Plants in pots, I’m loving it

[TTboy79]

Hiya,
After ages in the hobby dealing at some point (like when having to change tank location or setup) with tons of dirty gravel, I’ve tried to put cryptos in pots, just a thin layer of gravel (next times not even that) and Java moss on the bottom.

Advantage is also No waste of nutrients ,which you put in the pots.

Anyone else is using flower pots in the tank???

 

[Colin_T]

We use to grow some plants (usually swords, crypts, Aponogetons and water lilies) in 1 or 2 litre plastic icecream containers. You put an inch of gravel in the bottom of the container, then spread a thin layer of granulated garden fertiliser over the gravel. Put a 1/4inch (6mm) thick layer of red/ orange clay over the fertiliser. Dry the clay first and crush it into a powder. Then cover that with more gravel.

You put the plants in the gravel and as they grow, their roots hit the clay and fertiliser and they take off and go nuts. The clay stops the fertiliser leaching into the water.

You can smear silicon on the outside of the buckets and stick gravel or sand to them so it is less conspicuous. Or you can let algae grow on them and the containers turn green.

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We did plants in pots for a couple of reasons.

1) I was working in an aquaculture facility and we grew and sold live plants to shops. Some of the shops wanted advanced plants in pots so we did that.

2) Plants like sword plants love nutrients and have big root systems so they needed more gravel and big pots. When given ideal conditions these plants would produce lots of runners with new plants on and we got more plants to sell.

3) Most of the tanks only had a thin layer of substrate that was nowhere near thick enough for plants to grow in so having them in pots allowed us to grow plants in tanks with minimal gravel in the tank.

 

[OliveFish05]

Love it! I am toooo! My tank is much more overgrown now, this is when it was neat and trim lol.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Love it! I am toooo! My tank is much more overgrown now, this is when it was neat and trim lol.View attachment 161000

Can we see it looking overgrown too please? I love jungle like tanks where the plants have gone nuts!

 

[Back in the fold]

That's a great way to have plants in an aquarium. Makes it easy to change things around if you want to. Easier to have the right substrate and use less as well. Also puts the plants up a little closer to the light.