Removing Stem Plant

[fleekk]

Hi Bros,



Juz to check, when removing the whole stem plant, do you guys pull out the whole stem with roots rooted in the soil or just cutting the stem close to the soil, leaving the roots inside?

Thanks for the feedback.

[Aeon]

I uproot everything. The roots will rot if they're not alive and they'll be in the way if you want to plant new plants.

[fleekk]

Hi Bro Aeon,

If uproot everything, will the fertiliser leak out? Should I quickly to a water change to vacuum out any unwanted particles?

I guess that I have to choose carefully what plants to keep before I get bore & need to unplug it.

[Aeon]

Depends on the kind of soil you are using. it's more serious when you are using ADA Aquasoil. Just do it as gently as you can, then change water to clear up part of the mess and let the rest settle.

Stemmed plants have long roots and if your soil sticks to the roots (like ADA), it is really messy. Gravel is not too serious.

Don't know about other substrate.

[sotong80]

If you intend to do a major rescaping then I would advice you not to pant in new plants immediately. let the tank run for a week without lights and CO2 and change 50% water again. That might reduce the chances of algae boom.

[fleekk]

Hi Bros,

Thank you so much for the info.

All these co-motion, will it harm the live stocks?

I am just planning to do little changes to 2 types of plant.

[vinz]

Depends on what plants and how long have they been planted too. Some stem plants have fine and fewer roots, thus do not make as much a mess.

- Don't pull them up by bunches. Do it one by one.
- Grab them near the gravel and wiggle them as you uproot them. This helps to loosen some of their grip and hopefully pull up less stuff with them.
- Once they are out of the substrate, grasp the roots in your fist so that whatever is still stuck to them don't fall off into the water as you lift it out.
- Have a siphon ready and siphon around the area as often as you need, before the dirt spreads around the tank. Just lightly siphon the surface of the gravel, don't vacuum it.
- Turning off the filter helps to keep the dirt form spreading too far.

Do a 50% water change once you have done replanting. If the water is really murky, clean the filter the next day.

[bclee]

[quote:3d51a0aaed="vinz"]...
Do a 50% water change once you have done replanting. If the water is really murky, clean the filter the next day.[/quote:3d51a0aaed]
For me, personally, I would only clean the filter about 1 week later. During planting/re-planting, there will be ammonia released into the water. The plants being trimmed and re-planted may not be in tip top conditions to draw up the ammonia. I like to leave the filter alone to deal with the ammonia, just it case I screw up the bacteria colonies while cleaning the filter.

BC

[vinz]

Yes, care must be taken not to kill the bacteria colony.

My reason for cleaning the filter the next day is to remove detritus that may clog up the filter. This is especially true for internal filters that are often much smaller then external cannister filters that have an area at the bottom for larger detritus to drop and accumulate without clogging the biological filter media.

The clogging will reduce flow of water thru the media and can deprive the bacteria of the oxygen they need, thus reducing their efficiency.

[Green Baron]

For plants with long roots, I go to the extent of pulling out the roots individually using a tweezer.