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

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

Although some owners of aquariums may not spend much time on making it the best they can, there are others who are really passionate about giving their pet fish an environment as close as possible to their natural surroundings. Most often people use plastic aquarium plants only because of the need to economize. The plastic aquarium plants of today look very much like the real ones and they might fool many a human viewer, but what about your fish? Can they tell the difference?

When you go to the pet shop, you will see a lot of plastic aquarium plants which look very alluring under the incandescent lights. They tell you that they are exactly like the live aquarium plants. But are they really? Once you buy them and bury the roots into the gravel of your fish tank, you will find that they will always stay the same shade of color, whether they were green, reddish, turquoise or brown. There will be neither leaf decay nor new shoots sticking out once in a while. The background will forever be the same, static and uninteresting.

Live aquarium plants give the fish an environment closer to their natural surroundings as well as other benefits that plastic plants just cannot give. Live aquatic plants have their own beauty; looking after
them and watching them flourish and propagate can be as appealing and satisfying as rearing goldfish.

Also, live aquarium plants maintain the quality of water as they play the role of a filter, drawing out the excess nutrients in the water. Live aquatic plants house bacteria which convert the waste that the fish produce into nitrates which in turn serves as fertilizer to the plants. Since the live aquatic plants absorb the nutrients there will not be much left for the growth of algae. Fish generate carbon dioxide which plants take in and then use to generate oxygen that is required by your fish.

Also, since quite a few fish feed on plants, live aquarium plants become a source of food for them. If you have no live aquarium plants in your tank, then you’re depriving them of a sumptuous dinner. So make sure you replace those plastic aquatic plants with live aquarium plants now if you want your fish to be happy and healthy and to lay eggs to produce your next generation of pet fish.

For the sake of your fish, go for the “authentic” plants. =)

David

Interestingly, no one ever thought of little stuffs like this suction cup for the aquarium tank, could be pretty hard to find when we need it.

For those who are not sure what is it - it is actually a soft plastic which has been designed to clip on aquarium air tubing / CO2 diffuser / aquatic moss wall (plastic mesh), with other end being pressed towards the glass surface (to “squeeze out” the air), so that the items are hold firmly to the aquarium glass. It is widely used in bathroom (the larger size ones).

We will be offering some from our store, but for the time being, you could try to get some of these aquarium suction cups from our eBay store.

David

Substrate is to an aquarium what soil is to a garden. It can include sand, gravel, crushed coral or crushed seashells. Some colored gravels should be avoided since the color may leach out into the water over time. The substrate should not adversely affect the pH level of the water. Crushed coral or shells and some types of gravel create a high pH and high carbonate hardness which is detrimental to the plants. Low pH and very soft water can cause root-rot, which will lead to algae growth. The ideal level is 6.8 to 7.2 pH depending on types of plants. Avoid synthetic materials, gravel that is coated with epoxy or glass beads. It is theorized that the bright reflection coming up from the bottom of the aquarium disorients the fish.