If you’re reading this, then you probably ordered some plants from us… so thank you! This is a quick guide on how to properly unpack and plant any plants you'll get from us.

A quick note before we start: Remember, we sell fresh cuttings of plants. This is the best way for us to send you healthy, underwater-grown plants that will easily adapt to your tank. Your plants will grow roots quickly, and they don’t need roots to grow because they can absorb water and nutrients through leaves.

Important Note on Plant Labels:

With the massive increase we’ve recently had in orders, we’re unable to individually label each plant included in bundles.

That said, please know that we still picked perfect plants for you!
And if you would like your plants to be identified, please just contact us via chat, email, or Etsy chat and include a photo of each of your plants (preferably underwater) and we’ll ID them for free.

Cheers!

Your package just arrived!

Yay! You just got your package from Sunken Treasure Aquatics. After you unbox it, you’ll find our thermal packing material you can reuse, but the sealed bags are what you need!

I know my handwriting is awful, pirates were never good at writing

Avast! Any fallen sailors?

Hold there matey! Does everything look healthy? Hopefully so, we put a lot of effort and research into packing our plants with as much care as possible. But, accidents happen and packages are unreliable. If anything doesn’t look right, please

If a plant doesn’t look healthy, it might still be alive and some leaves melt in shipping. If the stem isn’t mush, it’s alive!
Please try planting all plants you received that still have intact stems or root rosettes.
Ensure they all get strong, direct lighting and they’re in a cycled tank.
For floaters, make sure they’re somewhere they won’t move or be thrown around by water flow.
You should see new growth within 5 days.

If you don’t see new growth within a few days, or the plants are totally mush or wrong, please contact us HERE and we’ll make it right! Please let us know if we forgot anything too, and we’ll happily give you a bonus credit for the trouble.

Unzip Yer Plants

Open everything up, and carefully remove each bundle of plants. Most bundles will contain 1-4 plant portions, either partially wrapped at the bottom or wrapped entirely for smaller plants. Unroll your plants and separate each different variety, just leave them on the damp napkin to prevent them from drying out.

If you got a large size of plants or you purchased multiple portions, odds are we included all of those portions together. So if you purchase 3 portions of a plant but only see one portion, you can safely assume the portion included is 3 times the normal portion size.

Did you know? We pack all of our plants with a special solution that gently helps prevent any rot, bacteria, or fungi growth during shipping!

Plants: Nesaea Crassicaulis and Hottonia Palustris

Is me plant a phony?

No, probably not. We do our very best to ensure every plant we ship is correctly labelled and take a lot of pride in this. If you receive a plant that doesn’t look like what you ordered, we urge you to please plant it first. Lots of plants look VERY different after shipping and can have some leaf melt or discoloration due to the lack of light. Variegation may be tough to see, leaves may be wilty or falling off, etc. If you’re still worried, please shoot us a message and we’ll help you out!

Does your bundle include extras?

Some bundles, such as the Betta Bundle and Shrimpy Bundle, include extras for your tank! These leaves are catappa leaves, which add beneficial tannins to your ecosystem which benefit fish and shrimp health. You can just add the leaves straight to your tank!
Shrimpy stones can be added anywhere to any tank as well so shrimp and bottom feeders can enjoy them.

Plant Plantin’

Now all thats left to do is plant your pretty new plants! To do this, you need to find the bottom of the stem so that you don’t accidentally plant the stem upside down. This will be the end that’s wrapped in the napkin, but if you lose track you can simply look for the side of the stem that looks ‘cut’ and you should be all set- we try our best to provide healthy tops of plants so the cut side will be the bottom. This cut also helps promote rooting and new lateral growth.

If your plant isn’t a stem plant, then you’ll just need to plant accordingly. If you stick the bottom of the plant in the substrate, you’re generally fine. However, remember epiphytes like Java Fern, Anubias, Buce etc shouldn’t be buried in the substrate and instead need to be attached to hardscape. Moss can just be attached to anything. For more details you can check out our guide on planting plants here.

Now for the final step (and the most fun step!)… planting! Simply grasp the end of your plant with your tweezers or fingers, and shove it into your substrate. I usually plant about 2 stems at once just to save time, but it isn’t a good idea to try to plant 5+ stems at once because you’ll overcrowd the plants and the lower leaves won’t get any light.

If you have some difficulty getting your plants to stay buried in the substrate, the actual solution is to get deeper substrate. Other than that, you can try trimming the stem a little so that you bury some leaves at the bottom, and the leaves can act as little hooks. Realistically, if your substrate isn’t deep enough, some plants may just float up and you’ll just need to stick them back in until they develop some roots.

It’s important that you don’t make any other major changes to your tank after adding new plants. They need about a week to root and adapt to your tank, and any imbalances such as a change in lighting, fertilization, etc can cause an algae spike which can harm the plants.

Please leave us an honest review! It really does help!

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Please leave us an honest review! It really does help! 〰️

Helpful Tips

Planting tip for starting growth

It’s a great idea to make sure your newly planted plants get as much light as possible.

Do NOT turn your lighting up a lot as you’ll cause an imbalance and get algae, but for best success make sure you trim any other plants around them, ensure they’re planted directly beneath the light, and make sure no floaters or tall stems are blocking out their light.

And you’re all set! Your new plants are now planted and you should start seeing new growth within a week depending on your tank.
Remember we have a 1 month guarantee on all plants, so if your plants aren’t doing well just send us a message and we’ll help you out!

Placing Yer Plants

Generally, you want to place the tallest plants in the back and shortest in the front. However, don’t be afraid to mix it up! Add some midground plants to the foreground, or add a carpet trailing all the way to the back overshadowed by tall background plants. A tank that’s just a ramp would be boring compared to something with depth and variation!

I also love placing plants near hardscape. I find grassy plants or short plants look amazing wedged next to rocks or wood.

Keeping new plants alive for dummies

Keeping plants alive is shockingly easy. Just keep your tank the same and give the plants lots of light and space. Plants also tend to like good water flow and lightly dosed nutrients.

Don’t make the mistake of dosing tons of fertilizers or cranking up your light after adding plants- you’ll only wind up growing algae which will just smother your new plants.

If your plants don’t seem to be growing well after 3-4 days, increase the nitrates in your (cycled) tank by adding nitrogen rich fertilizers such as NiloCG Thrive+. Seachem and API fertilizers don’t generally work well as they don’t contain much nitrogen or micronutrients.

Unpacking and planting your plants from Sunken Treasure