Live Plant Query - How Essential Are They

[Arimus]

Before I start stocking the tank with fish should I put some live plants into the tank? If so (planning to stock it with platys, may be some mollys) which ones?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

live plants do have some beenfits in the aquarium, but they can also be hard work to keep alive.

they're not essential so it's really down to personal preference if you get them or fake plants or other decor.

 

[Arimus]

Think I'll stick with plastic plants for now then... we're get a 24 gallon tank soon so that will provide plenty more room to play with decor etc.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

if your going to go with fake plants i'd get silk ones not plastics, they're slightly more expensive but look a billion times better and have no sharp edges so fish can't hurt themselves on them.

 

[Arimus]

Really just meant non-live I'll see what the lfs's have in stock later today.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

good stuff

if you bear in mind that the fake plants should last you a good long while, it's worth spending a little bit extra on them so don't just go for the cheapest

 

[John59]

With plastic and generally no plants tanks i always had algea problems

 

[Underwurlde]

Yep, researching & keeping of live plants is more involved than keeping fish IMO, but the effort is definately worth it.

Usually, when people keep live plants algae becomes a problem because the first thing some people do is add extra lighting & THEN things get complicated. If you have fake plants, you can virtually do what you want with lighting (bearing in mind that the fish need lights as well for vitamin D).

Andy

 

[highfire]

I started with fake plants, but was forever removing them and scrubbing algea off.
Since I changed to real plants, even though I've had to replace some of them, I have really enjoyed the challenge of keeping them healthy and watching them grow.

 

[thegnu]

i agree. i think real plants are better than fake because of the benefits they give, like feeding on ammonia, nitrate, dissolved solids ,phosphate etc. they move more naturally in the currents, better than any fake plants will. they help starve the algae so you will normally see real planted tanks with less algae. they aren't that hard to keep. treat them like fish and do your research to find the ones that will do best in your water/light.
having said all that their are some fantastic looking fake plants in the shops today