# Stem plants keep floating to the surface



## Brewboy74

I have a Flourite substrate. Everyday a few of my stems are floating up. Will these take root and stop floating away?


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## isenblatter

I think some of the more established members may be able to help a little more then I, but some questions that need to be asked are:What kind of stems do you have planted, what kind of any fish or other animals are in the tank with the plants?


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## Brewboy74

Fauna: 3 cory cats, 4 ottos, and 6 danios. They don't bother the plants so far. As for the varities I am not 100% sure. I got an assortment from Aquariumplants.com. Here are the ones that I think are in there.


Hygrophila corymbosa ‘Angustifolia’ 
Ludwigia Peruensis 
Myriophyllum tuberculatum 
Wisteria (Hygrophila difformis) 


There might be one or two more that I missed. Hope that helps


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## jmontee

How deep is your substrate? I actually have 3 inches of substrate and I removed a couple of leaves from the bottms and planted very deep. The cories can tend to rustle up the substrate sometimes but the problem your having is not all that different from everyone else who starts a planted tank. They will eventually root and not float up. Also remeber that if they are just planted then they might take a while to get acclimated to your tank. Take heart and know that they will root and then you'll have so much you won't know what to do with it.


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## Brewboy74

I have 3 to 4 inches of flourite. It slopes from the front to the back. thanks for the incouraging words. It's pretty frustrating right now. Every time I have to replace one of the plants I seem to dislodge 3 more and it never ends.


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## The old man

3 inch substrate is what you need. Plant each plant by itself, not in bunches. Plant them deep. Trim enough of the leaves off the bottom to allow them to develop more roots from the stems. Once they get some roots they should stay down. What size is your tank and how much light you got will determine how long it takes for them to settle in.


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## Brewboy74

It is 29 gal. I have a 55 watt AH supply power compact system. As they float up I will replant them deeper than they were before.


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## thankgodforthesuffering

I suppose you could just shove them in deeper, but I have had problems with that method.....yeah sometimes it works but most of the time the bottom of the stem rots away, the plant then grows no root system and again your plants are floating. I use "plant weights." They are little lead strips that are made just for this problem. You cut them in a little quarter inch piece and wrap it around the base of the stem(not too tight tho you can crush the stem, which cuts off nutrients from getting to the rest of the plant). Then you drop the stem in the tank and it sinks to the bottom. This way the bottom of the stem sits atop the substrate allowing roots to grow and take hold. Good luck


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## Bert H

Try not planting just a 'naked' leafless stem. You can go ahead and remove the leaves from the bottom node or two, but keep the leaves above that and plant them into the substrate with the stem. The remaining leaves will act as an anchor in the substrate giving them a much greater chance to root and not float up. This is how I plant my stems and have no problems with them and I also use flourite. Every 2-3 weeks as you find you need to prune/uproot/replant, you can do a minor vac in the area to remove any dead and decaying leaves. My 2 cents.


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## hoppycalif

I used to resist using tweezers to plant stem plants, preferring to use my fingers. But, that doesn't allow me to get them really deep in the substrate. After watching a much more experienced "planter" planting stems I learned that pushing the stem down to the bottom glass, using tweezers, is the best planting technique. Now I do it that way and the stems don't float out. I have a silt bottom layer of substrate, which is where the plants like to send roots, so I give them a head start by planting so deeply.

The technique is to grab the stem with the tweezers so the stem end is at the tip of the tweezers, and the rest is up towards your hand. Then just shove the tweezers into the substrate as far as you can, slightly loosen the tweezers, wiggle it a bit to get the substrate to settle around the stem and carefully withdraw the tweezers. A little practice and you can do this pretty quickly and easily. You can also plant at an angle so even more of the stem goes under the substrate. Once planted, stem plants quickly grow back to the water surface anyway, so don't try to keep as much plant showing as you can.


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## Brewboy74

Wow great information. Thanks everyone


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## gasteriaphile

thankgodforthesuffering said:


> I suppose you could just shove them in deeper, but I have had problems with that method.....yeah sometimes it works but most of the time the bottom of the stem rots away, the plant then grows no root system and again your plants are floating. I use "plant weights." They are little lead strips that are made just for this problem. You cut them in a little quarter inch piece and wrap it around the base of the stem(not too tight tho you can crush the stem, which cuts off nutrients from getting to the rest of the plant). Then you drop the stem in the tank and it sinks to the bottom. This way the bottom of the stem sits atop the substrate allowing roots to grow and take hold. Good luck


What about the lead? Does it poison the fish? eventually?
I am having the same problem only my tank is FOUR gallons! It is damned cramped in there trying to plant with my hands. Using tweezers would help but still the Flourite is so lightweight that I think it would be much simpler to attach the plants to something with some weight.
Obviously lead is the material of choice for a weight in water, but I worry about the long-term consequences of having that lead in the tank.
And please don't someone tell me I can remove the lead weights after the plants get established! Can you imagine trying to do that?! :hand:


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## abcemorse

Don't know if this applies to your plants specifically, but if they stems are branched at the bottom, like after a cutting, I use a toothpick in the crotch of the plant and bury that, works good. I've thought about piercing individual stems with a toothpick and planting it that way, but am scared of the damage it might do and haven't had the cahones to try it....


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## gasteriaphile

abcemorse said:


> Don't know if this applies to your plants specifically, but if they stems are branched at the bottom, like after a cutting, I use a toothpick in the crotch of the plant and bury that, works good. I've thought about piercing individual stems with a toothpick and planting it that way, but am scared of the damage it might do and haven't had the cahones to try it....


HI and thanks for the reply. As it happens my bacombas are just single stem cuttings - no way to attach a toothpick  What I have come up with might be worth describing. But keep in mind it is still in the idea stage. I have found that I can weigh down the plants by using some rocks around the bases of the stems. From that observation I moved on to a more elegant approach.

"What if?" I asked myself, "I used silicone cement to attach some plant ties to the underside of the rock?". Then use those plant ties to wrap around the stems of the plants. The rocks would be partially buried in the gravel (actually Flourite) so that the plant ties were also below the surface of the substrate. Then if I wanted to, later on, when the plants had rooted I could remove the plant ties/rock - or just leave things as is. The rocks look natural afterall.

Thus far I have found that the silicone cement does effectively stick the rock to the plant ties. Tomorrow a.m. I'll try to go the next step.

I considered other possibilities, incl. using heavy hex nuts (too shiny), lead-free solder (too shiny and not heavy enough and still contains some lead), or just using more substrate. But as this is a small 4 gallon "nano" tank, more than one and a half inches of substrate begins to decrease the available space for other things, like fish and plants and water, pretty fast! 

all for now, gasteriaphile


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## goldfishes

gasteriaphile said:


> What about the lead? Does it poison the fish? eventually?
> I am having the same problem only my tank is FOUR gallons! It is damned cramped in there trying to plant with my hands. Using tweezers would help but still the Flourite is so lightweight that I think it would be much simpler to attach the plants to something with some weight.
> Obviously lead is the material of choice for a weight in water, but I worry about the long-term consequences of having that lead in the tank.
> And please don't someone tell me I can remove the lead weights after the plants get established! Can you imagine trying to do that?! :hand:


You can now purchase lead free weights. I bought a package of 12 at my LFS for 1.97. I've used them and never taken them off the stems. Just don't wrap them too tightly, or the plant won't be able to grow.


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## BarnOwl

Little led strips (as mentioned here before) have no ill effect on your water. I use them a lot re-planting stems in the sand. With a lot of corydoras and other fish the plants will float minutes after planting them without led.

I use little strips of foam and wrap them around the fragile stems because often it is the stem breaking after setting the plants and not the upward force.
With Aromatica the upward force of the new tops is amazing and I could not imagine any other way to keep the plants from floating in a heavily populated tank without the led.

Anyway, if it bothers you, you can remove the led and foam after the roots have settled.


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