How to keep live plants in your aquarium
- Sep 07, 2016
- James Roy
- 1133 0 0
I've been keeping aquariums for over 30 years. One of my favorite types of aquariums are planted tanks. Lot's of people tell me their plants always melt away in their fish tanks. No kidding! Let me tell you why and how to keep your plants alive The truth is you can't keep live plants in a fish tank. Fish tanks are set-up to keep a lot of fish alive in a small amount of water. The focus is on maximizing the number of fish in the tank. If you want to keep live aquatic plants, you need a planted aquarium. Notice that the focus is on the plants, not the fish. Sure, you can have fish in a planted aquarium. If you make the plants happy, the fish will be healthy and more colorful than you can imagine.
Think like an aquatic gardener
Since the focus is on live plants, you'll actually be gardening...underwater. You'll be planting and tending aquatic plants, just like a regular gardener. Notice I said aquatic plants. Some aquarium shops and big box stores sell house plants as aquatic plants. This never works. The plants are guaranteed to die. Be sure to select only true aquatic plants. If your shop is selling plants that look like your houseplants...they probably are! Familiarize yourself with true aquatic plants. Search on line or read a book on aquatic plant species. You'll quickly learn how to identify the real thing. You'll also notice that some plants stay short while others grow very tall. Place the tall plants in the back and short plants toward the front.
Aquatic plants need food
Most aquarium plants adsorb nutrients from their roots. They can also absorb some nutrients directly through the leaves but roots are made for adsorbing nutrients out of the "aquatic soil." Ideally the aquarium gravel has a nutrient source for the roots to feed on. This can actually be a layer of accumulated sludge that collects in the gravel. The easiest way to feed aquatic plants is with tablet fertilizer. Special aquatic plant fertilizers contain all the nutrients plants need. Push the tablets into the gravel, near the roots.The tablets slowly dissolve and feed the plants.
Don't aerate the water!
Aquatic plants require carbon dioxide to live. CO2 gas naturally dissolves in the aquarium water. If you use an air stone, bubble wand or really agitate the water the carbon dioxide is driven out of the water and the plants get starved for carbon. Remember, you're setting up the aquarium for lots of plants and a small group of fish. You don't need to blast air into a planted tank. Just keep the water slightly agitated with the aquarium filter. Plants like water movement buy not heavy agitation. I add a liquid CO2 product called CO2 Booster. Plants absorb it and it stimulates growth.
Aquatic plants need light
Light drives photosynthesis, which is the "engine" that keeps plants alive. Keep the light on for about ten hours a day. LED light fixtures are energy efficient and provide the right spectrum of light for live plants. If you have fluorescent lights, be sure the tubes are "full spectrum" and suitable for plants. Other tubes make the tank look bluish or washed out and don't provide the proper lighting for live plants.
Your tap water may be harming your aquarium plants
That's right. If your tap water has a lot of minerals it could be harming the plants. Most aquatic plants like water that is low in minerals like calcium, magnesium. They won't grow very well if the mineral content of the water is really high. If you have a smaller aquarium, consider diluting your tap water with distilled water at a 50/50 ratio. Spring water is not the same as distilled water and may be higher in minerals than your own tap water. Aquatic gardeners with large aquariums usually have their own reverse osmosis filter system to remove the minerals and salts from tap water.
A final word on keeping aquarium plants
There are many kinds of aquarium plants. Some are very hardy and easy to keep. Others are more demanding. The best way to get into keeping live aquarium plants is to start with the hardy plants until you get more experience. If you have a couple of plants die back, don't worry. That is part of the discovery process. Soon you'll have an aquarium full of beautiful aquatic plants!
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