So you have a fish tank set up and now you are wondering what type of plants to add to it. In my years of owning and maintaining fish tanks I have had both live and artificial plants. Both types are a wonderful addition to your fish tank, and are essential if you want to breed fish.
Live Plants:
In my experience, I have found that live plants are a great addition to any fish tank. They help with oxygen levels, bio-load, camouflage for babies, color in the tank, and are a great food source for some types of fish. You must be sure that you are aware of any fish you might have that like to eat live plants, so that you can pick plants that they will not eat (unless of course you are buying plants to feed them). When using live plants, I like to have a good variety in my tank, so that all levels of the tank are covered (bottom, middle and top). If you have floating plants, make sure that you have them floating root side down. Briar moss and algae are a great addition to any tank that has small babies.
When you have live plants in a tank, you want to make sure that you have good lighting. If you do not have a fluorescent lighting system, you will not see much growth in your tank. In fact, you might begin to see your plants die. So make sure, that your lighting system is capable of allowing growth for your plants.
You also want to make sure that you have a scrubber (for acrlyic tanks) and a razor blade or something sharp (for glass tanks), so that you can clean the algae growth off the sides of the tank at least once a month. If you put your tank in direct sunlight you can expect to see much more algae growth than a tank that is not in sunlight. Depending on what types of plants you have, the amount of fish in the tank, and the amount of light or sunlight the tank gets you will see variations in the amount of algae growth. For example: I have one tank that is a 55 gallon, it has 24 fish in it and a fairly decent amount of live plants in it. This tank almost always has algae growing on the sides of it. Another tank I have is a 35 gallon, with 10 fish in it and almost the whole tank covered with live plants. This particular tank has not had any algae growth on the sides since I have had it. Both tanks have fluorescent lighting and both get regular feeding (twice daily). So you see, what you have in your tank greatly affects the amount of algae growth you will have.
Artificial Plants:
Artificial plants are also a great addition to any fish tank. What I like about fake plants is that you rarely have to clean the sides of your tank from algae. There are now some types of fake plants that look exactly like live plants. In my 55 gallon tank I used to have a bunch of fake plants, and people would look at it and think they were real (they were silk fake plants).
But one thing that I do not like about fake plants, is that they do not grow. I enjoy seeing my plants that I buy grow and flourish with my fishes, and with artificial plants you will not see that.
Artificial plants, are great if you are not planning on spending a lot of money or investing a lot of time to cleaning your tank but they will fade in color (unless plastic), and will often accumulate a lot of algae growth.
As with live plants, when stocking a fish tank with fake plants make sure that you have types of plants for each level in your fish tank. It is often hard to find floating plants though, so you might just stick to plants that stay close to the bottom, and plants that will fill in the middle area of the tank.
Which is better?
I have owned tanks with both live and fake plants in them, and I am partial to both. I think that live plants do look a lot nicer, and make your tank look more natural, but you can also find fake plants that do the same thing, and in some cases look even more real then real plants. So when it comes down to it, you just have to make a decision based on your personal preference. If you are planning on investing a lot of time and money into your tank, then live is the way to go. If you do not want to "break the bank" setting up and maintaining your fish tank, then I would stick with artificial plants. You have to remember that a fish tank is a home to your new pet(s), and like your home it needs to be kept clean. There is a lot of hard work that goes into setting up and maintaining your fish tank, but once you get through the hard part it's very painless and easy to do minor cleanings and adjustments.
If you found this article helpful, and would like more information about this topic feel free to visit my blog at http://properfishtankmaintenance.blogspot.com
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