How to have a Beautiful Live Planted Aquarium

With a little work and planning anyone can have a beautiful live planted aquarium. Nothing looks better in a room than a nicely done aquarium with fish and live plants. I hate those funny colored fake plants that just don't look real in an aquarium. Live plants are healthier for your fish by using up some or most of the ammonia produced by the fish, thereby keeping your aquarium water sparkling clean. It is not easy getting things set up so that your plants and fish will thrive but it can be done and is very rewarding.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Aquarium
• coarse sand or fine gravel to fill the bottom to 1 inch
• live fish
• heater
• aquarium pump/filter
• aquarium lights ~ 1 watt per gallon is recommended for most plants.
• CO2 container check out my other ehow article on how to make a CO2 for your aquarium plants http://www.ehow.com/how_4710515_co-aquarium-plants.html
• live plants
• aquatic plant food tabs
• freshwater clams (optional)1 per gallon

1. Plan ahead on what kinds of plants you want and how you will eventually set them up in your tank. You can find true aquatic plants at some pet stores (beware of plants that are not true aquatics like corn plant, bamboo and others as they will eventually die in your tank) Make sure you only buy plants that are "True Aquatics". But I am ahead of myself as you will not be buying any plants yet. Plants come in different varieties just like house plants do. They are divided into 3 groups. (1) Low light, (2) Medium light, (3) strong light. You will probably use low light and medium light plants at .5 - 1 watt per gallon of lighting for your tank is recommended. Make sure you can provide sufficient lighting. If you only have 1 small light stay with low light plants only.

2. Set up your fish tank, with your sand or gravel substrate at around 1/2 - 1 inch deep. place your decorations, turn on your filters and heater, and run your tank for at least 24 hours before adding fish, 2 or 3 days is recommended before adding fish to allow the substrate to settle and the filters to remove any floating dust and debris.

3. Purchase healthy fish of varieties that do not destroy live plants. Platy's will eat some of your plants so keep this in mind. Algae eaters and Plecostamus will also eat live plants if given the chance, best to stay with smaller species like UFO Plecostamus, Stick Catfish, Oto Cats. Some Cichlid will pull up plants to set up breeding areas. Angels need long leafed plants such as amazon sword or eel grass to spawn on, Oto cats need broad leafed plants to lay their eggs on, so keep this in mind if you wish to breed these species. When you bring your fish home float their bag in your fish tank for about an hour so that they can get used to the new water temperature, then allow them to swim from the bag directly into your tank.

4. Do weekly water tests and changes as necessary for 1 - 2 months before adding any live plants to your tank. This will give time for some of the fish wastes to build up in the substrate of your tank. These fish wastes will become the fertilizer for your plants once they become established.

5. A good first plant is Java Moss this moss is a hard one to kill and great for setting up the proper biological processes that will help your plants to thrive. You can also start with a broad leaf plant such as ANUBIAS COFFEEFOLIA this needs to be tied to an object such as a rock decoration or sinking wood. The roots will eventually extend down into the substrate but if they are planted directly into the substrate they will rot and the plant will die.

6. After another 2 or 3 weeks you can add some form of grasses such as chain sword or micro sword these are pretty easy as beginner plants as long as you have about 1 watt per gallon of light. Place 1 - 2 fertilizer tabs about an inch or so away from the roots of the plants you just put into your tank.

7. With luck by now your java moss will be starting to get a bit out of hand, go ahead and take your scissors and cut some off and prune your moss up a bit. If you want a moss background you can take those snipped pieces and tie them between two pieces of window screen using fishing line and attach it to your glass on one side with a suction cup or two. Over the next few months it will grow into a very nice moss wall for you. If all is going well you can now add the rest of your live plants to your tank. Don't forget to use the fertilizer tabs 1-2 for each plant as described above.

8. In the beginning you will have several plants that just don't seem to get along very well, this is normal and some may die off and need to be replaced. As the tank ages the plants will have an easier time taking hold and thriving. Try moving them around a bit if they don't seem to like where they are in your tank one area may get more light than another area so some plants will do well in areas where other plants do not.

9. Remember there are short growing plants as well as medium and tall plants. You need to keep this in mind when choosing plants, you don't wan' t to put a tall plant in front of a short one and so on. Some plants may need frequent pruning to keep them in check. Most of your mosses will go wild once established and you will need to keep them under control.

10. Keep in mind that some plants like cabomba will send up flowers above the water line. Flowering plants like these can be quite interesting if they are allowed to grow thru the top of the aquarium. Other plants like Banana plant and Tiger Lotus will eventually send up leaves that float on the water, I am not sure if they send up flowers as well.

11. To keep the substrate from becoming anaerobic (basically having toxic spots where the substrate is putrid) you should locate some freshwater clams such as Asian Gold Clams some pet stores sell these for $1-2 each but I found 100 on eBay for less than $15 with shipping. These little guys will scoot around under the substrate eating up all the pockets of detritus and keeping the substrate live much the same way that earthworms stir up the soil and keep it healthy for your plants.

12. You should consider setting up a CO2 generator for your tank. These can easily be made at home and must be recharged weekly. They cost pennies to set up and run if you follow my directions on my other ehow article. The link is above in the "things you'll need list". Once set up and running you will see streams of oxygen bubbles coming up from the leaves of your plants, really cool to see! The moss may be filled with little bubbles all over the place making them appear to glitter.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't be discouraged if you rush things and the first few plants die.
• I lost several plants in my first attempts at planted tanks years ago, this was due to not letting the tank "age" a bit before trying to add plants, not adding fertilizer in the beginning, and not enough light.
• Plants need heaters too... if your tank is too cold some plants just won't do well
• Too deep of a substrate or too fine of a substrate will allow it to go "anaerobic" so keep it between 1/2 and 1 inch and no deeper.
• There are several online sources of great plants check out the links on the bottom of the page
• Do weekly water testing to insure that the Nitrite/Nitrate levels remain in the safe zone, check PH as well and adjust as necessary most plants like ph in the range of 6.5-7.2
• Make sure you get plants for your lighting level (low light, moderate light, bright light)
• Beware of fishes that eat plants as they can make it really rough to get things started and if you use mosses they will spread little bits of moss everywhere to take up new root and eventually take over your tank.
• Watch out for snails, they can come in on the plants you buy as snails or eggs. There are products that destroy snails or fishes that eat them, even Red Claw Shrimp will eat snails.
• If you have an over population of snails you are over feeding your fish. Fish act hungry even when they are not, they see you and expect food it is a learned response.

Resources

• Mikes Wet Pets
• Bonnies plants
• code 3 offers discounted merchandise to police and fire personel

[CaseyCarlton]

on 2/10/2009 Thanks! This article will be a big help when I set up my aquarium. 5 stars and a recomment