[JeffP]

Fairly new to planted tanks. Just wondering:
My stem plants seem to be sending out tons of roots from a lot the leaf sections. Is this normal or does it mean something? Limnophila aromatica, dwarf baby tears, anacharis, water sprite are all doing it.

 

[vespers_]

mhm it's normal. probably because the stems didn't have much of a root system when you got them/some are floaters. you can just cut them off if you don't like them.

 

[JeffP]

Is this something that will stop once the plants are more established?

 

[tetra73]

Is this something that will stop once the plants are more established?

I don't think so. The roots will eventually send out smaller roots to the surface too. You just have to trim them once a week if you are lucky.

 

[HD Blazingwolf]

they will never stop.. unless u fertilize the main root source.. the plants will put out roots where they are most available. the water column. having plants that aren't stemmy in front of them will hide the ball of roots though

 

[somewhatshocked]

JeffP: Sounds like it's time for you to invest in a pair of long scissors from the dreaded eBay. Ha!

You're about to find out - in a couple weeks - why so many of us feel crazy after being a part of this hobby for an extended period of time. Pruning, trimming, yadda yadda. But you'll grow to love it.

Though, if you're the JeffP who ordered Osmocote Plus caps from me, I think your root situation will calm down within a month. On occasion I've forgotten to fertilize Eco-Complete when I start a new tank and it takes a month or so to get them under control once I remember to do the right thing.

 

[Chaoslord]

JeffP: Sounds like it's time for you to invest in a pair of long scissors from the dreaded eBay. Ha!

You're about to find out - in a couple weeks - why so many of us feel crazy after being a part of this hobby for an extended period of time. Pruning, trimming, yadda yadda. But you'll grow to love it.

Though, if you're the JeffP who ordered Osmocote Plus caps from me, I think your root situation will calm down within a month. On occasion I've forgotten to fertilize Eco-Complete when I start a new tank and it takes a month or so to get them under control once I remember to do the right thing.

Why would you have to fertilize eco complete on a new tank? Are you using old eco?
I thought eco complete comes with bb and is pre fertilized.
At least thats what my bags say when I've used it to start my tanks.

 

[gonzo.njexit9]

CHAOSLORD
I was rEading this thread and was going to ask the same thing.
when i scolled down and read yours?
FERTILIZE ECO-COMPLETE????

 

[Chaoslord]

CHAOSLORD
I was rEading this thread and was going to ask the same thing.
when i scolled down and read yours?
FERTILIZE ECO-COMPLETE????

It took 3 yrs before I started fertilizing my eco complete.
That's when I believed I was seeing a deficiency in my plants. Once I did they started coming back with a vengeance.

 

[Chaoslord]

Fairly new to planted tanks. Just wondering:
My stem plants seem to be sending out tons of roots from a lot the leaf sections. Is this normal or does it mean something? Limnophila aromatica, dwarf baby tears, anacharis, water sprite are all doing it.

Just trim them as close to the stem as you can. Make sure you invest in the scissors you're happy with. I've always regretted my impulse buy. Lol.

 

[somewhatshocked]

Eco-Complete is inert. It's essentially gravel. In my experience, it'll absorb ferts from the water column but definitely requires substrate fertilization to produce acceptable growth.

 

[zachary908]

Yep, agreed Eco-Complete is inert, but it has a high CEC. Which makes it very effective at absorbing nutrients... even ones that are dosed in the water column.

 

[somewhatshocked]

Just to update...

I recently had a bad batch of EC and here's what the CaribSea, Inc. Sales Manager for North America told me via email:

"[T]here is nothing organic in the product other than some tannins and bacteria cultures… the substrate itself is inert biologically speaking…"

(They replaced my bad batch quickly, by the way)

 

[Sharkfood]

Ecocomplete is porous, and to some extent will retain whatever fertilizer it can sequester, but there really is no appreciable amount of useable nutrients in the fired clay. The minerals in it are bound up in a crystalline structure that isn't useable by the plants.

Flourite makes the same claim about having nutrients, but although the elements listed may be there, it's somewhat misleading to refer to them as nutrients. The glass your aquarium is made from contains iron, but nobody is claiming that aquarium glass is a nutrient source.

I suppose that lithotrophic bacteria could eventually break fired clay down into a bioavailable form, but for all practical purposes, ecocomplete is inert.

 

[tetra73]

Ecocomplete is porous, and to some extent will retain whatever fertilizer it can sequester, but there really is no appreciable amount of useable nutrients in the fired clay. The minerals in it are bound up in a crystalline structure that isn't useable by the plants.

Flourite makes the same claim about having nutrients, but although the elements listed may be there, it's somewhat misleading to refer to them as nutrients. The glass your aquarium is made from contains iron, but nobody is claiming that aquarium glass is a nutrient source.

I suppose that lithotrophic bacteria could eventually break fired clay down into a bioavailable form, but for all practical purposes, ecocomplete is inert.

I think this can be said about most "plant" substrates. Regardless, I think people should add root tabs to the substrate, especially if one is running a high tech tank.

 

[JeffP]

As interesting as this conversation is, I'm using sand because I only wanted to invest as little as possible since it's my first one and wanted to test it out first. Anyway, I have a pair of small micro tip pruning scissors that I've been using to trim the leaves and stuff off as they die off when I first put the plants in, so those should be able to get me pretty close to the stems.

I did get a bunch of caps for some heavy root feeders I plan on getting, but was wondering if I put caps under each plant and stopped doing major dosing in the water column, would that make the stem plants want to shoot more roots down into the sand instead of out into the water?

 

[somewhatshocked]

Sand, being inert, functions much the same as EC (though, there's really nothing for the plants to cling on), though the about of stuff it can absorb is minimal.

You'll definitely see improvement with substrate fertilization.

 

[Mr. Fish]

I wanna try soil and eco complete but have heard from multiple sources there's a bad reaction mixing these two and will melt most rooted plants.

 

[TexasCichlid]

In my torn down high tech tank, my ludwigia would grow multiple roots into the water column at a rate of several inches a day. It was extremely annoying and made it difficult to enjoy the stems. Substrate was Eco-Complete with root tabs. My low tech tank has a few ludwigia clippings, Eco-complete and root tabs, but no water column roots.

 

[HD Blazingwolf]

I HAVE HUGE WATER COLUMN ROOTS i love it lol. just cause it means when it comes to replant after trimming too many times. i just trim below a ball of roots and it'll stay planted and roots itsselfvery quickly. especially since if i dont do this the roots that form under the substrate are tiny for ludwigia

@mr fish. if u do soil. cap it with plain gravel.. lots of it. cause it makes messes