new plants???

[sonflowerjoela]

Should you take them out of the little plastic pots they come in? What kind of ferts work best tabs or liquid? Thanks for your input! :D

[Noddy65]

Yep..take them out of the pots and plant them...the fertilisation regime depends on so many things i.e. type of plant, amount of light, CO2 injection.
Some more details would be useful...

Mike

[sonflowerjoela]

I don't have CO2, Sword plants of different types and grass. They did not have names on them. They are in a discus tank in gravel. In the little pots, store said to leave them in the pots. I just have basic lighting. Was told also swords could take this. Low maintenance. :?

[AQUAMX]

Hi

Echinodorus/Sword plants generally tolerate low-high light aswell as low-high temps.

Most commercial growers that supply plants to shops grow plants in rockwool placed in small pots. This allows for hydroponic type setups in hothouses. This allows the grower to produce plants both disease and algae free.

The rockwool pots do nothing for the plants growth and if anything will restrict root development of your plants. You should take the plants out of the small pots and wool and repot them in larger pots. I like to use a laterite/gravel mix for the bottom 1/3 and the rest plain gravel. If you can afford it you can use Aquasoil which i have found works extremely well also.

Fertilising depends on the plant. Generally you should use liquid ferts for stem plants and substrate fertilisers for root feeders such as crypts and swords. As your plants are heavy root feeders and also high iron feeders they would benefit best from regular root tabs or as i said if you are potting using a mix of nutrient rich substrate.

Cheers

Brad

[sonflowerjoela]

Hey thanks Brad for all that info! :D Would planting the plants in terra-cotta pots with sand in the pots and a flourish root tab be ok or do you think it has to be a laterite or aquasoil? I don't know where to get the soil here. I haven't seen it in any of LFS. I have seen laterite and something else and I have sand in one of my tanks.

[ellwa]

Whenever I add new plants to my aquarium I soak them in a solution of about 8L of water/1 cap of household bleach for about 10minutes, pickingoff any poor growth before it goes into the bleach solution.

After 10minutes or so it goes into a bucket of water, with an airstone, and a big does of Seachem Prime[or any other dechlorinator] for about 15-20minutes before planting.

any never plant anything in the little pots they come in.

elliot.

[sonflowerjoela]

Thanks Elliot! :D Why soak them in bleach?

[AQUAMX]

Hi

In all the years i have kept plants i have never soaked them in bleach. I have heard of this procedure to kill bba etc but personally i think it is a little extreme although i understand the theory behind it.

Potting out your swords in larger pots with root tabs etc will be very succesful for you. Many people do this with great success providedthe pots have sufficient size to allow for good root development.

This is also an excellent way to make your discus tank very manageable.

Cheers and good luck

[sonflowerjoela]

Here are some of my plants they have some brown spots and dicoloring arond leaves. I haven't planted them in pots yet. Heard they don't like being disturbed too much. They do have some new growth though.

[AQUAMX]

Hi

At first i would probably go for trying some root tabs having now seen the pic. Swords in general are heavy iron feeders and obtain the majority of their food through the root system. Try an iron rich root tab such as dupla k or similar and see how you go in a few weeks. I would be patient and wait at least 2 weeks to notice good improvement.

Cheers

[sonflowerjoela]

I had bought some of those flourish tabs and put them in this past Sat night. So we will see how it goes. Thanks for input.

[AQUAMX]

No problem anytime.

I hope all goes well.

[ILLUSN]

Hi sonflowerjoela, I pot all my swords in terracotta (110-150mm) pots in a very nutricious mix 2 parts vermiculite 1 part flora base with a teaspoon of osmocte native plant granuals (VERY low in Urea and Phosphate). i cap off the top inch of each pot with an inch of 3mm gravel or pool filter sand. I then re fertilise every 6 months with 1-2 JBL clayballs and my small and baby turn into MONSTERS in just over a month!
Sand will work ok but include a good nutrient binding site such as clay in the bottom 1/3 of the pot and keep up the ferts! In plain pool filter sand I had to use 1 clayball every 4-6 weeks and 1/2 a jobes stick every 3-4 weeks to keep up the nutrients. Tank size is 2x1x1.5 conditions CO2 30-40ppm, ph 6.6, light 1xlifeglo 2 2xpowerglo 1xaquaglo (1w/L) duration 12-14hrs, temp 26C. 50% water change pw fertilize with Flora gro+ and flora24 as per directions.

[sonflowerjoela]

thanks for info Illusn. So do you have any pics of your tank? Mine are doing so much better since I got the flourish tabs. I just put those in the gravel. And the liquid florish once a week. I have 72 gallon tank. I'll try to post pics of plants now.

[sonflowerjoela]

Same plant at about 2 months with plant tabs. It even has babies on it. Where I could make 2 new plants. Any advice on how to do that? :D

[sonflowerjoela]

Does anyone know the name of the plant I posted in the first pic?

[bushie]

that is a crazy peice of driftwood.
am I the only person that sees weird animals in that?

nice tank/ fish by the way.

[sonflowerjoela]

No sir I think it looks like a monster my self. I did not see that aspect of it until I had it in my tank. :lol:

[scott bowler]

they all look like sword plants sonflower good to see they are growing so well for you now . to me there are two diffrent types of swords , well done and good luck

[sonflowerjoela]

Hi Scott, I think so to just not sure of name. The biggest ones are amazon swords and I have 2 little ones in front that are melon swords. Just not sure what the one is. Any clue? Anyone? LOL

[ILLUSN]

Hi sonflowerjoela, your sword to me looks like a cordifolius or an apart,what colour are the new leaves? if they are redish it's proably apart, if not its proably cordifolius (Radican is the old name)heres a photo of my tank, the pots a burried in the gravel or hidden from direct view by drift wood.

[ILLUSN]

close up of the pots behind the driftwood my ocean green's are posing :)

[sonflowerjoela]

Great tank! :D You really got the plants going well. I love your cardinals. I have 18 rummy nose tetras with my discus, I want to continually add to that shoal. The new leaves are green on that plant im trying to find out what is. I have two small melon swords and there leaves are reddish when they first come out. I love my plants. I just need MORE! LOL :lol:

[scott bowler]

hi son flower this is what it is called Echinodorus horizontalis some times its called paddle sword and you were haveing the same problems as dave on the other thread about swords . this sword dosnt like lots of light and high temps hope that helps

[sonflowerjoela]

Hey Scott, thank you for that info, where did you find the info on the paddle sword? I'd like to look into it. Maybe I should move the plant to a different tank. Dark corner. LOL and it does help to know that thanks.

[scott bowler]

hi sonflower you can find the info on line , when i find things of intrest i justm look it up , seem to be looking things up all the time haha that isnt a bad idea maybe you do have a dark corner that you could put the plant in haha it may fix it . good luck with it all , oh with the paddle sword i think i got that info from a book called conpleat aquarim i think it has a big thing on plants , cheers scotty

[sonflowerjoela]

When you buy plants from unkown source. Is there any special treatment you put them thru to make sure they don't have snails eggs or other parasites or diseases on them before putting them in your tank?

[ILLUSN]

I use a potasium permangenate dip for bout 10 or 15min i use 1gram/10L this kills all snails and their eggs and hurts alage very badly.

[sonflowerjoela]

Do you know if the plants you buy are in a tank and the fish have ich, parasites, worms anything like that, can the plant bring that disease into your tank? And will the PP kill it? Thank you so much for your help! I really appreciate you! :wink:

[ILLUSN]

it should, its VERY electronegative, lick chlorine so it causes oxidation, be carefull eith the dosage and SOAK plant in warm water for bout 30min after treatment, when tratment is done the PP solution will change colour from purple to brown.