Habitat - Indoor :: My solution to uprooted plants

[Chrisbarnett]

Well I went and bought new plants the other day for my 55gal, you guys may remember me talking about how I melted all my good plants before by trying to boil them to disinfect. lesson learned there.

Anyway, I wanted a solution to uprooted plants since squirt always uprooted them within a day of putting them in. I think I have found my solution.

I grabbed Aquarium silicone, some random gravel I had lying around, and my new plants. I then washed the gravel and dried it, and wiped the plant base clean so the silicone will get a better grip.

I then began putting large amounts of silicone on the plant base so it would hold the gravel well(Don't want any gravel coming off and becoming death food for squirt!) Here's what it looks like closer up:


After you do that, then you must let the silicone dry and cure for at least 24 hours. I let it go longer, more like 48 because I could still smell some fumes at 24ish hours.

I did that with all 3 plants, and after they were cured I placed them in the tank. They sank like they were attached to concrete. I then just put them where I wanted them, nestled them into the sand and put a sand mound over the base. I am happy to say that I batted them around in the tank with my hand and they didn't come uprooted. But we'll have to wait and see whether squirt can bulldoze them out of place or not.

Heres what the tank looks like now, much more lively with the plants from what it was!( I also added an airstone, which I am not sure I will keep because I'm not so sure I like it, and Squirt doesn't seem to give a crap about it )

[TheBean]

Creative! I Like!

[BullDog]

Very cool! Those plants certainly aren't going to go anywhere now!

[zoologist]

Chris, i am so jealous of your tank.

[imderanged]

Cool chris, good idea. I thought of a similar idea...I was going to take the plastic bottom off, and glue the plastic "roots" to a large river rock with aquarium silicon, but I think I like your idea better. Seems simpler.

[RonnWilliams]

Great job there!

Have you ever tried real plants? What did Squirt do to them?

[Chrisbarnett]

Thanks for the compliments everyone!

Ronn,
Yeah I have tried the usual real plants like Anacharis and such, but Squirt loves to eat them and he tore them to bits within a day, making a huge mess in the tank. I never spent any money on the fancy aquatic plants like Amazon Swords in the little pots because Squirt would have just ripped those up too.

I haven't heard of many people having any success with live aquatic plants and turtles. I have read about maybe one person who had some success with their turtle leaving them alone. I suspect that it is like putting fish in a tank, they'll be food eventually.

[SpotsMama]

Nice job with the plants! Very smart.

[Chrisbarnett]

Thanks!

[crackerlady2007]

That's a wonderful idea! I've tried wrapping string around them and a big rock, but Mr. & Mrs. Turtle always manage to get themselves all tangled in it. One question though, how do you got the sand to stay at the bottom without getting the water all dirty?

[Chrisbarnett]

Crackerlady,
By rinsing the sand extremely well. I rinsed the sand in a rubbermaid bin for about 15 minutes until I got no more cloudiness from the water in the bin. Then put it in the tank and fill it up like normal.

[RonnWilliams]

Hey,

Does your turtles try to eat the plastic plants?

[Chrisbarnett]

Nope. When I first introduced plastic plants in his old 30 gal, he nipped one of them once, and that was it. He's never bitten them again, at least not that I have seen.