Ok Im still really new to plants in my tanks (unless you wount algae, if so im a freaking pro) but I picked up some plants for my tanks and since I was new im not sure what to do about this one thing.

I got some anacharis and it was bunched together with a heavy band on the bottom. is that band safe for my tanks or do I need to take it off?

Thanks in advance

Check out this site, and see if you have a clue about what to do.
http://www.aquariumfish.com/aquarium...=Plants&cid=58
It's very broad, but has a lot of information.
You can keep it on if you want. non-toxic (as the puffer that's my avatar).

Hi -- I was like you a year ago! Anacharis and Hornwort was my first 2 plants, and I still carry on today plants from those same clippings!!!

the heavy band is most likely lead, I remove it. I would plant each stem individually in the tank.

Also, double check to make sure that you have atleast 1.5 wpg of flourescent lighting. Incandecent lighting is completely different and is not suitable in most cases. for instance, if you have a 20 gallon aquarium and your aquarium has a 15w 24" flouresent light, you should pickup antoher one of those and you will then have 30w of lighting, for 1.5wpg. your plants will grow much, much better with 1.5wpg versus .75wpg. I struggled and struggled tokeep anacharis alive, it just kept dying. Whenever I finally got enough light it took off.

The rest is history.

Yeah I figured it was lead so i removed it. I planed so in groups of two or three and others as singles. I dont know about watts per gallon I have two floursent lights over each tank and it is pretty bright. IF it is enough that kool if not well not much i can do about it at the moment, if it doesnt grow well or dies then I will have to get more light

I have anacharis, and they grw so much, I just let them folat and they grow like crazy. I don't know why, but I have never had an algae problem or sickness in all the years that I've had fish.

Anacharis doesn't need a lot of light. I used to grow it and hornwort like crazy in a 55 with 80 watts of NO flo. lights.

Don't bunch them together and plant them, spread them out to 1 stem and plant them 1"+ apart, that will help them get more light and won't get their stem smush. I had trouble growing Anacharis, they need more light then most people think, not as much as some red plants, but they need enough, and an aquarium light strip just won't make the cut. I live in texas and these thing taking over the river because of the sunlight they receive. Another plant you might like is Hygrophila Polysperma, its easier to grow then anacharis.