Ordering plants online and how to acclimate new plants

Hi all,

I can never seem to find the plants I want at my local fish supply store. Does anyone (in the United States) have any idea where a reputable place to order plants would be? And when they arrive, do you rinse them or something before adding them to your aquarium? How does one acclimate new plants? I think I've read to limit the lighting for the first few days?

Any help appreciated : )

I've ordered plants online a number of times and my favorite place to order by far is:
www.aquariumplants.com

I take them at their word that their plants come from "plant only" tanks and are "snail free". The plants arrive and they go directly into my tank(s), after I've pruned off any damaged or unsightly looking leaves. A few of the Anubias I've ordered have come with some massively long root systems and I usually cut those back before securing them onto whatever it is I want them to grow on. HTH

PS. Limiting the light is something you wouldn't want to do. Plants require light to live and they've been shipped "in the dark". The sooner they receive light the better, IMHO.

Agree with kymmie on the process. And I've always bought from local stores, so no experience with online but if kymmie says they're good, fine with me.

Plants should be put in their new (permanent) environment as soon as possible and not kept in temporary or holding tanks. This is because a change in water parameters can affect them, but not like it does fish. A plant will adjust to different parameters frequently by shedding existing leaves (there are a couple reasons for this I won't get into here) and new leaves will (or should) immediately appear, but if this starts and then the parameters are changed yet again, it can set the plants back further. Of course, some plants adapt better than others to varying pH, hardness, temperature and light. But there is no need to stress them further than necessary.

Byron.

When I get plants via mail, I first set them in the house for a lil while in their little bags to avoid shock between being outdoors cool and in comparison very warm tank water.
Then I hang the bags inside the tank, add 1/2 cup water or so every so often and then depending on how much time I got on hand a few hrs after they arrived I plant them.
That's for empty non stocked tanks.
If I have any stocked tanks and order from a 'unknown' place then I do the same process, just I put tank water in my large buckets and have them sitting in their for at least half day and then I kinda "rinse" them out in there. Don't know really if that has any benefit, apart from the fact I once put a plant (from the strore) strait in my shrimp tank, by the time 2 shrimp instantly died I ripped it out and took my shrimp inot the back up tank (over- fertilized plants I'd think).

I have also found aquariumplants.com to be a good place to order. Plants were in good shape, mine however were not snail free. Snails don't really bother me though, they would of gotten in there one way or another. There substitutions did bother me. I had a couple substitutions that I don't think were equal in my eyes. I ordered some kinda fancy sword and they substituted a weird Anubias for it. I got some H. corybosa from them too which came in its emersed form. It takes a while for plants to switch over and they tend to shed their leaves.

aquabid.com is also a good place to order. Maybe cheaper too.

I have a new order due to arrive today from aquariumplants.com and I hope I don't get sent any substitutions! Mikaila31, did you make any inquiry about it to them or just let it go?? A *weird* Anubias instead of a fancy sword? I wouldn't have been happy with that either!

be careful ordering from people you dont know like on ebay and such i got some in for my wife and they infested her tank with anchor worm and it has been a struggle to get rid of it since...

i ordered some plants from AquariumPlants.com Largest online sales / service site for the live aquarium plants & aquarium products community. and they were completly dead. they were all way past dead and they came dried out, it looked like they put them in there already dead. i will never recommend this sight and will never go their again. if you do order online i would recomend ordering from http://www.aquariumplantsandsupplies.com/ i ordered some moss from them and it came great, all green. even though they ship from japan (at least they ship moss from their) it came perfect. i did wait for about 3 weeks for it to come but as i said it just sprung back up.

[quote=teddyzaper;275581]i ordered some plants from AquariumPlants.com Largest online sales / service site for the live aquarium plants & aquarium products community. and they were completly dead. they were all way past dead and they came dried out, it looked like they put them in there already dead. i will never recommend this sight and will never go their again.quote]

Wow, I'm surprized. I just received my latest order from this same site (second time I've ordered from them) and the plants arrived in great condition. Did you contact the company and ask for a full refund/replacement??

I ordered valisneria and 4-leaf clover from aquariumplants.com and the plants weren't dry but in a bag with a little water. I actually got 4 extra by the time I sorted out all the val runners and etc. The runners on the plants were going rotten and they just broke off. I think if they had been in transit for a day or 2 more they might have been in really bad shape. I used the 2 day cheepo shipping.