How do you plant stem plants without loosing your temper?

OK... so... I bought my first live aquarium plant about a year ago. Like most people I started off EASY, with Java ferns and anubias. About 80% of those Javas ended up infected with little green balls that no forum seems to be able to ID. The anubias did well but now bore the daylights out of me. I ended up selling most of them to a shop. I've slowly moved into bucephalandra and alternanthera, then my very first crypts, which I put in pots in case I killed them (I haven't yet!).

I recently placed received my first order of stem plant cuttings, Bacopa Monnieri Variegatus from BucePlant. I am setting up a new tank to replace Test Tank #2, and it has Seachem black Flourite substrate. Even though the bag said not to cover it, below the Seachem I added some of the Fluval Stratum that came with the tank kit I am using.

My question is: HOW do you plant stem plant cuttings without completely loosing your temper

Those cuttings would NOT stay put!!! Then the water clouded up, and I couldn't see WHERE they were ending up!!! My dreams of a nice little planted tank that doesn't look like a newbie owns it quickly went down the preverbal hopper. Even my test cryps, which I removed from their pots and had tons of roots, wouldn't stay under the gravel!

The next morning, the water was clear again and I saw where those plants ended up. Not exactly where I wanted them!

I have been planting OUTDOOR plants since I was a kid, but these aqua-plants may get the best of me!

Is it possible I don't have enough substrate? THOUGHTS???

I live near a beach, so I can go down and fill a bag with nice pebbles. They help, around the base of the plant until it has rooted. You do need a deeper substrate, patience, and ideally, the ability to swear in 3 to 4 languages so you don't bore yourself.

I WAS going to add some rocks to keep them down, but the water clouded up so much, I couldn't see where to place them, either!

How much substrate do you have in the tank? I usually have around 3 inches to keep this from happening.

Woah, 3"?? Then I really don't have enough! I think mine ranges from about 1-2"!

Nells250 said:

Woah, 3"?? Then I really don't have enough! I think mine ranges from about 1-2"!

Click to expand...

That right there is a big part of your problem.

For planting in thinner substrate I use either plant weights or cut the leaves in half at the bottom of the stem

Cut the leaves in half (vertical lines) then when planting it creates a temporary anchor. I've managed to keep plants in a 1.5inch thick substrate without them floating.


also takes a lot of patience

Hmmmm, that "anchor" idea makes sense! I think I was way too stressed to even remotely think of that at the time!

I do 2 inches or so of substrate. What I do is make a "trough" with my index finger, stick the stems down in it & backfill with my index or middle finger. Small stones around the base can help especially if you have fish that can dig (catfish, loaches or cichlids). The same technique works for crypts, etc.

Really, I'm on a stem plant hate right now. They grow faster than I want to bother with them every week or less. Not as bad as my moss hate of several years. But I'm lazy...

Deeper gravel (3-4 inches), as mentioned by the others.

The cloudy water is from the substrate. You should check the ammonia levels regularly because some substrates can release ammonia for months after it's been added to the aquarium.

Unless you want to grow plants like Echinodorus, Cryptocorynes and Aponogetons, there is no need for special plant substrates in fish tanks. Most aquatic plants take their nutrients via their leaves. The 3 groups of plants I listed above take nutrients via their leaves and also their roots. Having said that, you can get root tablets for those plants and push a couple in at the base of the plant or before you plant and it feeds them via the roots. Combining that with a liquid aquarium plant fertiliser will give you good results and no need for plant substrates that cloud up the water.

Picked up another bag of Flourite. We'll see if that helps. Need to rinse it all first, before it starts getting super cold... today it was in the upper 70s!!

I'm not great at planting, always makes me laugh when you see youtubers planting with such ease! I use tweezers and then pop a couple of pebbles around them to help keep them in place. I'm useless with anything that requires individual stems to be planted so I just avoid those altogether lol.

Lcc86 said:

makes me laugh when you see youtubers planting with such ease!

Click to expand...

They DO make things look SIMPLE!! I wonder how many takes they shoot before they get usable clips? ;-)

OK, I just repositioned the plants in question, and they WERE a bit easier to plant now that there's some more substrate in the tank. I really didn't have to add much, either. I guess I didn't have to drive and get another bag of Flourite after all...

I will admit I have struggles keeping stuff planted, but that's not reserved to just stems. I've got fish that dig everything up lol


But that means I've had to get clever.

I've tried many methods, some work some only temporary until one of the catfish or goldfish figured it out... I can barely keep anubias attached for long in my goldfish tank, I'm constantly reattaching it to something lol.

But, for small fish, a trick that's working for me lately is one of those graphite plant weight strips, wrapped gently around stems inside filter floss. Space the stems out in a spiral, think like a cinnamon roll with the filter floss strip and keep a little bit of the roots below the floss bottom. Then just very gently coil the weight around it. Not enough to crush the stems, but enough to hold it. Don't overpack them because the roots need to breathe as well. Then you place this in the substrate and it'll eventually root.

Some may still float out, but majority stay anchored if you did it correctly.




Some plants you can tie down to suction cups or mesh using fishing line, like hornwort or pennywort, if that's a trick you'd like to try out. Hornwort isn't a fan of being buried in substrate, but it can get messy floating so anchoring it with a suction cup is a good handy trick, I'm sure this could extend to other plants as well. I think wisteria would respond well to this method too.




Reminds me to make a pictorial thing for the weight method, haven't gotten around to it yet lol