Starting a planted tank are hard for beginning hobbyists. After buying your fish, sand and glass, your plant wither and brown in just a few short weeks. The internet advice seem too complex and costly, making it feel like only someone who has some level of expertise will be able to maintain an active stem plant.
These feeling cause many to abandon the hobby. Plants vary. You can’t treat them all the same.
There is some you must provide special lights for, inject CO2 into water, etc. There are also those that lives in anything. Selecting fish that meet your skill level are more likely to result in a nice planted tank as opposed to one based off solely on appearance. Even with a pretty tank, you won’t necessarily has to master water chemistry.
Easy Live Aquarium Plants For Beginners
Common Mistakes in Planted Tanks
You’ll find species that adapt well to your tank and don’t fight their innate nature. When starting, many people selects their plants from catalog images. That’s a waste of money and time.
Don’t be fooled by the showy variety used to fill catalog pages; they’re exotics that will die if you miss a water change or your light flicker off intermittently. Seek out rugged plant that can tolerate variable conditions more easy. Anubias nana is among most undemanding aquarium plants out there.
Choosing Hardy Aquarium Plants
It doesn’t require lots of light and can be kept without frequent fertilizing. Its thick leaves hardly decays when first planted. Because Anubias is a rhizome (not root), you should of tie it on rocks/wood.
Anubias Nana Care and Placement
Planting its rhizomes into the substrate will kills the Anubias. Knowing this about its structure help many newbies avoid losing their plants. An alternative that’s less messy and textured different is Java fern.
Java Fern Growing Tips
Instead of constantly cutting off dead leaves, you can let them sway along with current. Similar to Anubias, Java fern also sticks to hard scape instead of growing in substrate. So it gets its food from the water itself.
That’s helpful in a recently set up tank where the substrate hasn’t had time to settle down yet. If you prefer your plants carpeting the substrate, try Cryptocoryne wendtii. This are a common species, hardy, easily found, and will grow low and slow (stabilizing sand, providing some cover for shy fish).
Cryptocoryne Wendtii Stability
Don’t worry if it drop leaves for several weeks while acclimating to the tank, that’s just how it do things when establishing. It is not dead, but acclimating. Wait until there is shoots pushing up from the base then remove the aged foliage.
Fast Growing Stem Plants
Water wisteria gives it a nice jungle of stems. Lucky Bamboo also does this. Their rapid growth help them outcompete algae before it can establish a foothold.
Doesn’t require fancy light or CO2. Just a simple LED bar work. If you want to multiply your garden without spending money (since you already spent on the plants), just cut off the top and replant them. Fast growing plant help beginners keep things in check as they master the art.
Floating Plants for Water Quality
Duckweed or frogbit are floating plant that will do a couple of thing. First, they’ll help clean the water by absorbing phosphates and nitrates. Second, they’ll block out more light at the bottom which starve algae.
You don’t have to plant these floating species. Just put them in tank and let it go. It’s that easy.
You immediately get better water quality and cover for your fish. So what? Having such tough species alters your perspective on this hobby.
Simplifying the Hobby
Instead of obsessing about parameters, you are able to relax and enjoy your tank. While you figure out the remaining components, the plants just goes about their business and flourish. Not all green is high maintenance.
Choosing hardy plant over perfect plant establishes a solid foundation for your tank. It will appear healthy, and it proves that keeping it simple is often the most moddern approach.
