Does Anyone Find Fake Plants Annoying.?

[piranha_tim]

Does anyone find fake plants annoying.?

My Piranha constantly is pulling off the plastic leaves so they sit floating on the top of the tank.

I have thought about cable tieing the plant leaves together filling the rough bits off and piling substrate a little higher around the base to stop this from happening.

 

[doresy]

Hi, yes I find fake plants annoying because in my experience they are just plain horrible.

Ok, they still provide shelter for timid fish and can help control current but that's where their uses stops for me.

The tank just stays dormant, unchanging.

With real plants they grow and can be shaped to enhance your effect. They compete for nutrient with algae so help to control that.

They are cheaper and self multiplying.

I'm sure there are many more benifits too.

Sorry, but you did ask

 

[jonnyf84]

in my opinion they are horrible tacky things, go natural!!!!

 

[kewskills]

Well im gonna disagree, you have to spend money to get good looking fake plants, i can not be bothered with real plants at all, i have never had good luck with them

 

[doresy]

Well im gonna disagree, you have to spend money to get good looking fake plants, i can not be bothered with real plants at all, i have never had good luck with them

Each to their own which is why LFS have an extensive range of both.

I was just saying that I cannot see as much benifit in fake over real for the fish.

I must admit, in my fake period I bought middle of the road silk ones but they kept getting all sorts of deposits on them which is something I no longer get now with established real plants.

But hey, if it's good for you then great

 

[kewskills]

Well im gonna disagree, you have to spend money to get good looking fake plants, i can not be bothered with real plants at all, i have never had good luck with them

Each to their own which is why LFS have an extensive range of both.

I was just saying that I cannot see as much benifit in fake over real for the fish.

I must admit, in my fake period I bought middle of the road silk ones but they kept getting all sorts of deposits on them which is something I no longer get now with established real plants.

But hey, if it's good for you then great

I agree with you, if you can be bothered then real plants is definitely the way to go, just as i said they just seem to die on me. maybe i just don't have green fingers

My point was you can have good looking fake plants if you are willing to pay the price for them

 

[tangokitty]

My fake plants where always getting covered in algae, the real ones are much better, now I have no algae! Can you put real plants with a Piranha?

 

[piranha_tim]

My fake plants where always getting covered in algae, the real ones are much better, now I have no algae! Can you put real plants with a Piranha?

Well I am sure you can ... Just he likes to mess with his tank ... I feel real plants would just go too fast.

 

[ALEXF]

i think that real is definately more benefitial for a tank, but i dont think fake ones are horrible if used in a creative way. i like my tank very much and they are all fake plants. also i think it is better to start with fake as a beginner because you have enought o worry about with dealing with learning the basics then to add plant maintance on that is a pain, now i plan to eventually go to real but as my exsperience and knowledge gains.

 

[UBigBobby]

Fake plants have some advantages for some people. They are no-maintainence first off. Second you don't have to worry about upgraded lighting or a CO2 diffuser or any of that jazz. Plus they're eaisier to deal with for some Cichlid species that like to dig up plants.

If you can afford to upgrade your lighting and get a CO2 diffuser (if you want to go heavily planted), then yea, real plants are more attractive, and probably a better choice...but not for everyone.

I have a planted 40G SE Asia Biotope, but my 10G Shell Dweller has a couple plastic plants because the cichlids like to dig and have dug up the real ones before. I'd love to have real ones in there, but its too much trouble to deal with the plants being dug up all the time.

 

[minxfishy]

Well I had live plants in the early days of my tanks, but they never survived, looked horribly messy as slowly they died off, didnt matter what lighting I used, substrate, what fish they were with, they were either eaten, dug up or died.

So Ive now gone silk in all my tanks, if you buy the good ones, they look fine, easy to clean if you have get an algae problem, just take them out and clean them, then put them back, also easier if you want to re-arrange the look of the tank. I hide all the stem parts with bogwood, caves etc, so you can only really see the leaves. Whilst if you can achieve it a nicely planted real plant tank looks great, if you cant, then silk is the way to go IMO.

 

[8inary]

I think some people are not understanding why some people go for artificial plants in the first place, some, like myself, went with artificial plants due to having a mixed cichlid and oddball tank. Having tried real plants, and having shelled out £60 for real plants, it did not take long to see them all floating around chewed up. I then spent £90 on some artificial plants that just looked stupid, so I then spent £160 on good quality silk plants that looked really good. However, they soon lose their colour and the fish chew on them getting the algae, so they end up looking shredded.

Here is my tank, with the plants in question: -

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLGa8d9L1SY

 

[gaz gun man]

I had all fake plants in my tank when I set it up, altho quite alot of people on here told me to go with real plants.

I just didnt want the hassle of live plants, setting up a tank, cycling and adding fish was going to be enough work for me in itself.

Now whenever I look at the tank (which has a brown algae boom!) I dislike it more and more.

So I have started to replant it using real plants, I am only about 1/4 through the process at the moment. (I bought 10 live bunched plants off of the internet thinking I would have enough)
I have another 20 plants on order, cant wait for them to turn up so I can crack on

 

[piranha_tim]

See thats weird I have had 0% issues with Algae ... None at all.

 

[rossyboy]

I know you can buy fake plants that look real but they do come at a price. I just prefer the natural look myself!