How to pull out Vallisneria and Wisteria (water sprite) ??

[ms]

Hi, I am thinking of doing some minor re-scapping in my 4ft tank. Both the
Vallisneria and Wisteria is growing like 1 to 1.5" per week!!

How can I pull out these plant without disturbing the base fertilizer? I have about 1cm of Sera mixed fertilizer topped up with about 2 to 4 inches of gravel.

Other plants in my tank are doing well, I am trimming these 2 fast growing ones every week. I cannot cope.

Can anyone offer any advise?

Thanks.

MS

[theodore]

You don't need to pull the plants out entirely - Just pull them until you can see the roots and cut as close to the substrate as possible.

[vinz]

Can't be helped. Jiggle the plant as you uproot, that helps to loosen most of the attached basefert. Once its out of the substrate, cup the roots in your fist and bring it up slowly.

After uprooting, wait half an hour and siphon out whatever settles on the gravel. Clean the filter a day after.

Given you have a thick layer of gravel, I think you'll bring up more mulm then base fert. Same thing, just siphon and clean the filter.

[clay]

new to the forum, and love it here! enough brown-nosing , what if i have potting soil underneath sand, would i do the samething. thanks

clay

[vinz]

Hi Clay, welcome to AQ. Thank you. You're a refreshing breeze, as we've gotten a number of not-very-nice first time posts in the last few days.

Anyway, yes you should be doing the same thing.

[clay]

thank you for your kind answer. i wondered b/c i also have a 20g that also has soil and sand, and i pulled some echinodorus sp. that had gotten too big for the tank, and the fish started freaking out! did not smell anything, nor were there any bubbles coming. lost one r. het. espei the rest were wigged out and gasping for about an hour. they are all ok now, but that was odd!

[vinz]

Well, I use a soil specifically for ponds, but there a number of hobbyists using "normal" soils both in this and other forums. I've not heard of anyone reporting problems like yours.

If your echinodorus were growing well and the roots looked healthy, I'll rule out the substrate going anerobic. From here on I'm pretty much guessing. Could be something in the soil itself or fert sticks/tabs/etc if you use those. Some soils are treated with fungicides and insecticides. If you use terrestrial ferts sticks, it could be urea, or some other harmful N-compound.

[clay]

and i do use the jobe sticks for terrestrial tanks. that is probably it, b/c i buy the cheapest potting soil i can get, and that usually does not have anything in it.