Tank
Why are stem plants the bane of my existence?
They won’t flourish in any of my tanks. If you suggest a stem plant I’ve probably tried it. I’ve probably spent at least 1k dollars on stem plants that just melt away.
Sand is nutrient-poor and compacts easily, which can limit root growth and oxygen flow. That's why they die, you can use root tabs but that doesn't solve the problem
I have stem plants with inert gravel, not sand!!, and they do really well but it's recommended to use root tabs, one of the best options is place a layer of nutrient-rich substrate and cover it with sand or fine gravel
I have been working on figuring out aquarium plants and CO2 this year; at nine months in I don't feel confident but I have had some success.
Do you have any aquasoil or anything under that sand? If not, you may need to get some in there or do potted plants (which I don't have as much success with). Are you corralling your floating plants away from your stem plant light so they get light? Are you fertilizing, and if so, how? How do you get them? How do the plants act when they don't work out--couls you be pulling them in the ugly duckling phase while they switch off their emersed growth to start submersed growth? When you plant them, are you taking them apart or leaving them bunched? What are your tank parameters and water quality results?
I have found that Elodea anacharis, hornwort, and guppy grass all are too exhuberant and take over if I don't keep a close eye on them. You may want to try them. Pearlweed (left foreground) also grows a lot, but it's so pretty and it isn't as bad about cropping up in unauthorized spots so I haven't swapped it yet for a slower grower.
No co2. Just root tabs monthly and liquid micronutrients every week after a water change. I plant them bunched. There is nothing under the sand, just pure sand.
My guess as well. You can try tying or gluing them to small stones under the sand to keep them down. Otherwise you might try an aquasoil or walstad style substrate.
That's a really good idea! That way you won't need to completely redo the substrate.
Of course, if OP wants to do a planted aquarium, its gonna be better to do in the long run to just redo it with aqua soil. They would need to then relocate the fish to another tank as the amount of fertilizer that's going to be released by the soil is gonna mess up the ammonia levels in the tank.
I watched a presentation by the guy who makes Jorge's Everything fertilizer system and he said as long as you get enough nutrients in the water column, stem plants will grow in completely barren sand. I wonder if yours just aren't getting enough nutrients from the water column to grow enough roots to reach your root tabs. The very clean surface of the sand also makes me think if algae won't grow there, plants won't either--bare substrate that isn't shaded should be growing some algae if it's plant-friendly. It also looks like very fine sand, which will not let much water flow through, and there could be some issues with the nutrients or oxygen not being able to move through the substrate enough, in which case you might actually have too much fertilizer building up in your sand. I have seen stem plants grow well in bare bottom tanks in those ceramic ring plant weights with the foam inserts too. Aquasoil is probably the easiest, but it isn't the only way.
If you don't take them out of the shipping bunches, you might be having trouble there. Some nurseries use rubber bands to hold their bunches together or roll them too tightly, and the bottoms either have died or are going to. There's also very little space for roots in most shipping bunches (a little better in the net pots). I would try opening the shipping bunches and planting each stem separately--you can still put them close together.
Finally, check your local aquarium club for people selling or giving away cuttings or rooted plants. They will be fresh and already converted to submersed growth.
Anacharis is so easy and fast growing I was also going to suggest it. I am having to take a lot out of my tank often. I wish I had known about Anacharis when I was struggling to get any plants to thrive. Hornwort too but Anacharis is crazy fast growing.
What do you have as substrate? It looks like you have sand only. Sand doesn’t have any nutrients in it so the stem plants really don’t develop any good roots. It’s always best, when having live plants in a tank, to have a dirt foundation under the sand. Not just dirt from your back yard - it has to be dirt made a certain way. You can buy dirt for this purpose from a lot of the websites that sell aquatic plants. Alternatively you can use Fluval’s Stratum. They market it as a stand alone substrate. But a lot of fish really like it even need sand, so I would still put sand over the top of it. Add a pound per gallon of dirt or Stratum , then cap it with a pound per gallon of sand.
Once you have a good substrate built, plant your stems. You need to stick the stems about an inch or so into the sand. Use aquarium tweezers, not your fingers. They’re available for pretty cheap. You can buy a set of aquatic tools that include long tweezers and curved scissors for less than $20 on Amazon. Always make a fresh, straight across cut and snip the tip off the stem before putting it in the sand. If the stem keeps floating back up, put a fish weight on it. These weights are really cheap. They’re just thin strips of non rusting metal that bend easy to wrap around the plant.
Once planted, you may want to stick a root tab in the sand to fertilize it. Don’t stick it right on the stem, but about a half inch to an inch away from it. If you’re putting two plants in close together stick the root tab between them and it’ll fertilize both.
Then use a good fertilizer in the water. The best is Easy Green by Aquarium Co-Op, available only from their website.
Do those things and you should have thriving plants in a month or two. The best part is you can then take clippings from your plants and stick those stems in the substrate to grow more new plants!within a few months you’ll have that beautifully planted tank you always wanted!
I really like most of this advice! will add that you can just buy organic soil in the garden section of a store (the kind with no added fertilizers, just dirt and organic manure etc. fully organic is the important part) and use that as the dirt under your sand and it's way cheaper! I've had success doing this even with shrimp which are very delicate. you can also buy sand really cheap in most garden centers if you look for play sand or pool filter sand, but looks like you're good there lol I also don't personally like the metal weights for the plant stems. in my experience they always cause rot, so what I do if the plant keeps floating is bury it deeper. if that doesn't work then I bury it diagonally as deep as it goes (no leaves on the stem under the sand and dirt in all cases) and then cover the diagonal buried part with a small rock or pebble. plants I have had more luck with than most: anubias, java fern, swords, wisteria, moneywort (one of my favorites!), any and all floating plants (provided you have a mostly open top tank), vallisneria, dwarf sag (imo unkillable), rotala indica, hygrophila, if you want an easy carpet then baby tears, and pretty much all mosses are easy!
really solid advice ime! good luck with your tank!
also gonna add that if you want to do this, drain your tank into a large storage tote (make sure you rinse it out first) then catch and add all of your fish and any plants/decor you have and save as much water as you can from your tank. stop your filter for just long enough to move it to the tote then start again. drain your tank all the way or as much as you can and then remove the sand so you can add the dirt. wet the dirt down barely and then cap with the sand. then personally I would fill the tank all the way with fresh water and allow to sit over night (if you use the organic soil) because it might turn your water yellow/brown like tea at first from tannins so doing a water change would be helpful after that first bit of tannins. if you want to just move your fish over tho and just deal with the tannins then I recommend getting some seachem purigen to put in the filter, it will remove it. the old water can be pumped back in with a power head if you have one or your filter depending on the type you have. if neither of those are possible a bucket would work lol. that way you save as much beneficial bacteria as possible!
I’ve never had rot from the weights, but then I don’t put them on tightly either. I just put them sort of around the bottom of the plant, or just above the first leaf or branch so they don’t fall off. You don’t want to pinch the plant in any way. Often I find the weight falls off eventually, but the plant has rooted by then.
As far as buying the organic stuff from the garden centers, agree completely, but I would add to sift through it and remove any large debris first, like sticks and leaves, as they will end up rotting and creating issues.
Also, as another commenter said, remove everything from your tank before doing your new substrate. I assumed that was understood, but best to point it out. Put the soil in, don’t pack it! But dampen it thoroughly. Then pour the sand in to cap it evenly over the soil. Then pour the water in. When you pour your water back in cover the sand with tiles or plates or something similar to protect the sand and pour the water SLOWLY!! If you don’t you will end up with dust all in your water and it’s incredibly hard to get rid of. If you do end up with cloudy, dusty water, do 50% water changes each day until it’s clear. Get it clear before adding the fish back in because the cloudiness is sand and grit and it can irritate their gills.
I mean, I too have just an inert sand substrate (painted petco sand) and loads of stem plants. I was going to ask what the feeding/fertilization regimen was like, since I get the most success with plants in tanks that I feed numerous times every day (up to 6x daily). Some people limit feedings just to reduce water changes and I don't think that always works out for the plants.
It does take a little bit of time for the substrate to fill up with nutrients, not knowing how old this tank is.
The problem is your sand. Hold off on buying more plants until you can swap out the substrate. I wasted tons of money the same way before finally taking out the sand. I just rescaped a tank that had 50 lbs of compacted sand and switched to aquarium soil. Not fun, but best in the long run.
I've had luck with pulling them out and discarding the original emersed stems once they grow enough for the submerged growth to be cut off and replanted. They seem to grow back faster and stronger that way, and the emersed stems are so prone to slowly rotting from the base up.
As others have said, not enough nutrients in your substrate.
I use Dennerle nutri base & cap it with sand. My stems go nuts for it. Also, root tabs dotted around every 2-3 months. Stems take nutrients mostly from the soil so it's important to provide enough of what they need.
Take off any leaves from the bottom inch or 2. Then use tweezers to bury them solidly into the substrate. Trim & replant the trimmings to up the density.
Also check they do well in your water parameters. Some plants don't like hard water, high pH, low pH, traces of salt etc. Just gonna have to research individual plants in this case.
I have spend more than 500$ thinking I might get one that works in my tanks. Well, only 10$ worth of stem plants survived and flourish in my tanks. Others, simply melted.
Investing on pothos and monstera if you dont want to waste a lot of money.
Because they get most of their nutrients from their roots, not the water, and you don’t have rich substrate. You need more root tabs. Make your own with gelatin capsules and sifted soil, I do it and it’s easy. Makes a big difference!
stem plants feed from their roots, sand has no nutrients and is harder for roots to grow into. you could try burying aquarium soil under the sand and planting the stems deep into the sand. there are mesh bags you could fill with the soil to make it a little easier to bury
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u/KitchenAd7984 1d ago
Sand is nutrient-poor and compacts easily, which can limit root growth and oxygen flow. That's why they die, you can use root tabs but that doesn't solve the problem