Is This Normal?

[Damage]

Hey everyone, I recently strafed away from a cichlid rock tank and decided to establish a planted tank.
My plants seem to be thriving, the majority of them have grown 3 - 5 inches in the past week.
The only thing I noticed is that plants like my Water Wisteria have begun to sprout roots from EVERYWHERE along the stem.
Is this normal?
Is there something with my water chemistry?
I have a regular gravel substrate since I didn't want to use anything under it.
I dose liquid ferts 2 - 3 times a week. (I think overdosing might be a culprit? Correct me if I'm wrong)
I also have CO2 injection going 24/7 as there are no tankmates currently. (Been busy with the planting process)

Also, I recently acquired a couple of potted plants from my cheapie LFS, and they came with a bonus... snails!
Should I use the yo-yo loach approach to dealing with these or is there a better way?
I have a bunch of aquarium salt and was thinking of using that, if possible. How much would I need to use per 5 or 10 gallons lets say?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Themuleous]

The roots thing is perfectly normal, some stem plants just do that. Don't worry about it

I recently added a few dwarf chain loaches to one of my tanks to get rid of the snails, not that there were many, so cant really comment on their effectiveness but most if not all loach species will eat snails so its up to you which you get. So long as there is room in the tank, I much prefer the biological snail control method than the chemical control. The locahes I have are some of my favorite fish, so they can add to a tank as well as controlling the snails

Check out http/www.loaches.com/ for more info on a particular speices.

Sam

 

[Damage]

The roots thing is perfectly normal, some stem plants just do that. Don't worry about it

I recently added a few dwarf chain loaches to one of my tanks to get rid of the snails, not that there were many, so cant really comment on their effectiveness but most if not all loach species will eat snails so its up to you which you get. So long as there is room in the tank, I much prefer the biological snail control method than the chemical control. The locahes I have are some of my favorite fish, so they can add to a tank as well as controlling the snails

Check out http/www.loaches.com/ for more info on a particular speices.

Sam

haha, alright. Is there anyway to make them less visible or something? Should I just prune them? One root is like 6 inches long!

I love the dwarf loaches, I've never seen any LFS carry the though...

 

[RadaR]

You can cut the roots if you want to.
That's a shame that you havn't seen them. Expensive little things though, £7.99 at my LFS.

 

[Damage]

You can cut the roots if you want to.
That's a shame that you havn't seen them. Expensive little things though, £7.99 at my LFS.

Cutting the roots won't affect significant nutrient uptake will it?

And ya... the LFS around here are terrible when it comes to fish choices. They all carry the same common types. Neons, angelfish, corys, and the same plecos. That pretty much covers it.

 

[SuperColey1]

Get your fish delivered from TriMar. They have a huge choice

Andy

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I think dwarf chain loaches are close to going on the endangered species list arent they? If this is correct its not a fish I would recommend unless you plan on breeding them (if this is even possible). Shame because they are very, very, nice.

With regards to roots. You could just leave them for now, once the plants fill in you stop noticing them.

Snails, I had lots of snails and strangley enough have learnt to live with them. I have about 4 different, hitchhiking, species of snail in my tank and they all seem to leave my plants alone and do a good job cleaning up left over food. Yes there are quite a lot of them but again once the plants grow in they become less noticable and just become another part of the life in the tank.

Good luck with the tank, make sure you post a journal with lots of pictures if you haven't already done so. You will be amazed how quickly plants can grow under the right conditions (my vas probably grows about 1-2ft a week!!).

If you are going for smaller fish I would also recommend as getting some shrimp as well. They really do add something extra to a planted tank (when you actually see them that is).

 

[Damage]

Get your fish delivered from TriMar. They have a huge choice

Andy

I googled trimar, and if you're referring to the UK trimar then that won't work for me, I don't think. Seeing as I live all the way in Canada.

I think dwarf chain loaches are close to going on the endangered species list arent they? If this is correct its not a fish I would recommend unless you plan on breeding them (if this is even possible). Shame because they are very, very, nice.

With regards to roots. You could just leave them for now, once the plants fill in you stop noticing them.

Snails, I had lots of snails and strangley enough have learnt to live with them. I have about 4 different, hitchhiking, species of snail in my tank and they all seem to leave my plants alone and do a good job cleaning up left over food. Yes there are quite a lot of them but again once the plants grow in they become less noticable and just become another part of the life in the tank.

Good luck with the tank, make sure you post a journal with lots of pictures if you haven't already done so. You will be amazed how quickly plants can grow under the right conditions (my vas probably grows about 1-2ft a week!!).

If you are going for smaller fish I would also recommend as getting some shrimp as well. They really do add something extra to a planted tank (when you actually see them that is).

I wouldn't know about the endangered species list, but they're definitely one of the few loaches I actually like.

Alright, I will leave them for a bit and see how it turns out.
I'm afraid of starting a journal due to the sheer lack of aquascaping skills I have, and its still a work in progress.

I'm also starting to run into my first algae problem. I noticed one of my plants had small green hairs on it when I first got it, and I didn't think much of it. I guess now it was hair algae, a little has grown on the back of my tank. Any tank mate suggestions that would eat something like this?