As we have discussed before, tanks and fish are both healthier with live aquarium plants.

But what if you already had artificial aquatic plants, and want to move up to the real thing? The process isn’t difficult, and can be completed in a short period of time. Live aquarium plants are certain to make your tank more appealing to both outside observers and to the fish who live with them. Go ahead and pull the artificial flora out of your tank, to begin with, and we’ll look at how to replace them with living aquarium plants.

The first rule of adding live aquarium plants is to make sure that the existing fish are healthy in the tank. This will tell you some clues that the nitrate level is under control, likely with very frequent water change. It is hard to strike ecological balance in a tank without plants. Aquatic plants require, among other things, phosphorous and nitrogen which are best delivered via live fish.

Assuming that you began with a tank with fish and fake flora, and the fakes are now removed. On the other hand, let’s look at the fish involved - it needs the presence of live aquarium plants as much as the other way round. The water is considered “poisonous” to the fish, if the nitrate level induced by the untreated fish waste are getting too high. It affects the water parameters, including pH value. Live plants are able to moderate the situation.

Tropical fish are more inclined to prefer tropical aquatic plants. Live aquarium plants which are poisonous are no good, as are aquatic plants that are too appealing (they’d get eaten right away). With a little research, you’ll be able to find out which aquatic plants are safest for and with your fish. A mixture of aquatic plants that fish will eat, and ones that are merely decorative is a good choice, since it covers all the bases. Anyways, it’s what works best for us.

David
AquaticMagic - Grow Happiness

When out shopping for live aquarium plants the wide range available can result in a penchant to pick a bit of everything that catches your fancy. If you have several plants of diverse types all in the same tank, they will be competing for light and food and very soon you will find that the hardiest ones have occupied most of the space causing the others to perish. Hence, control yourself and restrict your choice to about three types. You could select two aquatic plants to create a mass in the back of the tank and one for the middle.

You may use Sagittaria or Vallisneria as one of the aquatic plants to put at the back but make sure you don’t use both in the same tank as they have a tendency to vie with each other. A bushy aquarium plant in the back of the tank would look nice. You could use Hygrophila which grows very easily. However, if you are looking for something that is more decorative you can go in for Ludwigia or Cabomba-Limnophila. If you are going to have a cold water aquarium, these are your best options.

For the center, it is advisable to use a beautiful plant - Echinodorus, Aponogeton or Cryptocoryne if yours is a warm water aquarium. For a cold water aquarium, you may choose from Muphar, Ranunculus and Hottonia.

Aquatic plants should be fleshy and color-intense; don’t pick up those that are drooping and lifeless. The majority of aquarium plants are fragile when they are removed from the water and should be lifted up by using extreme care. Don’t ever lift them out from the center of the stem; the best way to pick them up is by holding them at the base, allowing them to hang down from your hand. Choose aquatic plants which are only half grown and have plenty of leaves.

A lot of aquarium plants that multiply through cuttings will have thin roots like hair coming out of the nodes where the branches grow. Select this kind as they will take root sooner. Plants having crowns should have high-quality roots which should be fleshy and hairy.

From all the aquarium plants that you would find in the stores, the ones mentioned here have been verified to be the most dependable and fascinating. Make sure you select really healthy ones and you will be on your way to having an attractive aquarium with happy fish swimming around.

Read on more if you wish to find out how to setup a planted tank.

David

For your aquarium plants to grow healthy, soil or substrate is a vital consideration. Aquatic plants are found to record enhanced development using this simple method of creating a two layer soil.

1. Lower layer
For the lower layer, add sufficient water to some vermiculite so as to wet it but not so much that it begins to float. Press and pound the vermiculite to make sure there is no air trapped inside and also to make the layer as thin as can be. Now, put in some soil that you have dug up from the garden. Make sure the concoction is not gooey or your tank will have a cloudy appearance when you fill it with water; if not, add more vermiculite and soil. It should look like cake batter ready to go into the oven. This becomes the lower layer of the soil which provides the aquatic plants with a great medium through which their roots enter and absorb nutrients. Make this layer as thick as possible, but then, not so thick that it mars the beauty of your tank.

2. Upper Layer
For the upper layer, you can use about an inch or two of sand only to act as a shield and prevent the lower layer from making the water cloudy. The most highly recommended is the sandblasting grit number three which is normally available for US$10 per bag of 100 pounds. You may use any sand as long as it is not too fine and not from the sea. Number 3 sand is approximately 2mm in size. If you think the sand is dirty, you may wash it first. Then put it in on top of the first layer. This second layer of sand can be between one and two inches thick.

Lasty,
Fill water into the tank with the utmost care. Keep something like a flat tray down in the tank while filling in water to make sure that the soil doesn’t rise up and make the water muddy. The water will be extremely clear if you have been cautious. Else, if the soil does muddle up the water, it might take anywhere from two to five days for the soil to settle again. Whenever you dig up an aquatic plant, a little bit of soil might come up, but it poses no problem.

After you finish putting in your aquarium plants, you may add a bit of fertilizer to the lower layer.

Read here to find out how to make a moss wall for your aquarium tank, or
Read here to understand how to choose the combination of plants and fish in your newly setup tank

David

As mentioned in our previous article on Interior aquarium, let’s discuss more about Ecological aquarium here.

The ecological aquarium is an example of creation of an underwater paradise for your pet fish based upon their needs and likes. Bringing them into your home is for your pleasure of course, but a lovely and natural environment is what will keep them alive, happy and thriving.

When you create an atmosphere in which they will breed and produce fry to continue a generation of new pet fish, you have created both beauty and function. This in itself is an example of artistic creation. You will invest time, money and energy and as a result you will be able to watch beautiful and realistic scenes of underwater activities of your fish.

If the fish like it, you will like it too. If they take an occasional nibble on the live aquarium plants that is actually rather interesting to watch also. Eventually, appearance and well being of aquarium inhabitants will affect you in a pleasant way.

If you intend to lodge freshwater devil fish in your tank along with a piece of coral reef you can laugh at the idea of little plastic towers and bridges. What would a real fish do with a tower? How would a fish utilize a bridge. It is better to consult with experts who will instruct you as to which aquarium is suitable for which fish and the type of freshwater plants would be suitable for those fish. The placement in the home or office are also important.

If on the other hand,  you make a start from the concrete form and have already chosen the location in your office or your home, select corresponding inhabitants who may find it a suitable environment. The exotic fish provide aesthetic pleasure to the human who chooses to keep them as underwater pets.

For benefit of both Aquarist and fish it is best to seek out the advice of an expert before buying plants which will be dead in two months or may be detrimental to the fish sharing the aquarium.

As a summary of what we have discussed:
* The main attractive feature of the interior aquarium is its ideal design which complies perfectly to the space it occupies.
* Fish in such aquariums often feel uncomfortable or will not survive due to discomfort.
* The focal point is to make something that simply looks good.
* The Dutch aquarium is an original underwater garden set up to appeal to the aesthetic sense.
* An ecological aquarium differs radically to the interior aquarium.
* You set up and design the underwater environment of the ecological aquarium to be a vivacious interactive habitat for the keeping of fish.
* It may be aesthetically pleasing to you especially when filled with the thriving fish population you have chosen to live in it.
* The inexperienced aquarist should approach this delightful hobby with the attitude of “fishy needs first, human needs second.”
* Create something based on the helpful advice of experts which both you and your fish will enjoy.
* The home ecosystem with sea flora and fauna is more labour consuming, but at the end, it is your labor and your success.

If  you missed out the previous article, please read on for more information on Interior aquarium tank.

We wish you a pleasant journey in building your Ecological aquarium tank!
David

Depending on the space they fill in a home or office, aquariums can be divided into two types: Interior or Ecological.

We shall discuss about the Interior aquarium over here, and they are known as Dutch aquarium as well.

The main thing about the interior aquarium is its ideal shape or size to fill the space it will be kept in. As a rule, this aquariums also fills a niche and performs the function of enhancing the room or office it was created for. There may be a sconce or other lighting placed nearby to provide a sense of quiet twilight for the purpose of relaxation and decoration.

This type of aquarium will often have a very unusual form such as a column. A high and narrow aquarium is likely to bend due to the additional weight of the water when added. Not only does the design not prove to be functional, but the fish will not be comfortable.

The discomfort of the fish will not be beneficial to their health. Everything looks beautiful and unusually attractive. But what beauty can there be in dead fish. The Dutch aquarium may be fashionable now but fish are not creatures of fashion, they require the comfort of an underwater environment similar to what they would have experienced in the wild.

This concept of the Dutch aquarium is really artistic and in compliance with the laws of harmony and beauty. It is an underwater landscape consisting of multi colored aquatic plants. There are some very realistic silk plants along with artificial plants made of other materials that are lovely, but they are only for show. The Dutch aquarium is a copy of an original underwater landscape.

An aquarium filled with stagnant displays of artificial plants provides beauty to the eye however, the purpose of the aquarium is defeated. The Dutch aquarium may present a back wall which is a background for rock terraces of various sizes and colors of stones but the ecological variation is one of true to nature beauty and provides the perfect living conditions for fish. A true aquarist began his interest in this hobby because he wanted to have pet fish.

Make it simple, we are not too impressive of such interior aquarium, for the sake of the fish. What do you think?

Please read on for more information on Ecological aquarium tank.

David

Regardless of whether a tank has live aquarium plants, or if it contains silk or plastic ones, it is going to look more attractive, more comfortable to the fish when it is properly decorated.  This may sound strange, but fish have very simple nervous systems, are are easily stressed in harsh environments.  A few plastic aquatic plants gives fish an illusion of nature, and using live aquarium plants provides a good deal more.

Artificial Aquatic Plants
Plastic and silk tank flora have advanced a lot in the past 25 years.  Today, a tank can be adorned with fake versions that look almost identical to the real thing.  The biggest advantage of using these decorations is that they can be easily removed and cleaned, when necessary.  Fish do not eat them, so you never have to worry about a bedraggled tank decoration that must be pruned or replaced, which is another point of consideration.  They are still liable to be knocked around by larger fish, but this can be remedied by using weighted bases, or planting them lightly in the substrate.   Lastly, most aquatic plants do better with an organic substrate, while plastic and silk have no such demands.

Live Aquarium Plants
An authentic aquatic plant is more than a home for fish and an interesting decoration.  Live aquarium plants absorb nitrates and perform a beneficial carbon exchange.  Rather than being purely ornamental, these aquatic plants form a vital part of a healthy tank’s ecosystem, filtering waste and creating life-giving oxygen.  Live aquarium plants are also food for some fish, which some aquarists find appealing and others think is annoying.  Aquatic plants also require a stricter lighting schedule than fish alone, and can potentially be a carrier of disease and parasites when first added.

My suggestion: Living Aquatic Plants Are Best
As we’ve discussed, live aquarium plants offer more to the beautiful tank than good looks alone.  Using artificial versions will not reduce your time spent maintaining the tank, and keeping it clean.  Nor will such fake flora help to mitigate chemicals and pollutants.  The following list offers reasons both biological and decorative to use live aquarium plants, but is far from being a complete list.

10 Reasons to Use Aquatic Plants

1. Aquatic plants complete a living ecosystem.

2. Live Aquarium plants inhibit algae growth.

3. Aquatic plants provide a CO2<>O chemical exchange.

4. Aquatic plants reduce waste buildup.

5. Aquarium plants reduce fish stress.

6. Herbivorous fish are able to eat live aquarium plants.

7. Live aquarium plants give the tank a natural appearance.

8. Tanks with aquatic plants require less cleaning.

9. Aquarium plants change over time - artificial ones never change.

10. Tanks benefit from allelopathic aquatic plants.

Things that you might wish to keep in mind:
1. Browse thru Aquarium plants forums (there are lots of good ones), to make that what you imagine is what you will be getting

2. Look at your own schedule. You will probably need to spend a weekend to work on your aquarium tank, when you got your plants on hand.

3. On-going maintenance: If you lead an extremely busy live, you need some good hobbies to relax your mind. Aquarium planting is one great way. But, do not over commit - get some hardy aquatic plants to make the maintanance easy.
Have a nice day!

David

For a fantastic Planted Aquarium Tank, it is best to use resilient plants which do not require much maintenance like Java Moss, Java Fern, Water Sprite, Najas and Anubias. Such plants can make do with lower levels of light and fertilizer. You may use the low maintenance filter under the gravel or even a little power filter inside the tank will work just as well.

Before you begin to setup a new plant tank:
1. Make sure you scrub it clean without using soap.

2. Next, you should put an under gravel filter at the bottom.

3. Over it, place a layer about an inch thick of normal filter floss or static quilt batting

4. This should be covered by a layer of Aquarium gravel approximately two inches thick.

5. Next, position your plants according to your taste.
•A bit of Java moss in a couple of places with some gravel to keep it down.
•You can put a few Java ferns maybe to the left putting just enough gravel on the roots to keep
them from floating upwards.
•And you could have floating at the top a few Water Sprite plants.

A Plant Tank of ten gallon capacity will need just one florescent light that normally comes with a it. The plants will be supplied manure by the fish and besides the usual upkeep of changing water, vacuuming the gravel and feeding of the fish, there is not much else that you need to do.

For sure success, make sure you put in quite a few plants right at the beginning so that the algae doesn’t get a chance to grow. Just put them in and forget about it. Make sure that they get consistent light which is not necessarily continuous; light for some eight to twelve hours per day should suffice. You could use a timer to make your task easier.

Since the plants I mentioned get nutrients from the water, you don’t have to put in fertilizer as the fish produce it and the nutrientsare replenished each time you do a water change. Be aware that some shops might be selling you plants which are not really aquarium plants. Some like Corn Plant will live for at most two weeks in water. And Bog Plants may survive in water for longer but will not thrive.
After this point is done, the very next step will be some design work. We will cover that topic in the next post.

David

A customer of AquaticMagic has actually filmed the setup of the Rhinox 1000 CO2 diffuser that he has purchased from us, and posted it on youtube.

It is working perfectly in the tank (the current seems to be quite strong - is there a Eheim filter or something else nearby?)

By the way, for those who might wish to know more - CO2 diffuser, with a proper setup with the CO2 tank (or yeast bottles), regulator, solenoid, bubble counter as well as the connection with high CO2-resisting clear tubing, could be your key to success, if you wish to have a fully planted tank.

If you are just keeping a few aquarium plants for your tank, probably you won’t need one.

There are lots of seller selling CO2 distributor on internet - basically most of them are reliable, and the CO2 diffusers will be fully functional. One small thing to take note would be the delivery process - as the CO2 diffusers are made of pure glass (and some nano ceramic for the white filtering part). It is extremely fragile, so it is important that you make sure the seller is taking the risk for the shipment, not you. They should have some sort of policy to refund or reship if ever the CO2 diffuser is damaged during the shipment.

For us, the damage rate is about 5% (sorry but we always blame the UPS for throwing our parcels). But we could only take the risk and reship our customers a brand new one, as long as they show us the photo of the broken diffusers.

Click here if you need to find one CO2 diffuser that suits your tank.

David

We were browsing some interesting blogs before we found an article posted by Raden on Do-follow blogs. That is very interesting to us, as people are getting together to go against the decision made by Internet “authority” to impose a “nofollow” tag. I was inspired by the articles, and now I have removed the “nofollow” tag in our blogs as well.

This is the list gotten from Raden!

1. Sitepoint Forums - Dofollow blog lists arranged by PR
2. Bloggers Directory - List of Dofollow Blogs
3. Bumpzee - The No Nofollow, I Follow , DoFollow Blog List. Biggest list of dofollow blogs so far.
4. Digerati Marketing - Lists of dofollow blogs in pdf format.
5. D-List Doffolow Blogs - There are well over 200 sites on the D-List directory of dofollow blogs.
6. Doffolow Blogs Directory - Simple directory of dofollow blogs arranged by categories.
7. India SEO - 140+ DoFollow Blogs (SEO Tips)
8. Jim Carter - List of DoFollow Blogs
9. Minterest - List Of Over 250+ DoFollow Blogs
10. Nickoo Shore - Do Follow List contains now more than 350 links to blogs which have the ‘no follow’ link disabled from the comments
11. Terrazoa - 45 dofollow blogs arranged by category
12. The “Do Follow” Blogs Directory - Small lists of dofollow blogs
13. Tip for the Web - Get Backlinks From Huge List Of DoFollow Blogs
14. Tucson SEO Solutions - A comprehensive dofollow blog list of around 300 dofollow blogs
15. Webhosting Blog - DoFollow Blogs List With High PR
16. Whydowork.com - DOFOLLOW Blogs With Good Google Page Rank

David

We have found this Blog Carnival very interesting and we have decided to host one for this hobby!

All are welcome to participate and this will be the permalink for all subsequent postings on the carnival!

Submit your blog article to this edition of “Aquarium plants and supplies”! Click the link the use the carnival submission form.

David