Notices for Adding Live Plants to Your Home Aquarium
2008-08-19

Notices for Adding Live Plants to Your Home Aquarium

Adding live plants is a wonderful way to enhance your home aquarium. Live plants add beauty, and they also enhance the atmosphere of the tank by boosting the oxygen in the water. Your aquarium fish enjoy a more natural aquarium setting, and it makes them healthier and their water more balanced. You may be ready to buy your tank some plant. Before you do this, you should learn more about live plant of tank. Water gardening is almost the same as normal gardening. The plants must be that you choose clearly. And those plants require good conditions and care.

Choose live plant right for your tank •Consider the amount of space you have to work with. Some plants have wide leaves and some resemble grasses. Some grow quite tall. •Think about lighting. How much light is available in different parts of the tank? •Put the shorter plants toward the front of the tank and the taller ones at the back. •Opt for either elodea or egeria; these do well in cooler temperatures and are good for adding oxygen to the water. They can be planted or left floating free. •Floating liverwort, also sold as crystal-wort, is an ideal plant for tanks with live bearers. The plant forms a mossy chunk that's ideal for fry (baby fish), and it grows well under bright light. •Go for strength with hornwort, which is very durable. It can grow in medium and full light and can be planted or left to float free. Keep in mind that this plant grows to about 21 inches. •Watch out for some plants that are sold as aquatic plants, but really aren't. They'll look good for about a month and then die. These range from hedges to bog plants, and include fountain plants, Chinese evergreens, Brazilian sword-grass, alligator plants, club mosses and umbrella pines. Put the plant to your tank •Open the bag to let the plants breathe some oxygen while you set up the tank. If you have any extra gravel, place it in the tank now. Live plants need to have deep gravel in order for their roots to grow properly. •Place each plant in the tank separately, pushing the roots into the gravel so they can get a good hold. Never smash the plants into the bottom of the tank, for this can hinder their growth process. •Add any live plant food or live plant chemicals to the water, as described on the label. If, at any time, the water appears to be muddy or unclear, add some water clarifier or live plant chemical to the water. Always read the labels! Maintain the plant Carbon dioxide, a good light source and a nutrient rich substrate are important components in maintaining live aquarium plants. Liquid fertilizers and other things can also be used if you feel that the plants look in poor condition. 1) Plants need Carbon Dioxide to grow. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important nutrient that you need to keep aquarium plants healthy. CO2 is produced by the waste products within the fish tank, like fish excrement, excess food and as by-product of bacterial action but this is often not sufficient to keep plants in good condition. It is a good idea to regulate the CO2 either using the system or manually because fish will suffer if there is too much CO2 in the water. Rough guides for carbon dioxide suggest that 30 to 45 mg per litre of water is enough for plants to thrive but over 100mg per liter is too much for fish. 2) Plants need an adequate lighting source. CO2 systems must be synchronized with the lighting system that you use in the aquarium. Light is a vital part of the photosynthesis process which plants use to turn light energy into chemical energy that they use to grow. Normally plants would derive the light source from the sun but in the case of aquarium plants the sun may not be available so an artificial source is needed. The light source should provide a full spectrum of light to the plants. Popular types are mercury vapor or metal halide lights 3) Plant need clean water Water maintenance is also a critical issue. Obviously, the water must be clean and clear for both the fish and plants to thrive. Weekly cleaning and water testing is recommended, and this includes making sure that no debris is left residing on the bottom of the tank. Water full of waste and debris is very detrimental to live plants. Water hardness is also an important issue for live aquarium plants. Good, healthy plants do best when their water hardness is between 4 and 12 DH, and the pH level is between 6.5 and 7.2. 4) Plant need good nutrients Just like the fish in your aquarium, live plants needs nutrients in order to grow and thrive. Live aquarium plants required macro nutrients and micro nutrients for survival. Macro nutrients are nitrates, phosphates and sulfates, and they are natural elements found in aquarium fish and the tap water used to fill the tank. You will never need to add macro nutrients to your aquarium. Micro nutrients include copper, iron and zinc. They are important to the health of live plants, so tiny amounts will likely be needed. Tips & Warnings •Watch out for chemicals that are unsafe for fish. If you have fish in your tank, do not add these chemicals because they could kill them. •If the live plants are not taking to your aquarium set-up right, call your local pet store and ask for help.