What's the big difference between having plastic

[Maroonostrich]

My tank was set up and planted a while back and I am getting to watch the plants grow like crazy and really feeling happy that I bought them. I made the switch from trying to buy plastic plants to agreeing to buy real plants on the advice of my LFS, but the conversation was hurried and we did not go into depth on why it would be better- the sentence that settled it was; the real plants are more beneficial for your fish and that's all it took.

So for the first time I have a planted tank, and I am loving them, I was so excited when my leafy plant grew a new green shoot!

Can anyone explain the benefit my fish will get from living with real plants rather than plastic ones in a way I can understand?

Thanks

 

[Bloo]

okiedokie, well a 2 second google search (benefits of live plants in fishtank) brought up this :

Benefits of live plants in fishtank or for more info this article

Edit: it saved me typing for half an hour and gives you all the basics in a nutshell.

 

[Maroonostrich]

Thank you, Is it suitable for non chemists?!

I'm on my way to find out..

 

[CFC]

Herbivorous fish dont eat plastic plants, other than that plastics offer no benefits over real ones.

 

[Bloo]

Thank you, Is it suitable for non chemists?!

I'm on my way to find out..

Read and you shall find out it's in plain english as far as I can see
Ps: and I'm not a chemist either.

 

[Maroonostrich]

Ahhh now I remember what I was wondering...

Any benefit in mixing plastic and real or is that pointless?

And are there actually any plastic ones that actually do look real as I've not seen any?

 

[Undawada]

Plants help regulate toxins in your water, and produce oxygen for your fish.

They also provide infusoria and other microscoping foods the fish can eat (this isn't a replacement for regular feeding).

They compete with algae, so they reduce the risk of an algae outbreak.

There are probably more...

HTH

 

[Undawada]

You can get silk ones that look more realistic. But they're much more expensive. Some people mix live and synthetic plants, no real problem why not. It's better than all plastic

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Live plants help lower nitrate levels in tanks so if you have very high nitrates, adding lots of live plants helps alot

 

[OohFeeshy]

Silk plants aren't actually more expensive, but fake are more expensive than real.

 

[GSD]

i have a mix of real and silk.I dont lie the plastic ones that much although ui have 1 in my golfish tank

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Plastic plants can be a danger to male bettas also as they somtimes catch their long flowing fins on them and rip them, personally i'd go for live plants any day- they look much better and more interesting and when they start to grow out realy big look great in matured tank natural setups.

 

[Ethos]

I had 2 real plants in my 10G with like 3 fake ones, and the real ones left this.....ore substence. It was all brown and slimy, and when I took the real plants out, after a thurogh cleaning, it becamse clean again.
I dont know if something was just wrong with those plants, but I havent had a real plant since

In my 55G I am going to try some real plants B)

 

[annka5]

Re: oxygen - plants need light to produce oxygen, they take in CO2, use chlorophyl in their leaves to produce "food" and give off oxygen as a by-product. However, they need light to do this, so at night they don't give out any oxygen. They also "breathe" and so take in oxygen all the time. The overall effect on oxygen levels in the aquarium from having plants is about nil.