Setting up a live aquarium with plants
Setting up an aquarium is a fun and frustrating job. The deeper the aquarium, the challenging the effort. Plants and accessories tend to be lighter than water and want to float, complicating the task. Often after several floating plants, we finally believe we have everything planted. However, the next moment, something again floats to the top making it necessary to start over.
Frequently I would have beautiful plant specimens, well rooted, perfect in every way, but in the process of planting, quite often from one to two-thirds of the roots would either be destroyed, or so badly bruised, they would eventually rot. Resulting in weeks to overcome the shock.
Lead aquarium plant weights - which are not actually made out of lead - can be used to prevent this problem. By wrapping the lead strip in a gentle frame around the plant roots, the lead weight can hold the plant down to the substrate until such time as the roots of the plant can adequately hold the plant naturally in the substrate.
By placing the plant in the center of this metal frame and spreading the roots out nicely, roots that should be covered by sand can be gently covered while the plant is held by the weight of the frame.
It is best to not use metal because most metals will leach into the water and may be toxic.
This is also a more healthy way to plant roots as this allows us to spread the roots out so they can grow more naturally and healthily.
Greg Everett on October 10th 2008 in Home
