Planting Aquarium Plants The Easy Way

[apocraphya 5]

Here is my tip for tip of the month. It's a little pic heavy so dial up beware.

I use live plants in my tank as does Alistair. The big chain lfs we used to use sells plants in little plastic pots but these come with snails, worms and lots of little nasties hidden inside. The lfs we use has far better plants but they come in a little bunch held together with a piece of lead and no pots (like the pic below). No problem.

Here is an easy way of getting round the problem. First of all you will need the following items as shown below. I got the little pots from ebay for a bargain. There is a large plastic pipette and some spare filter sponge. I am using Alistairs old silk plants for this demo but for real plants use exactly the same method.

Cut out the filter sponge so it will fit snuggly into the pot. I have used 2 bits as the pot is quite small.

I then use the scissors to poke a small hole in each bit of foam and then insert the pipette through as shown.

Here is a better pic.

Next, cut the end of the pipette off (for larger pots and bits of foam a glass test tube is ideal).

Insert the plant roots into the pipette and pull the pipette gently through the foam.

You should end up with the plant in the foam as below.

Insert the foam gently into the plant pot and you are ready to put in your tank.

What I did with Alistairs tank was use a large plant pot to hold the plants.

I filled the big plant pot with some glass pebbles then added the 2 small pots containing the live plants and covered them to the top of the big pot.

Once you have finished it should look like the pic below. Each large pot has 2 small pots inside containing a live plant.

Hope that helps you. Your goldfish will also find it alot harder to dislodge your plants from the substrate, as they're quite solid once finished. I'd like to thank Alistair for taking the pics for me. You're a wee gem x

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[mookie 1]

Very nice! Very creative, I'll have to try that myself.Maybe we should have a Fish n' Crafts department. Lol.

[jody 1]

Wow I love step by step, very creative! I will def be using this method when I get into plants Thanks

[Chrissy_Bee 144]

I recently figured out a solution to my long going struggle to remind myself about all the pet care I have to do (with 5 tanks of various species and a hamster and dog, it gets confusing!). I use gmail and have started using google calendar. You basically enter in any event that's coming up and you can get an email reminder when it rolls around. I use it for meetings and classes, and now...water changes! I thought of this 5 days ago, I know this because as I was sitting at the computer today up popped a reminder..."goldfish water change". What's great is you can have it remind you at a set time, so if you know you do your cleaning in the evening, set it for then. I'm excited because I'm also going to use it for things like plant fertilizing, light bulb replacements and anything else that needs to be done that I may not necessarily remember.

I know some people would rather use a good old fashioned paper planner for these things, but I have my email pretty much constantly open so this works better for me. Especially on evenings and weekends when I don't tend to look at my day planner as much. Also, I know that outlook has a similar program and I'm sure a lot of other major email providers do too

Email Reminders

[Hidr 4,961]

I use spark people. Works pretty much the same way. And I always change on the same day ever week. Tuesday. Only one I have trouble with right now is the 55 gallon twice a week. Wed and Sat. lol

So any computer type calendar expecially for those of us on it a lot would work great.

[mardaokansi 2]

that's a great idea!

[jody 1]

Tried it out with plastic plants Worked great!!!

I'll be getting real ones soon, I hope, once I learn to QT'em.

Heres a pic (one day till WC, a little cloudy):

[apocraphya 5]

Looks good. I use the method all the time for Alistairs tank now. it's easy and also stops your fish pulling the plants out. The only thing it won't stop, is the fish from eating the plants lol.

[johann_pond 39]

Well here is my tip for DIY Lighting.

As we all know the econemy is bad, money is tight, but I wanted to get better lighting for keeping live plants with my goldies. Most of the Lights I looked at were over $100 just for the fixture, no way I could afford that right now.

So here is what I did. I went to the hardware store, I bought 2 48" shop lights, around $15 each. I also picked up some 1x6 pine and 1x8 pine, around $12.00. I cut the 1x6 for the sides and attached a small strip of moulding for stability, i then took the 1x8 and drilled one hole in each side to attach to the edge of the 1x6 as the face plate. I went to Wally Mart and bout 4 Daylight bulbs, 40 watt each and 6500K each, price $10.50 each pack of 2.

Now I have 2.9WPG lighting which is helping my plants grow (it also brightens up the living room).

So I have spent $63.00, instead of over $100 just for the fixture.

*Note: I will post pics later if anyone is interested.

Edited March 22, 2009 by j-pond

[ellisondee 0]

I need a picture please. I need more lighting for my tank also. And you are right the aquarium lights are priced way to high for this econemy we have now.

[sebastian 0]

Awesome! This is really useful.

[mardaokansi 2]

I'd like to see pics too!

[johann_pond 39]

I will take pictures tonight and post them.

Edited March 23, 2009 by j-pond

[jyoti411 1]

wonderful tip...I love the look of the finished plants..awesome...

[apocraphya 5]

wonderful tip...I love the look of the finished plants..awesome...

Thanks

[jen626 3]

Great idea!

[Quasi 185]

I'm going to try it with the next batch af plants. The Elodea might survive this time

[SammyD 0]

Definately going to try this out and it makes things alot simpler with pictures!

Is it a good idea to change the filter pads every now and then? Might eventually become a bit mucky.

[apocraphya 5]

Definately going to try this out and it makes things alot simpler with pictures!

Is it a good idea to change the filter pads every now and then? Might eventually become a bit mucky.

I would suggest rinsing them in your tank water the first few times before replacing them totally

[hpsauce 1]

I use external filters and when I got a new one I had a lot of trouble getting the pipes connected to the hard plastic bits of the inlet and outlet fittings and the tank connections as they were so tight.

I was given the following tip by someone at the lfs. Take a cup or heat resistant container and fill 3/4 with boiling water, then dip the tip of the pipe in it for about a minute. This will make it go softer and will be much easier to get the pipes on and also gives a much tighter connection when it has cooled back down so is less likely to leak.

I have also found it can increase the life of suction cups. I have found the suction cups on my ehiem internal seem to flatten out and not stick so well after a while. Dipping them in boiling water also seems to help them reform to there original shape and stick better.

Sorry if this has already been posted, I did have a look back but couldn't see it mentioned

[mardaokansi 2]

very nice info! I had never thought about doing that to my suction cups! so thanks!!

[koko 14,339]

Please post your Tip (link) if you would like it in the Month Poll....The top Three winners get a medal and a Bumper Sticker....Please only on tip per person

Also remember the rules

Rules

[koko 14,339]

No one wants to try to get a free bumper sticker??? and a medal?? Great tips down there, all you have to do is post your link of your tip here

[hpsauce 1]

I'll try

http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/forum/index.php?/topic/78283-trouble-fitting-filter-hosessuction-cups-not-sticking/

[newbiefishgirl 1]

Koko,

not sure if anyone has posted this before...

When using Jungle Antibac Meds in floating pellet form with upside down fish?

Please turn it into gel food...talk about 30 mins of stress free!

Basically heat some dechlorinated water....about 1/3 cup and heat it in the microwave till boiling. Dump jar of antibac into water...wait about 3 minutes and start mushing and stirring. Heat up about 1/3 cup water in microwave....dechlorinate....add and dissolve q pack gelatin in this piece of the puzzle, once dissolved, add de-lumped antibac. Fridgerate till set!

Talk about easy in the whole...easy mode!