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Posts: 146
From:canada
Registered: Nov 2003

posted 11-27-2003 03:15 PM         

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I was wondering if anyone has anything to say about having live plants in the aquarium. Is it difficult to do? What would you recommend?

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From:APG, MA, USA
Registered: Nov 2003

posted 11-29-2003 12:46 PM         

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Your in luck, I would not buy real plants because the plant food has metal in it and it can KILL your fish but fake plants don't need food and it saves you a lot of money.

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From:Newport, RI, USA
Registered: Nov 2003

posted 11-29-2003 02:36 PM         

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It is a great idea to have live plants in your tank! They take out carbon dixoide and put in oxygen. Some fish will live and eat around them. Good idea! They will look great! :-)

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From:austin,tx, usa
Registered: Dec 2002

posted 11-29-2003 03:00 PM         

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My fish love their real plants. some of my fish are several years old and have always had plants. I think it is important to their health. as far as the plant fertilizer that you can buy for aquarium plants, I'm not sure if that is bad for your fish. it says on the bottle it is safe. Too many heavy metals will kill any living thing. I don't think in small doses it is necessarily bad. People often take multivitamins with iron in them, and it does them good, but if you take too much iron it is fatal.. same idea maybe?
also, i wanted to add, that my plants have never needed bottled fertilizer. they grow more slowly, but I don't mind.

[This message has been edited by dianenm (edited 11-29-2003).]

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From:New Zealand
Registered: Nov 2003

posted 11-29-2003 11:01 PM         

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Real plants r good more oxy in the water and the plants eat nirate so you don't need plant food

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posted 11-30-2003 12:48 AM         

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Fish-Lover, you are half right. When the lights are on they take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen, but when the lights are off they take in oxygen and give off carbon dioxide.

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From:Fgura, Malta
Registered: Aug 2003

posted 11-30-2003 05:09 AM         

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I'm still a newbie regarding live plant like you, but till now, i've come to the conclusion that fish love them, and they make your aquarium real, it the touch an aquarium needs.

I don't give them fertilizers, i only spread a layer of fertilizer (stones a bit bigger than the gravel) underneath d gravel. The amazon sword,is doing bad but the other are doing very fine, in fact i think one of the straight valis i growing too large, the leaf has to bend now.

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From:canada
Registered: Nov 2003

posted 11-30-2003 12:21 PM         

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I have a great mixture of fish that appear to be getting along nicely in my aquarium and yep---there just seems to be something missing! I think you are right Claudia nd Fishlover--it is the touch my aquarium needs as the plastic ones arent really cutting it---I know they are fake and I want my fish to be in a "real" environment. I went this morning to a mountain and picked up a box of shale that I will be boiling and then putting in the aquarium. I have also received some good tips from someone on this site about getting various kinds of starter plants--I will be picking them up as well. Anything to get my aquarium to look more like a live habitat! Thanks everyone....a great help!

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posted 11-30-2003 09:39 PM         

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fishybiz, I'm not real sure on shale content but I believe it contains calcium chlorite which will keep your PH high. So if you have a problem with PH once you put the shale in you might want to check. Also just a little tip on live plants; they don't do real well with UG filters. If you want to keep live plants you probably want to go to an outside filter.

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From:canada
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posted 12-01-2003 03:11 PM         

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Hey Kc5Gvn, Im not sure of the contents of shale either but I thought I saw it at a big aquarium store...hmmmmm....
Okay, so if I do put it in my aquarium, and it does raise my PH level...how would I know?...Sorry about the ignorance but I am a new aquarium owner. I do not do water quality tests, as I dont know how yet. I do know that when my water goes white- cloudy I have too much amonia... ) pretty good for a novice huh?...lol
At any rate, I will do more research before making their home more...."homey"

Oh...and yes, I do have an outside filter luckily... Thanks for the tips

[This message has been edited by fishybiz (edited 12-01-2003).]

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From:canada
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posted 12-01-2003 08:13 PM         

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well, Kc5gvn, you are right. Shale does have high concentrations of calcium in it and one way to test this is to put vinager on it and to watch it bubble. I did try this after boiling the shale twice (which really only removed bad bacteria)and it didnt really do anything but smell like vinager. Anyhow, I called the aquarium store and they told me the same thing. I can use slate but not shale.
Thank-you again for your help before I added the shale and killed everything that moved in my aquarium.

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posted 12-01-2003 09:51 PM         

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The tank you saw it in in the store was probably an African Cichlid tank. African Cichlids prefer alkaline water and a lot of stores use shale and dolomite or crushed coral to keep the PH up. Which by the way I do not recommend using the crushed coral with Africans. It has rasor sharp edges to which they are not accustomed to and can get cut up very easily. In any case, when using those materials the water usually starts with a PH about 8.4 and after waste has accumulated it usually stables out between 7.8 and 8.0. This might help some of you African Cichlid lovers with low PH problems. With regard to how you would know, you would have to test the PH of your water. The PH test kits for fresh water are fairly inexpensive and easy to use. As a rule I don't worry about PH too much if I'm doing my water changes to remove ammonia. The PH of tap water here is high so with water changes it balances it out. The high PH of my tap water is also why I always use Novaqua to buffer the PH when I do water changes to keep from taking the water from a low PH to a high PH rapidly.

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From:Sterling Heights, MI, U.S.A.
Registered: Sep 2003

posted 12-02-2003 01:29 PM         

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i would suggest gettin anarcharis (spellin right?). it looks nice, doesnt need any special fertilizors,grows quickly, and usually wont get eaten by fish. also, you can seperate parts of this plant and the seperated part will turn into a new plant and begin to grow. the best part is that it costs like $2-$3 for a 10-12" plant.

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From:canada
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posted 12-02-2003 08:47 PM         

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thanks, I have added this to my list of plants to get. Can you throw a bunch in at once or do you have to slowly introduce plants?

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