Little Cherry Barb

Today I got the pool filter sand, live low-light plants (hopefully will live) and some other things to set up my tank. Now the water is completely cloudy (that will eventually settle, right?), and there is plant stuff (small leaves and such) everywhere. On my sand, in my intake tube, and in the filter media bed. Should I try to clean it off the sand and get it off everything?

To plant the plants, I took off all the wet foam that I came home with, and spread out the roots underneath the sand. One of the plants doesn't really have roots so I just straightened them and covered the bottom with sand. Is that how I was so supposted to plant them? I don't have a heater yet, so the water is pretty cold. Will it get to room temperature without a heater? I don't want to kill my plants.



Hopefully future puffer will appreciate this.

jdhef

I really know nothing about real plants, but I am pretty sure you need to get rid of all the plant debris in your tank. It'll just decompose and pollute your water.

Eventually the water will get to room temp without a heater.

Alasse

Did you wash the sand? Watch your filter, the sand can damage impellers when its stirred up like that. You may be better to turn the filter of until it settles somewhat. It also could be your filter stirring the sand up, you will know if this is the case by turning it off for a bit. You need to remove the plant debris, it will foul your tank as it rots

It depends on the plant types as to how you plant them. Do you know what they are? Pics of the plants will help towards IDing them.

The plants generally do not mine cooler water, but the tank will come to room temp or close to in time

pepetj

Hi Little Cherry Barb
Congratulations on going planted with sand! The water will be clear in a few hours, if you have good filtration. I'm so happy for you and your fish. Take a pic or two and post it here for us. (I'm charging the battery of the I-finally-got-the-borrowed-camera right now).

I have had the exactly same problems and ocassionally -when not careful, both still occurs to me.

First you need to ID the type of plants you have. Try photo galleries in planted tank or plant geek (google that).

Some plants (e.g. Anubias) can't be buried entirely in the substrate (the main root, named ryzhome, needs to remain above surface level, secondary roots can be buried safely). Others tend to rot easily (e.g. Valisneris). Probably (I'm guessing) the ones you see no roots in, are bundles of either Anacharis or Hornwort, these are floating plants that can be buried, and will grow roots eventually.

The sand particles can damage the impeler (I have one being fixed now -couldn't find a replacement part locally) or at least make the filter malfunction. Just unplug the filter, unscrew the motor (follow the AC wire) and with a clean cloth (even paper napkin) wipe the interior; flush in tank water. Remove the filter media carefully (place it in a bucket with some tank water in it) and clean as much as sand particles you can (again, you could use a clean cloth or paper napkin; then rinse in tank water), assembly the whole thing, and fill it with tank water after positioning it back in the tank, plug the cord and adjust as necessary (don't worry about water spills, I allways make a little mess, it's part of the fun of fishkeeping).

Make sure you give your plants 8 to 12 hours of light daily; get a pair of scissors for trimming, and... very important rubberbands, keep rubberbands and mid-size gravel at hand -to make new bundles.

I once purchased and used for a week or less, allegedly "safe" lead weights for plants but after talking about it here in fishlore, I decided to remove them. Your nitrates level will be in check with real plants (mines are allways around 10 to 25ppm, prior to scheduled partial water change). Good for you!

Pepe
Santo Domingo