How To Care For Live Aquarium Plants

Having live plants in your fish tank not only have a different look than fake plants but they also serve a purpose. Just like any other plants, they produce oxygen. This is important for fish because they survive by extracting dissolved oxygen from the water. In this blog post, I will be talking about the equipment needed to keep aquarium plants, maintenance, and the benefits it can have on the tank.

Equipment

Suitable Lighting

Different types of plants need different amounts of light. I recommend that you find some plants you would like to put in your tank and find a light(s) that will be suitable for those plants. I also recommend getting a timer for whatever light you choose to have. If the tank is getting too much light, it allows a whole lot of algae to grow. If there is not enough light, the plants will not survive. Check out this blog post about aquarium lighting for more information.

Aquascaping Tools

Again, like any other plant, aquarium plants will continue to grow under the right conditions. To avoid the tank looking unruly, you should cut back your plants. This is not absolutely necessary but it can keep your tank looking put together. Personally, I choose to not cut back my plants because I have some semi-aggressive fish in my tank and having these unruly plants can provide good cover for them if they were to get into a fight.

Carbon Dioxide Tank

I have a very love-hate relationship with the idea of CO2 tanks. They can be very useful for keeping aquarium plants very healthy. Some plants will even die if they don't have extra CO2, however, I believe that unless you are dedicated to the hobby, it is a little impractical. Fluval sells small CO2 tanks but they are expensive. If you want a larger tank you need to track one down and also find a place that will refill it and it just turns into more of a hassle than it's worth in my opinion.

Fertilizer

Plants need nutrients in order to thrive. Some of this nutrients comes from the fish waste that gets broken down but some of it comes from fertilizer. There are different kinds of fertilizer that you can get for your tank. However, whether it be root tabs or liquid fertilizer, they can make your plants grow much faster and can help your plants produce more oxygen. I’ve noticed that whenever I add fertilizer to my tank, I can see little oxygen bubbles float up from my plants.

Maintenance

Root Tabs

Root tabs are placed in the substrate to release nutrients directly to the roots of the plants. These have to be changed around once a month to maintain healthy parameters for the plants to grow.

Liquid Fertilizer

Liquid fertilizers are similar to the root tabs in that they provide necessary nutrients to the plants to help them thrive. However, rather than being placed in the substrate, the fertilizer is added to the aquarium just like water conditioner is and the plants receive these nutrients through the water column.

Trimming

As I mentioned before, plant trimming is not necessary but it can improve the overall look of your tank and can enhance the look of any aquascaping that you may have done. Another reason you may want to trim your plants is that if your plants get too overgrown, it can block other plants from receiving light and can cause some of your plants to start dying off. This is a bigger problem when you have floating plants because they can block a whole lot of light.

Replacing CO2 Tanks

Most big pet stores carry small CO2 tanks that you can set up to provide extra Carbon Dioxide to your plants. If you are serious about the fish-keeping hobby, there are places that sell and refill CO2 tanks, however, they are harder to find and honestly, a lot more work.

Benefits

Oxygen

Like I said earlier, fish need oxygen in order to survive. Aquarium plants provide this oxygen through photosynthesis. However this is not the only way you can give oxygen to your tank. Air pumps serve essentially the same exact purpose, however, they require a power supply and depending on the look you are going for in your tank, can look unsightly.

Reduces Nitrates

As mentioned in my blog post about the Nitrogen Cycle, fish produce waste that through the help of beneficial bacteria, gets broken down into less toxic substances. The final result of this cycle is Nitrates. These nitrates can be absorbed by aquarium plants to be used as a natural fertilizer. This helps keep water parameters steady and allow for people to go longer in between water changes.

Provides food for algae eaters/snails/bottom feeders

One issue I’ve noticed with having bottomfeeders in your tank such as otocincluses, snails, or plecos is that there is not enough algae to sustain them. These fish will eat dead plant matter but will tend to leave live plants alone. This allows for these fish to have extra food in their diet without them destroying your aquascape.

There will be no blog posts for a while so I hope you enjoyed reading!