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Advantage of a planted tank?
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Hi,
John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.
I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.
With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.
I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.
If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.
I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.
I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.
Thank you
Darragh Sherwin
Advantage of a planted tank?
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14 Apr 2011 19:07 - 14 Apr 2011 19:08 #1
by barr (declan)
Hi All
I was thinking of having live plants in my new set-up. I never had them before and was wondering are they worth the extra cost ?
I have some further questions as well
Do they live long in the tank ?
Do they add to the algae?
Are they extra maintenance?
What are the main advantages of having live plants?
Thanks in advance
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14 Apr 2011 22:55 #2
by Xaribdis (Lorcan O' Brien)
Real plants offer a huge amount to a setup and in my opinion are definitely worth the effort.
I'll just go through your questions as you posted them-
Not too sure how long each plant will live, but will depend on the plant. But if you give it optimal care it shouldn't last less than in the wild. Besides, most plants are easy to propogate. This will vary from plant to plant, but some are as easy as cutting off a runner and re-planting elsewhere in the tank.
The plants will actually reduce the amount of algae in a tank, as they will out-compete with them for the three things plants and algae need to thrive- light, nutrients and CO2. You have to get the balance right though, but if these are in a good balance there should be little or no excess nutrients for the algae to take hold.
You will have to maintain your plants. Pruning off dead leaves, cutting them back, remembering to give them ferts or liquid carbon etc. It's not that tough a chore though. Which plants you get will depend on how much maintenace you will have to give them, as some will grow like weeds whilst others grow much slower.
Plants will absorb a lot of waste from the water column as they grow, thus lessening your fish's exposure to them. In fact, some very heavily planted tanks with very light stocking don't use filters at all, as the plants and water changes keep the water balance perfect.
Hope this helps,
L
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14 Apr 2011 23:00 #3
by joey (joe watson)
well said
i'd just add that i had a set=up with less stock than now and a week after my usual 25% water changes i used to get 40-60ppm nitrates
i now have the tank MORE stocked adn well planted and after 2 weeks since the last water change it read 0ppm (5 being the next on my tests scale) so they defo help. in fact i think i need to ADD nitrate fertiliser to, as said above, keep the balance in check. its not too complicated and the little bit of work fiddling with the plants (and occasionally scrubbing a wee bit of algae) pays off. especially if it cuts down on the big water changes!
Location: Portlaoise, Midlands
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15 Apr 2011 00:09 #4
by des (des)
I couldn't agree more with the Lads
they took the words out of My mouth, Plants make a huge difference to the over all maintenance of the aquarium, algae and fish health, plus makes the aquarium far more aesthetically pleasing, kind of gives it the whole "living work of art" feel, adds great depth to the aquarium...
I only got into the plants a while ago and I love them !!
I was trying to find an old photo of the 240 before I added any plants but this the best I could come up with
(two plants)
BEFORE (kind of)
AFTER
Des
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15 Apr 2011 09:50 #5
by barr (declan)
Thanks for the advise guys. Wow great post Xaribdis
So is there any particular types of plants I should be looking out for ? (the less maintenance the better)
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Advantage of a planted tank?
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