Plant Substrate

[jcardona1]

No to derail, but I have a couple of my anubias in the sand (with flourite below the sand) and they seem to be just fine. Will they rot if I do this?

they could, depends how you have them planted. the rhizome cannot be buried or it will rot, it needs water flowing around it. the roots can be buried. what i do is tie the roots to a small rock and then set it on the substrate. makes it seems as though its buried...

 

[mgamer20o0]

No to derail, but I have a couple of my anubias in the sand (with flourite below the sand) and they seem to be just fine. Will they rot if I do this?

like jcardona1 said keep the rhizome out of the gravel. i have lots with long roots i put a inch or so roots into the gravel just to hold it it floats up a little there still about a inch between the gravel and the rhizome but it keeps them safe.

Oh, I forgot.

Before I started my planted setup I did a bit of research, if you want a "plant" substrate, flourite is highly regarded as good because it doesn't cause some of the problems laterite-lined substrates can.

a lot of people have problems with flourite since its hard to clean and cloudy. there are plenty of others too not saying its bad but its not the only one out there.

You can use potted aquarium plants too!

when you get potted plants you should take them out of the pots. you can get like garden pots and fill them with substrate like eco.

 

[E36 328i]

Thanks for the info. My anubias have their rhizomes completely exposed now. I only had a small portion slightly buried. I managed to find some large anubias specimens that are very nice, it would have been awful to lose them to a newbie mistake like that!

So flourite can be problematic huh? I have it in the bottom of my tank, with black sand on top to keep it down. My Raphael likes to stir it up a little bit but I don't have any problems thus far with it clouding the tank. Go figure...

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Jag1980]

Only time you have a dusty problem with Fluorite is the first day you put it in your tank, after that there is no problem at all..

I don't like the texture and the way it holds plants.
You have to dig a hole, then hold the plant down and use the fingers you aren't using to push the gravel over to cover the roots and hold the plants, trying planting 50 Val's like this... Unless you buy black, the color is extremely ugly unless you like the color and texture of crushed Terracotta..
Sand is perfect, just push the plant in the sand and your done.

I think if you got the cash, I would recommend Eco-Complete

 

[jcardona1]

I dont think there is any problems with Flourite. As mentioned, just wash it thouroughly like any other substrate. Common sense would tell you not to dump it in the water without rinsing! I've got it in two of my tanks and neither has gotten cloudy because of the substrate. I have the Original, Black, and Black Sand. no complaints from me