Floating plants

TooManyDogs

I got some live plants for my tank, and was told to cable tie them onto some wood gently for a month and they should root. That was 6 weeks ago and I cut the cable ties today and they just floated straight up. Any suggestions of how to encourage them to root?

Also the tank is only 40 L, cold water tank with no filter unfortunately, it lives in the bathroom so no electricity. I do a 10% water change every day but I'd love to add more plants, how many could I put in? There's 2 live ones in at the minute

donal2000

Plants such as Java Fern are very simple to grow. I have mine attached to bogwood using fishing line. They will in time attach to the bogwood.

You can add as many plants as you like (there are plants for foreground, background, floating plants, etc). I guess the problem would be for you is trying to get them to grow without having an aquarium lamp as some plants require strong light to grow. You should go for easy to grow plants - Java Fern, Java Moss are a good choice.

paddy147

fine and clear fishing line to tie the plants to the wood.


And just like an ivy plant or a climber plant on an outside house wall,in time the aquariam plants will actually root and attach themselves to the wood on their own.:)

TooManyDogs

Thanks! I guess I was a bit enthusiastic about cutting out the cable ties

Dutchology

Any of the plants that we put in our aquarium are kept on the bottom by tiny strips of lead weight around cotton wool (to prevent stem damage to the plants).

If it's in a cold water setup with goldfish, you'll have a hard time trying to get your plants to stay put or grow as goldfish LOVE plants!

paddy147

Im actually in the process of fixing my dead wood branches to the rocks with Tech 7 sealent and also using 6 lb breaking strain fine fishing line to tie variious plants and moss,es to the dead wood and bog oak.

The fishing line is so fine that you cant really see it,so its perfect.;)

I,ll post a pic tomorrow,when I have the tank fitted with the dead wood and bog oak.:)

TooManyDogs

I was at the fish shop yesterday and got a new plant and then went and tied them all back on with cotton thread, so far so good. And I got a battery powered air pump to put a filter head onto so now I have a filter! So all in all a good day for my fishtank.

@Dutchology, I only have mountain minnows and weather loaches in my tank, I figured a 40L tank with no filter would be a disaster for goldfish. Someone also said that goldfish are huge poo-ers so didn't like the sound of that in my little tank!