Aquatic live plant provide several benefits to an aquarium. Live aquatic plants works to improve the environment for the fish in the aquarium. For example, live aquatic plants will make the water in the aquarium stay more clear, and live aquatic plants will help to reduce amount of cleaning that is required of the aquarium.
Using live aquatic plants are different than using only a bare aquarium. In order to use live aquatic plants, you must place the plants into specific zone within the aquarium to create the appearance of a natural aquarium. For example, the foreground aquarium plants should be placed nearest to the front glass of the aquarium so that they dont obstruct the viewing of the aquarium.
Using Live Aquarium Plants
The midground plants should be placed into the middle of the aquarium, whereas the background plants should be placed into the back of the aquarium into areas where they can grow to heights that covers the back wall of the aquarium. If these plant are not placed into these correct zones within the aquarium, the aquarium may become visually flat or too cluttered with the plants. Not all live aquarium plants will grow in the same area of the aquarium.
For example, plants like dwarf hairgrass and Monte Carlo is plants that should be placed in the foreground of the aquarium. These types of plants will use runners to spread into the substrate in the aquarium. Other plants, like rhizome plants, typically grow in the midground of the aquarium, and often grow on rocks in the aquarium rather than being in the substrate.
Background plants typically include various type of grasses and plants that grow in large rosettes. These plants are useful in absorbing nutrients from the water in the aquarium. In addition to placing live aquatic plants into the aquarium in the correct areas, there is also considerations of the needs of the plants regarding lighting and carbon dioxide.
For example, some live aquatic plants will grow in basic aquarium setup without injecting carbon dioxide into the tank, but other live aquatic plants will require both lights and carbon dioxide to grow proper. If too little light or carbon dioxide is provided to the aquarium, the live aquatic plants may not grow, or there may be algae growth in the aquarium instead. Fast-growing stem plants will quickly fill an aquarium that does not have many fish, but you must regularly prune those fast-growing plants.
Slow-growing plants will require less care regarding trimming, but will require more time to fill an aquarium that does not have many fish. One method of increasing the number of live aquatic plants that are within an aquarium is to use propagation method. For example, the cutting of the top portion of a stem plant will allow the stem cutting to grow new roots to the substrate, and the original plant will produce more stem.
Runners will allow carpet plants to grow new plants, and you can divide rhizomes into separate portions so that each portion produce a new plant. However, the division of a rhizome portion will not allow the rhizome to be buried in the substrate with the substrate. The type of fish that are to be kept in the aquarium must also be considered in relation to the type of live aquatic plants that are to be included in the aquarium.
For example, most fish will not eat plants, but fish like schooling tetras will swim through the plants. Other fish will live on the bottom of the aquarium and will sift through the substrate. Therefore, such fish may uproot live plants with there movements.
Thus, it is best to avoid adding fish like diggers or fish with nip at fins to an aquarium that also includes live plants. However, if you add the appropriate fish to the correct live plants, the live plants will help to filter the waste from the aquarium, as well as the fish will provide movement to the aquarium. Despite the benefits of live plants to an aquarium, a person can make several mistake in caring for those live plants.
For example, placing live plants in the wrong substrate can prevent the root feeders from recieveing the nutrients that they require for survival. Many live plants are root feeders, but plain gravel does not contain the nutrients for the roots. Another mistake is leaving the aquarium lights on for too long, which can lead to algae overgrowth.
Additionally, over-fertilizing the aquarium may also lead to green water in the aquarium if there are not enough fast growing plants to utilize the fertilizer. Finally, live plants need to be trimmed for aesthetic reason. If not trimmed proper, the tall live plants will shade the shorter live plants in the aquarium, which will lead to the shorter live plants dying out.
