Love Plants, Hate Planting

[brooke]

I love having live plants in my tanks, but it is incredibly frustrating to plant them. It's worse when I want to add more plants to a sort of crowded area. It seems when I finally get the plant I'm working on to stay (which often takes a while), the others around it come out. This carries on like dominos until I'm VERY :mad: frustrated. If it helps, I mainly use gravel with some sand on the bottom and mixed in the middle. I added sand because I heard it helps protect the roots from waterflow, and also because it seems to hold things (roots, nutrients) in a little better. Can anyone give me any tips on how to plant without uprooting everything else (how much substrate, general techniques...)? How on earth do people get their heavily planted tanks?

[AngelMom]

I sometimes just keep replanting the plants until they dig their roots in (several months) or I'll use lead strips to kepp the plant down until it roots on it's own.

HTH

[crazyred]

Planting forceps help too. I purchased a pair at my LFS and wow. Precision work without fingers. I find that deep substrate (at least 3") works best. My plants stay where I put them in my 55 (4" of Eco Complete) a lot better than in my 29 (2" of plain gravel).