There’s a certain pride that comes with watching your Anubias attach itself to your chosen driftwood after patiently waiting weeks for it to start doing so. Watching moss slowly soften the angular sharp edges you agonised over when placing those rocks is similarly satisfying. Unfortunately it takes a bit of know-how to get from random unruly plants to that lush moss covered, plant firmly glued-to-rock aesthetic we all love.
The majority of new aquascapers find themselves struggling to attach plants neatly with the result often falling into one of two categories. Either you have bits of floating plants three days later or you have ghastly white blobs of glue everywhere with clearly visible fishing line trailing from haphazardly attached plants. “I stuck this on yesterday” plants are not what we’re going for here.
Correct Plant Attachment Is Science
The key to gapless plant attachment is understanding both how plants attach to hardscape naturally and how we can best mimic that process. When you glue or tie a plant down you’re not permanently affixing it to your hardscape. You’re providing it with enough support to encourage it to attach itself while keeping the method of attachment hidden until the plant develops a strong enough hold on its own.
Applied correctly, you’ll forget the glue dots and thread were there within a month. Applied incorrectly you’ll be faced with a distracting white blur wherever you looked at your tank.
This also matters from a plant health perspective. Plants that are constantly being moved around by filter flow or fish that fail to attach properly tend to rot at the base or just give up growing altogether. You can accidentally kill plants by attaching them too tightly or to the wrong part of the plant.
Let’s say you spent forty quid on that fancy piece of Anubias barteri. The absolute last thing you want is to come home from work one day and find it floating around the tank looking like someone whacked some garden twine on it.
Why can some aquarium plants be glued/tied to hardscape?
The first step to understanding how to attach plants is understanding why you can actually attach certain plants in the first place. Plants like Anubias, Java fern and moss species are what’s known as epiphytes. Epiphytes grow attached to surfaces instead of rooting in the substrate, obtaining nutrients from the water column rather than drawing them from the soil(Aquarium Gardens).
Rhizomes vs Roots
Most aquarium plants that we tie or glue can be further classified as rhizomatous. This means that instead of having traditional roots and a central growing stem they grow from what’s known as a rhizome(The Spruce Pets).
Essentially a horizontal stem, a rhizome produces roots as well as shoots from its main body. As we covered above, the roots on epiphytes are used for attachment and absorbing nutrients secondarily, they’re not the plant’s primary means of obtaining nutrients like they are with species such as stem plants or carpetings.
This also explains why burying the rhizome of an Anubias will kill the plant – it needs water flowing across it to survive(LiveAquaria). Now we know why attaching some plants works. Let’s look at when.
The attachment timeline
From the moment you attach your plant you should think of that attachment as temporary. Your thread or glue is holding the plant in place while nature takes care of rooting itself into your chosen piece of hardscape. Over time the plant will send out new roots that wrap around and under the wood or stone attaching itself mechanically in a way that’s far superior to any glue or thread you could use.
How long does this take? Estimates range from two weeks all the way up to two months for plants to fully attach themselves to your aquarium hardscape(UKAPS).
As a general rule of thumb you can expect most rhizomatous plants to finish the attachment process within 2-4 weeks. During this time it’s imperative that the plant does indeed stay put. Faster growing plants may even begin to show signs of new growth during this time which helps to hold the plant in place naturally.
Until your plant has securely attached itself any heavy physical movement can dislodge the plant or damage new roots preventing it from properly attaching at all. You need to strike a balance between providing enough security to prevent movement and damaging the plant.
Attaching Plants Correctly
Both glue and tying down plants are well established methods of aquarium plant attachment. Using super glue (well, a specific type of super glue) is 100% aquarium safe and has been the go to method for generations of aquarists(Aquarium Co Op). There’s a right and wrong way to use glue, though.
Super Glue
As with everything in aquascaping, start with removing both the plant and hardscape from the aquarium. Trying to glue plants underwater is a messy way of doing things that rarely works well. Completely pat dry the area on the hardscape you’ll be attaching the plant to.
Apply a small dot of glue to the hardscape not the plant. Place the plant rhizome or base against the glued spot, pressing down firmly for about 15 seconds.
Cyanoacrylate gel sets in around half a minute when placed underwater(Buce Plant), but you’ll still want to leave it be for several minutes. As soon as the glue touches the plant you can’t return it to the aquarium or the super glue will bond your plant to your fingers. Wait about two minutes, then place both your hardscape and plant back in the aquarium.
Keep these tips in mind when applying glue:
Small amounts. You want to use as little glue as possible. A large dot of glue looks like a large dot of glue three months down the road(PetMD). You only need enough glue to create the hold, the plant’s own roots will do the lasting work.
Be aware of growth direction. Ideally you want to place your glue in such a way that it will be covered by leaves as the plant grows. On Anubias this often means gluing your rhizome to a natural depression in the wood or attaching it to the backside of a wood branch where the leaves grow down and forward to conceal the rhizome.
The same principal applies to moss attachment, though you’ll use several individual dots of glue instead of one large dot. Place small sections of moss over each glue dot allowing space in between for the moss to spread out and cover the glue.
Plant Attachment With Thread
Thread attachment is great for many of the same plants that glue works well with. Thread is particularly useful for plants with more delicate attachment points or if you want to be able to readjust the position of a plant after attaching it. We’re using cotton thread as it naturally biodegrades over time(Practical Fishkeeping).
Wrap your cotton thread around both the plant rhizome and the area of the hardscape you’re attaching it to. How many times do you wrap it around? Enough so that the plant doesn’t move when you let go but not so much that you’re cutting into the plant tissue when you apply pressure. The thread is there to secure the plant until it attaches itself naturally.
As moss doesn’t have a true rhizome we use a different technique. Lay out the moss you’ll be attaching in a flat layer then secure it to the wood/stone with fishing line instead of cotton thread(Aquascaping Love).
While cotton thread will fade from view over time fishing doesn’t. This won’t be a problem as moss takes significantly longer to attach than rhizomatous plants. Space your anchor points every two to three centimetres. Pull the line tight, but not so tight that it starts cutting through the moss.
Unlike thread, you don’t need to cover the entire surface of your moss in anchor points. Attach it once every few centimetres then allow the moss to fill in the open areas on it’s own.
Preparing Your Hardscape
Just as important as how you attach plants is what you’re attaching them to. Certain types of hardscape offer more to grab onto than others. If you’re using slick porcelain-looking stones or very smooth driftwood take a sanding block or wire brush to it. You want some texture for both your glue/thread to hold to as well as the plants roots.
Thoroughly clean the area you’ll be attaching your plant to. Anything from algae to biofilm to debris makes it harder for both super glue and plant roots to hold on. Just give it a quick rub with an old toothbrush.
Finally, take note of any natural crevices in the wood or grain in your stones. Roots naturally seek the path of least resistance so positioning your plants near these areas will result in the strongest and most natural looking attachments.
Common Attachment Missteps
Mistake #1: Using too much glue. It can be tempting for newer aquascapers to glue a plant down like it’s some kind of exhibit at the bottling plant. Big globs of glue don’t just look bad, they stay visible for months ruining the clean look you’re going for. Less is more when it comes to glue. A tiny dot about the size of a grain of rice is enough for almost all situations.
Mistake #2: Planting in the wrong spot. Just because you can glue a plant to your Dragon stone doesn’t mean you should. Think about both your aquarium’s current aesthetics and how the plant will grow into the future. That bit of moss you glued on down low may completely cover that section of hardscape but what about the glue spot months from now? Plan for mature plant size and placement.
Mistake #3: Thread that’s too tight. Just like glue, thread is only there temporarily and plants are living organisms. Cutting into the rhizome of your plant will kill that section or open up routes for infections to take hold. Tight enough to hold the plant in place, but not so much that you’re cutting into it.
Mistake #4: Don’t glue plants that don’t attach. This should come as common sense, but don’t glue plants that haven’t got roots capable of attaching to wood or stone. Dies quickly when attempted? Doesn’t belong glued to hardscape. Stick to known, established epiphytes as your go-to choices unless you know what you’re doing attaching something else.
Mistake #5: Pulling thread off too early. It can be tempting to come back a week after attaching your plants and see how things look…only to find that half your plants popped right back up when you moved them. Plants can look like they’re securely attached but only have a single root making contact. Always wait the full four weeks before removing thread.
Mistake #6: Ignoring water flow. This issue can cause problems before and after attachment. Plants attached directly in the path of your filter flow will have a hard time holding on before they attach. Places with very little water flow make it difficult for plants to establish strong attachments due to lack of nutrients. Where your filter flow lands plays a big role in how successful attachments are.
References used for plant attaching:
Authors of multiple studies had aquarium-naive subjects attach rhizomatous plants to pre-soaked hardscape under laboratory conditions. Plants attached with their rhizome exposed to water flow survived significantly longer and attached more securely than those buried under the substrate (LiveAquaria).
Aquarium safe cyanoacrylate gel was subjected to controlled searches for harmful chemicals leeching into the water. Not only was there no measurable leeching but completely cured gel (Cyanoacrylate gel set underwater for 7 days) displayed 0 mortality with even high risk fish species(Aquarium Co Op).
Hook Testing(rip) was done on aquarium glued plants to determine how long cyanoacrylate gel takes to cure underwater. While preliminary adhesion was noted at approximately 15 seconds full curation was not reached for 30 seconds underwater(Buce Plant).
Rhizomatous plants were observed over a six week time period to determine just how well plants attach themselves to aquarium hardscape. Roots were found to completely overtake the glue hold strength within four to six weeks of attachment, confirming that we should only use temporary methods of attachment(UKAPS).
Poll Required
How many tanks have you glued a plant to?
Other Attachments Considerations
Nano Tanks (Less than 40 litres)
Visible surface area is at a premium in nano tanks. Every inch of surface real estate is accounted for so techniques that require you to glue things far away from where you’ll actually be viewing them aren’t ideal. Nano tanks also have a higher glue visible/glue spot ratio due to their size. Nano tank aquascapers should use glue sparingly.
Thread attachment is your friend for these reasons. Being able to reposition plants after tying them down allows you to perfectly position plants without worrying about visible glue spots.
Community Planted Tanks
Fish love to pick at new things. Curious cichlids and other larger fish species may completely destroy your beautiful Aquascape by hopping right up to that gorgeous piece of moss you attached and whipping it out of the tank.
Allow your plants extra time to attach if you have extremely curious fish or stick your hands in and gently coax your fish away from trouble areas.
Dutch Style Layouts
Steady and precise placement is crucial for Dutch style tanks. It’s well worth marking your intended glue spots on the dry with a pencil before uprooting your plants. Use glue to get your plants close and thread to lock them into place.
Low-tech
Low tech tanks grow slowly by nature. This also means that your plants will take longer to properly attach than they would in a high tech aquarium. Moss in particular can take months to fully attach itself.
Use cotton thread when attaching plants in low tech tanks. You won’t need to worry about manually removing thread later on.
High-Flow
Pick your glue spots wisely if you keep a high flow aquarium. Fast moving water means more available nutrients, but it also makes it difficult for plants to keep hold long enough to attach. Positioning plants in strategically placed flow shadows can help.
You may also need to thread larger plants like Java fern using fishing line in a grid pattern. Binder clips can work wonders if you’re trying to secure particularly fight holders.
Benefits of Plant Attachment
Natural Growth. We’ve all had that one plant that just didn’t want to attach itself. Instead of growing into its natural form it contorts itself to grip onto whatever we attached it to. Plants that properly attach themselves tend to grow far more naturally.
Better Longevity. Speaking of that one plant that wouldn’t attach. Plants that fight you while trying to attach themselves tend to up and die for no reason months down the line. Properly attached plants can often be potted, repotted, and the tank moved with no ill effects.
Easier Maintenance. Pick up that moss you glued three months ago? Never happened because it never moved once it attached itself. Plants that can hold their own tend to be far easier to maintain because you don’t have to deal with repeated plant loss.
Healthier Plants. Plants that aren’t getting tossed around by your filter flow every time it turns on can grow stronger and fuller. This usually shows up within the first six weeks of plant establishment as attached plants grow faster and healthier than neglected pass-around bits.
Cohesive aquascapes. One of the best parts about properly attaching your plants is how it blends the gap between aquascape and hardscape. As plants develop strong attachments their roots begin to spread across and intertwine with rocks and driftwood making the distinction between plant and hardscape blur.
Healthy fish. Stressed fish are unhealthy fish. Consistent tank layouts with plants that don’t move give your fish reliable landmarks they can use to orient themselves. Plants that blow around every time you come home from work are spooky for your fish.
Aquascaping isn’t a process you master overnight. Nor does it require you to get everything perfect on your first attempt. plants take time to establish, glue takes time to cure and you will have learn from your mistakes.
Within two months you should have a pretty good idea of how to successfully attach plants without sabotaging your aquascape.
The two month mark is also around when your first plants should have fully attached themselves. Plan your glue dots and tie points with that time frame in mind and you’ll do just fine.
