Hmmm..., Aquatic plants' pots are being uncovered

[maxpayne_lhp]

Uh oh, my plastic pots containing the aquatic soil that keeps the aquatic plants of mine are being uncovered due to the time and my partial warter changes, Hmmm, this clouds the water sometimes. Should I remove them?
By the way, some plants grow quite old, the turned out ta be brown and they have 'roots' in ther sterm, not good! What sjould I do with this, guys?
Thankssss great to be back to the forums!

[dinosfishhouse]

What is the other substrate that is in the tank?
Gravel? ****Sand? ****Other?

I only have lilies outside potted. ****the rest of my plants are in the substrate.

best,
dino

[maxpayne_lhp]

Hummm, gravel, I coudn't 'dip' the roots in so I need to seperate them in pots.

[Damon]

Not a lot you can do about that short of changing your substrate to a more suitable one for growing plants. Adding flourite could help but can be really difficult in an established tank. How many plants are we talking? How deep is your substrate?

[DavidDoyle]

Pants should be removed from the platic pots and then you should carefully remove as much of the rock wool as possible while minimizing damage to the roots. If you must use pots, use 3-4 inch deep clay pots and then fill them with a proper substrate.

The rock wool is usually infused with all kinds of fertilizers to force them to grow fast- in your tank the wool leeches these into the water which can cause cloudy water and/or algae problems.

[maxpayne_lhp]

Thanks, guys
I don't have many.
Well yeah, as they're exposed, whenever a nevous fish swims by, it turns out to be an octopus clouding the surrounding lol
Well, I really think that changing the subrtate may mess up the whole tank! Maybe I'll wait until I establish another new tank, then move these fish to that tank, and clean tis up throughly, get a new start for discuses, maybe!
Thanks!

[midiamin]

Carefully remove all your plants.. Do a thorough gravel vac. You can add florite as a top layer or remove your old gravel and place the florite on the bottom. I totally recommend that you use the florite on the bottom because of all those good bacteria that live in your old substrate. Whatever you do, do not throw away the old gravel! Also make sure you rinse the florite. That will insure that your water will remain good and clear.

Have no fear, the plantman cometh...................................