The choice of rosette plant is made based on the dimensions of the aquarium. When planting medium-sized plants, a step of 10 cm must be observed, otherwise the plants will interfere with each other’s growth and development (than larger plant, the larger the step). If the aquarium is small, then a single rosette plant will also look pretty good.
Scheme of planting an aquarium plant with rosette roots. Usage decorative elements, such as stones. They are wrapped with fishing line or thread and tied to an aquarium plant.
Glass rod. It performs the “weight” function very well and also has small size, which makes it easy to disguise it in the aquarium.
How to Plant Aquarium Plants with Horizontal Roots
The main problem with planting this type of aquarium plant is the constant attempt to float. First, take a look at the plant, you need to determine to what depth we will bury it in the ground, the beginning of the green part is a guide - it should be above the ground, everything below we go deeper into the ground. You need to put a pebble (pebble) on top, which can be removed a little later, when the plant has strengthened.
Other aquarium plants
They are planted directly in water; they do not have a root system. They are unpretentious and grow quite quickly, so they need to be sorted, thinned out and ensure that they do not cover the entire surface of the water. The right amount floating plants - one third of the surface of the aquarium. The most popular floating aquarium plants are duckweed and frogweed.
There are also types of plants that simply grow on driftwood, stones and other objects. No problem how to plant this type of aquarium plants , no, the main thing for them is to cling to the object.
What to consider when planting plants
Plant roots should be freely located in the soil. The root should not be allowed to bend upward or stick out of the hole - this will prevent the plant from taking root.
After planting aquarium plants is completed, you need to fill the aquarium with water.
The location of each aquarium plant should be chosen based on its needs. Light-loving plants planted near the most illuminated wall of the aquarium. Volumetric plants occupy the background, corners or side walls. The middle part of the aquarium is reserved for small plants.