how much are aquatic plants dependent on "nature" for survival???

[Magnum Man]

I notice many of my aquatic plants, don't really like an accumulation of biofilm on them, I suspect in nature, flowing water keeps larger pieces of bio from accumulating... in the glass box, there is likely a slower bio film growth, than in nature, but it still happens, and actually probably accumulates faster... I see many of my fish as caretakers of the plants, as well as shrimp and snails... I do have one large anubias that is thriving in a tank with really no bio grazers, but it's fully in the output flow of one of my hang on back filters... curious how the "Dutch style" or whatever the call the garden boxes full of plants, with almost no fish, keep the plants thriving long term??? do those require manual massage of the plants occasionally??? I understand, less bio film accumulation, with almost no fish, but keeping the plants vibrant and thriving, seems to require some "force" to remove bio film accumulation, weather it comes from livestock, water movement, or the gardener ???

 

[MaloK]

How much are aquatic plants dependent on "nature" for survival???

That's a tricked question ...

100% of everything depends 100% on nature for survival...

The better emulation in your tank the more it will thrive... Some micro / mini / small organisms are so good at keeping a tank completely free of biofilm that it can last months before having to scrape the glasses.

Seed shrimps and detritus worms are a great example of top class aquatic plant gardener. Once established they are very discrete and go places unreachable for the bigger fauna.

In opposition to snails, there is absolutely no leftovers with them. But clean plants and decor. This video show how much cleanup they can achieve from completely dirty water to sparkling clean.

 

[Magnum Man]

I watched the video... was more about feeding fish, than the plants, although it showed the critters in the roots of floating plant's curious if the fancy over planted tanks are using the same critters??? many of those don't have so much as a wilted leaf...

 

[MaloK]

I watched the video... was more about feeding fish, than the plants, although it showed the critters in the roots of floating plant's curious if the fancy over planted tanks are using the same critters??? many of those don't have so much as a wilted leaf...

Yes, the super planted tanks are always having plant decay, but with these guys, it's cleaned at the same pace it occurs, So dead plant matter doesn't remain it's processed and replaced as produced.

The population grows and reduce with availability and at some point all that is left is healthy plants.

Of course the video gives an exaggerated view of what happens. But it's the same at a different scale.

 

[GaryE]

Another big question is how often are your aquarium plants out of the water in nature? That would change dynamics. The only Anubias I saw in Gabon was in extremely shallow water, and if the rains had been say 2 weeks away (they started a few days later) the plant would have been out of water.

Here, we have a lot of shallow stream edge Ludwigia, which ends up exposed as the summer goes on. My Bacopa rises from the water and cascades down the outside of the tank in front of the window, flowering in the air.

After I win a lottery and go spend a few weeks in Central Africa, I expect I'll have found a lot of Anubias out of the water - maybe more than in. But alas, I'm no botanist.