Hc

Any one got any hintrs and tips how to plant it best aswell as how to clean the tank without disturbing it?

Planting- group 3 plantlets together and plant in the substrate with tweezers. Do these groups about 3cm apart.
Cleaning- if debree gets trapped around/in the plants then just get a small siphon tube and gently wave it about to get the debree out. Hopefully the plants will have rooted and wont float off. When doing gravel cleans around the plant dont do it too near. Srcubbing the glass shouldnt cause them to float away again if they have rooted.

cheers mate,
Just orders some from aqua essentials, and can`t wait for it to arrive
i was just worried with it being such a small plant that the slightest disruption could cause the whole mat to float away

No worries.
Yeah I know what you mean. Though, it's good that you care so much about the plant
You getting the tropica pots? George's looked great when his arrived.

yea after i got 4 pots of crypocoryine crispatula from AE when i got my AS, i won`t get plants from any where else, evern though they`d been through the post they arrived in much better condition than any plant i`ve seen in fish shops, even the ones that stock tropica stock half eaten rotting tropica plants

I put a net over the HC for a week until it began to root. It takes lots of patience to plant the amanos were having great fun pulling them out before the net.

What kind of net? How long would it need to be there?

I have in the past, buried the HC to keep it in the substrate, it soon grows up through the surface, providing of course you dont put it too deep! A few mm under the substrate worked for me. If not, I also found pushing the tweezers into the substrate and then dragging them through the substrate a few mm also helped secure the ends, stopping them floating off. I would also leave it a good few weeks before you prune them as it'll need time to adjust to your light and tank conditions, but given the right conditions it carpets quickly.

Sam

Hello, Here is something I've been doing for sometime now.
I used this when I planted glosso but now am growing HC.
It's stainless steel wire bent into a "J" hook.
It's about 4cm long (1.58 Inch).
It works well on a gravel substrate.
On sand though, I have no idea as I've never used sand in my FW tank.
Creatures that will disturb HC are shrimps, snails, and some species of fish such as Malaysian Trumpet Snail, Oto and corys.
They mean no harm but in the process of cleaning they end up uprooting HC. Hope this helps you.

Forgot to mention, HC is not a demanding plant but if you can give it CO2 and more lights, the better.
It does need a high level of nutrients. They are usually grown emmersed so it does take time to acclimate it.
Mine took about 4 months and a lot of patience.
Based on my experience, here is what I have observed.
During the acclimation period, you will see some leaves turn dark green.
I think this is a process of it changing to a submerged form. Whatever you do, don't pull on it. It is still growing. It will look like it's dying but it's actually shedding leaves and stems and growing new ones for the submerged life.
Yes, some will die (melt) but don't loose heart. It is a slow grower unlike glosso. When I say slow, really slow. Here is a picture of my HC at about 8 months since I planted them. I only bought one small pot of HC and what you see now is equal to about 20 small pots.

Cleaning the substrate with HC is impossible. The plants will do that for you.
Regular water changes and regular hardware maintenance is all you can do.
Good luck and wish you success with HC.

Nice idea with the metal hook