Plants in advance

[Colinlp]

No it's not a shop

our new tank should be with us in about 3 weeks, it's pretty big and it will need some big plants. We plan to buy potted Tropica plants, mostly Echinodorous. Is it worth buying these now and putting them as is into a smaller tank to try and grow on or acclimatise to our water or would we be better off waiting until the new tank is ready for them?
Cheers

 

[gzylo]

Hi I would wait

+ make sure you will get nutrition rich substrate as echinodorus feeds mostly by roots

 

[ceg4048]

...echinodorus feeds mostly by roots

Hi,
This is a myth. Swords and crypts are voracious water column feeders. Just about all aquatic plants feed from both root and the water column, therefore it's a good idea to have both a rich substrate and an adequate water column dosing scheme. One can grow any so-called heavy root feeder in plain sand/gravel without any difficulty as long as the water column is dosed. Swords are tough plants that can handle any nutrient scheme as long as there is something available either above or below the substrate. However you'll see better and quicker results if you dose the water column.

I agree that it's pointless to buy plants before you have your tank set up. Acclimatization difficulties occur due to the transition from a terrestrial environment to being flooded and living in a submersed environment. There are extreme physiological changes that occur to the leaves of a plant when submersed under water. This has little to do with your particular set of water parameters so if you buy the plants earlier than necessary you'll have exactly the same problems in your smaller tank as you would in your main tank. You'd still have to supply nutrients and CO2 (if you're planning on using CO2). You'd still run the risk of algae or die off if the small tank was not adequately prepared.

So this is more trouble than it's worth. I'd advise to have patience and use the 3 weeks to get up to speed by reading the forum sections, especially the Tutorial section. There are articles there specifically designed for the beginner.

Cheers,

 

[Colinlp]

OK thanks, I'm happy to wait until the tank comes. I was intending to dose the water in the holding tank while they were there, nevermind, I was just going near the green machine next week I hoped to kill 2 birds with one stone