which to pot?

[sharn]

so im getting a new discus tank, its going to be a BB but i would like a potted something :lol: its going to have the driftwood with java fern and possibly anubias on it but i would like a bigish 'feature' plant.

what are your suggestions? its only going to have two tubes on a 200L tank thats 2 foot tall. i know i might be out of luck :lol:

i already have some existing plants and would prefer to move one of these over if possible. amazon sword, osiris sword, marbled sword, crypts of some sort, star grass, corkscrew and straight vallis, thats pretty much it for tall plants. i think my best bet might be the anubis? its real small right now but i have seen them quite large.

now if i can manage to pot something how do i go about doing it?

thanks guys

[alanmin4304]

If you pot a plant it will need to be fed through the roots so you will need to put media with nutrient in the pot and this will defeat the purpose of the bare bottom tank. If you want plant you could anchor large Java fern to something or other plants that don't feed through the roots.

[Faran]

I use Marble Swords in a terra cotta pot filled with gravel. You will find that placing a larger "stone" inside the pot to cover the drainage hole will prevent the gravel from spilling out, and it's best to wrap the roots with rock-wool to keep it from getting uprooted. I have all my BB tanks set up with driftwood with plants attached and potted swords. The discus love it and people are very impressed by them and you don't get the usual "why isn't there any gravel in that one??" comments.

[sharn]

the terracotta pot sounds good blue, am i able to say put a large stone in the bottom then gravel with perhaps a fertiliser ball and then the plant and top up with gravel? will it still need to be in rockwool then?

alan- what are some other plants that dont feed through their roots that would still look nice?

[alanmin4304]

I have never tried it as I thought the idea was to have a low nutrient tank. You could try plants like Ambulia,cabomba, H.polysperma,H. zosterifolia (stargrass),Java moss, Shinnersia,cardamine,Hydrocotyle. Just start with a little and see how it goes.

[alanmin4304]

If you are going to pot heavy feeding plants like Echinodorus sp. you will need to feed them or they will not do very well. I bought some Cryptocoryne sp. plants off a local through Trade me. They were potted in clean gravel and in a bare discus tank. The three newest leaves on each plant were white. I have fed them a bit and they now look like what I suspected they were C. walkerii. Experimenting is the way to learn. Good luck.

[sharn]

ive got some stargrass growing well so might chuck some of that in and see how it goes, i really dont have the lighting to get most of the plants growing normally never mind, i can give it a go and see if it works, if it doesnt ill just stick to the java fern tied to the driftwood. i read alot about plants not doing so great with tanks that get large water changes, mine will be getting a 50% w/c every day (or two if i get a bit lazy), spose this is to do with me taking out all the nutrients. another learning experience for me i guess