plants... making the difference, in how your tank matures...

[Magnum Man]

I've noticed the difference between my tanks with what many feel are excessive plants, and those I have, which I don't feel have enough plants ...

yes, in the dark ages ( before LED lighting ) I was able to keep fish ( often more durable, easier to keep fish ) but some times a few more challenging species, but it seemed to take years to get the tanks "mature enough" and often still lost a lot of fish, to find a few that would survive...

before LED's, plants like pothos were grown... now with LED's I'm growing several aquatic plants, as well as numerous other vining plants, and many other "house plants" aquatically...

so not only do they do great things for our tanks, but they make habitat that can help different species get along ( community tanks ), but also several single species tanks, they can provide line of sight breaks, a more natural place to reproduce, and they just seem to do something good to the water, and may have difficulty reproducing without them... thoughts or comments???

 

[MattW]

Weirdly enough, in the few times I have bred my fish I have had better spawn rates using real floating plants rather than a mop or fake floaters.

 

[GaryE]

I think the main advantage of a heavily planted tank is the cover it provides. Fish can hide, from you, from each other and from imagined predators.
Yes, plants help with water quality as well. But as crucial as it is, I think we think too much about water, and not enough about the effects of poor set ups, overcrowding and the non chemical environment. We need to provide and maintain excellent water conditions, and plants can do a lot there. It's a complicated picture though, which is half the fun.

 

[gimme30]

The other half is turning that Benjamin into mush. And then doing it again. Literally more fun than I can stand!