how do live plants survive

[phish2189]

i have two live plants,, an amazob sword and dwarf sagitaria. i dont know how they survive, like if all they need is water and a flouresent light. they are both in the soil-like mass that was in the pot but i took them out and set them under gravel. i was just wondering if thats all they nedd or if they need special food. thanks

 

[The-Wolf]

they will draw all their requirement from thw water, nitrates, c02, food etc
you can help along with aquarium plant food but it's not nessacery

 

[Max]

how big is your take how strong is your light you need about 2-4 wpg (watts per gallon) may wana have this moved to plant section or sould i say redirected lol

 

[mrV]

Both are bottom plants and easy to keep. When you plant those plants, don't put them too deep, or they will die. Leave the neck of the root on the same level as surface of gravel or just a little bit above, roots are inside gravel but all leaves must be above soil.

Those plants get alot of nutrients from bottom, so add some fertilizers for them: eg. JBL 7-balls or Tetra Crypto etc... What kind of gravel have you? If you have very porous gravel (big grains) then be very careful when fertilizing plants. Porous gravel lets fertilizer mix with water easily which means probably problem with algaes.

 

[Tropjunky]

like danio2004 said but i'd put some plant feed in. but that's only wot i do.

 

[-cAtFiSh-]

i just use a liquid plant fertilizer once a week and that works fine.

 

[Ed4567]

Plants use light energy to assimulate carbon dioxide and water into glucose (and happily for us oxygen as a by product) through photosynthesis; they then use some of this glucose in respiration to release energy to survive. So they do not actually have 'food' in the normal sense, however they do need access to certain substances to allow vital processes to occur (for example a nitrogen based substance such as nitrate for proteins to be made) which is where you can help by adding fertiliser.
Ed