Plastic or real plants

[Ingrid]

Do you use plastic or real plants in your aquarium or both ?

 

[Fishmanic]

I answered that I use real plants. But I do use one large silk plant as well. There was no choice in the poll for silk plants.

 

[Lilyann]

Real plants! But, I have used plastic plants in the past-

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I used to use Silk Plants, but I have transferred to useing all live plants, as they are more natural.

 

[Byron]

The benefits of live plants is overwhelming, so it is always better to have some. Floating plants are about the easiest (if not having a green thumb worries you), and interestingly floating plants are also the most beneficial; not only do they remove ammonia and nutrients faster, maintaining more stable water conditions, but most all of the "forest" fish we have prefer a "roof" above them as it is so common in their habitats to have either floating vegetation or overhanging marginal vegetation to shade light. You may or may not have to use a comprehensive liquid fertilizer, depending upon your fish load, GH, light, and the plants. But it is not far off to consider live floating plants "essential" in most every tank.

 

[Naughts]

I started off with plastic, added a few real. The plastic looked fake (too green) next to real plants so I phased them out.
I persevere with floating plants but don't find them easy - they keep dying ( probably due to lids on tanks) and stores don't seem to sell them. I eventually found the sacred Water Sprite on Amazon to then see it was £7 plus £14.50 p&p! Left it.
I guess I haven't got green fingers yet- even my Java ferns are brown!
But Amazon swords do thrive in my tanks

 

[Linda N]

I have a mix of plastic and real in my 20 gallon tank and all real plants in my 10 gallon tank. I want all real plants in both tanks but I have killed a lot of aquarium plants - LOL. Still trying to find things that will survive. Just added anacharis to the 10 gallon tank and floating plants like frogbit and water lettuce but they never seem to last very long. I'll keep trying...……….

 

[Byron]

The last two posts both mention difficulty growing floating plants, so perhaps some general observations may be helpful.

First, they are fast growing plants, and that means they need good light (intensity and spectrum) and nutrients to balance. Being at the surface, intensity should not be a problem (though it can be), but spectrum might; aquatic plants need red and blue light to photosynthesize, and red is the more important; having green in the mix does improve plant growth considerably. So in spectrum a light in the 5000K to 6500K range is what you need. Light that is higher than 6500K (which means more blue and less red, and perhaps less or no green) is not going to be much good long-term. The duration has to be balanced by all nutrients, since photosynthesis follows the Liebig Law of Minimum...plant growth (photosynthesis) is governed by the least sufficient of the 17 required nutrients, not by the excess of any nutrient (always assuming light intensity/spectrum to be sufficient).

As for nutrients, floating plants have the aerial advantage, meaning that the leaves being on the surface can readily assimilate CO2 from the air rather than the water, and this process is about four times faster for the plants so they usually get all they need which cannot be said of submersed plants. Other nutrients may be lacking, or not quite sufficient to balance, and a comprehensive liquid supplement should provide this. It has to be comprehensive...including all nutrients in the proportion plants require, so the plants and not algae benefit.

The covered tank is often suggested not only here but elsewhere, but my floating plants do not have difficulties in my covered tanks, and while they are certainly not sealed air-tight, they are well covered.

Floating plants usually take time to settle in to a new environment, so be patient.

 

[Lilyann]

I started off with plastic, added a few real. The plastic looked fake (too green) next to real plants so I phased them out.
I persevere with floating plants but don't find them easy - they keep dying ( probably due to lids on tanks) and stores don't seem to sell them. I eventually found the sacred Water Sprite on Amazon to then see it was £7 plus £14.50 p&p! Left it.
I guess I haven't got green fingers yet- even my Java ferns are brown!
But Amazon swords do thrive in my tanks

Do you have any local aquarium society's near you? Many of these societies have plant swaps, auctions, or the like that you can get aquarium plants from other members. These plants often are much easier to acclimate to your aquarium than ones you get in the LFS or online.

 

[Naughts]

The last two posts both mention difficulty growing floating plants, so perhaps some general observations may be helpful.

First, they are fast growing plants, and that means they need good light (intensity and spectrum) and nutrients to balance. Being at the surface, intensity should not be a problem (though it can be), but spectrum might; aquatic plants need red and blue light to photosynthesize, and red is the more important; having green in the mix does improve plant growth considerably. So in spectrum a light in the 5000K to 6500K range is what you need. Light that is higher than 6500K (which means more blue and less red, and perhaps less or no green) is not going to be much good long-term. The duration has to be balanced by all nutrients, since photosynthesis follows the Liebig Law of Minimum...plant growth (photosynthesis) is governed by the least sufficient of the 17 required nutrients, not by the excess of any nutrient (always assuming light intensity/spectrum to be sufficient).

As for nutrients, floating plants have the aerial advantage, meaning that the leaves being on the surface can readily assimilate CO2 from the air rather than the water, and this process is about four times faster for the plants so they usually get all they need which cannot be said of submersed plants. Other nutrients may be lacking, or not quite sufficient to balance, and a comprehensive liquid supplement should provide this. It has to be comprehensive...including all nutrients in the proportion plants require, so the plants and not algae benefit.

The covered tank is often suggested not only here but elsewhere, but my floating plants do not have difficulties in my covered tanks, and while they are certainly not sealed air-tight, they are well covered.

Floating plants usually take time to settle in to a new environment, so be patient.

Thank you, I won't give up.

 

[seangee]

Do you have any local aquarium society's near you? Many of these societies have plant swaps, auctions, or the like that you can get aquarium plants from other members. These plants often are much easier to acclimate to your aquarium than ones you get in the LFS or online.

That's a good idea. Most of the plants from nurseries or retailers are kept in conditions very different to your aquarium (sometimes not even under water). These plants can take as long as 4-6 weeks to adapt to their new home and may appear to die off, or at least struggle in the process. So some patience is required.

 

[Back in the fold]

What Byron said about floating plants being able to get carbon dioxide easier because of being on the surface just absolutely floored me. Such a simple and obvious thing. How do the most obvious things hide themselves like that?