How long can a plant live in a bucket?

[ajm1961]

So, I bought a bunch of plants at the auction - and now, well, I've got to plant them... When I returned last night I had a bunch of chores to do, including clearing the driveway, and was too tired to start planting everything at 9:00pm. I conditioned some water and put all the plants in two 5 gallon buckets with a bit of gravel at the bottom. I might get to plant a few tonight, but not all...
So, how long can these plants live in a bucket of water?
I have Vallisneria, Anubias, Crypt, Java moss, Java fern, echinodorus amazonicus...
Help!

[cdylnicki]

Just place a light over top (with a timer) & they should be okay for a few days.

[ajm1961]

OK - I managed to plants about half tonight.
I'll get to the rest tomorrow.
Thanks!

[magnosis]

[EDIT: your plants are probably planted by now but maybe this will help someone else in the future...]

Some plants are tougher than others.

Your Anubias, Moss and Ferns can take quite a beating. They will last for weeks even months.
Crypts are more sensitive depending which kind, I'm not an expert but I would get those planted first.
Then your Echinondorus are next, they will survive a few days but keep an eye on them.

Give them a recommended dose of Excel, that will help them.


I kept abandoned 60+ buds of Java Fern in a baby's bath tub in the basement.  Ambient light for 2-6 hours some days, sometimes no light at all for 1-2 days. There was no water changes, no circulation, no air pump, nothing.  3 months after, when it started to stink a little (duh!) I washed everything under tap water with a 30s bleach dip & major rinse.  At least 70% of them survived and are now living well in my tanks 

Trust me. Java Ferns (and Anubias, too) are pretty hard to kill !


Other plants I kept in buckets with stale water + a 150W CFL 2 feet above for 8-9hrs/day:

- Cabombas and Egerias -- completely melted within 3-4 days
- Hydrilla, Rotalas and a few Crypts -- melted within 7 days
- Bacopas and Ludwigas -- survived over 10 days (then moved in a tank)
- Blyxia and Riccia -- survived about 20 days then melted
- Chain Sword and Hygros -- survived at least 20 days (then moved in a tank)

I lost a bunch more I can't remember the names... everything that was red (and expensive!) basically.

In any case I'm sure you plants can survive from a few days to a wee; maybe more if they're tougher (usually, thicker = tougher)

Good luck !

[ajm1961]

Having heard about the toughness of anubias and java fern, I guessed they could go last - based on your info, I guessed right... whew! I also left the java moss in the bucket too.
I planted my vals, crypt, and sword last night.
I may need to redo the whole thing because I have to add some substrate. Tried to add a little bit of fluorite by hand yesterday.. a big cloud raised up... may need to take out all the fish and empty a good part of the tank to get it done.

Thanks for the advice guys, I really appreciate it!

[Dekker500]

Tried to add a little bit of fluorite by hand yesterday.. a big cloud raised up... may need to take out all the fish and empty a good part of the tank to get it done.

You may wan to read this article that demonstrates a way to 'clean' the fluorite to prevent the clouding... May save you alot of time!

[Nerine]

do you have any photos of your new plants in their new home?

I actually keep Java Moss in buckets to prep it for the garage sale and auctions haha though lately I've been using it more due to fry...but will need to start another bucket to grow more moss!! java moss will grow on anything if you let it and under any condition haha

good luck!!

[magnosis]

Great article, Dekker !

My take on the fluorite is to try and not mess it up too much.

Yes you can rinse it to prevent clouding, but doing so also depletes a lot of good stuff from it.

When I add fluorite to my filled-up tank, I use a small plastic shovel (from a kids' sandcastle toolkit, however you call this..), fill it up with fluorite, and then slowly gently lower it in the water till I get to the bottom and pour it there, never had an issue with clouding. This works well for small amounts - I wouldn't see myself doing this for 50 lbs of fluorite obviously.   Last time I filled up my tank, I didn't rinse the flourite. Just poured it all down, put a plate (news paper works, too) on top of it and slowly poured water just enough to saturate the substrate.  Then I planted, then added more water.  The cloudiness was minimal and my canister filter took care of it within a day (all that flourite dust remains in the filter and gradually dissolves in the water column, so nothing is lost there)

Just my 2 cents.

[BigDaddy]

I used to rinse my flourite but honestly now I don't bother.  The amount of work involved compared with the returns is not worth it for me.

I just make sure to fill the tank slowly without a lot of current and then turn on my micron filter for a couple of days to polish the water of the dust that hasn't settled.

[sas]

I'm the same. Just redid a 6' tank and didn't rinse the flourite at all.
Flourite in, put in a couple on inches of water, leave it to settle then fill
carefully.

[ajm1961]

Good tips... I should have consulted these before. I set-up a 20 gallon tank with flourite substrate and poured water in as carefully as I could. Some of it was rinsed but it still ended up giving a lot of cloudiness. I ran an Aqua Clear 500 to clear-up the water. However, as soon as started planting, the clouds came up again. Now my plants have dust on them. I shook some of them gently to get the dust off, but of course, it just cloudies the water again - a vicious cycle.
So, should I remove the water down to a few inches, spray the plants with water, then refill the tank carefully using one of the techniques above? Or will the dust eventually go away? Or what else should I do...

Signed: Hopeless first-time "aquatic horticulturalist"

[charlie]

Good tips... I should have consulted these before. I set-up a 20 gallon tank with flourite substrate and poured water in as carefully as I could. Some of it was rinsed but it still ended up giving a lot of cloudiness. I ran an Aqua Clear 500 to clear-up the water. However, as soon as started planting, the clouds came up again. Now my plants have dust on them. I shook some of them gently to get the dust off, but of course, it just cloudies the water again - a vicious cycle.
So, should I remove the water down to a few inches, spray the plants with water, then refill the tank carefully using one of the techniques above? Or will the dust eventually go away? Or what else should I do...

Signed: Hopeless first-time "aquatic horticulturalist"

Andre, just let it be it will all settle in time