Live or Plastic?

[cutechic]

You forgot the "both option". I have live in one and fake in another.

 

[nightlife20]

hamlet wrote

Live has the potential to look this good.

and fake dont

my tank

 

[Dwarfs]

If you start, start with cheap, easy-to-raise plants, like java ferns. They're very resilient, not to picky when it comes to conditions, and you can tie them down to rocks. Same goes for java moss.

sounds like a good plan

 

[Dwarfs]

if you start, start with cheap, easy-to-raise plants, like java ferns. They're very resilient, not to picky when it comes to conditions, and you can tie them down to rocks. Same goes for java moss.

I like live plants , about six years ago I bought three or four " Java fern plants " I couldn't tell you how many I have now [ they need some thinning] . I also have criptocoryne , anubias [ slow growing ] which do very well , and javamoss when it starts to grow whatch out . All easy to grow in low light . I have spent a fortune on grow lights [ changing them every 6 months ]in the past. Not any more .

 

[Mustang5L5]

WHen the plants take, they just fill in areas that you can't fill with plastic. If i want to bush up a certain corner of my tank, I can just snip the plant a certain way and it will grow bushy.

Of course, it all takes time. My take is 24" tall so i am waiting for some 6" Anarcharis and Bacopa clippings to grow to the top. I've probably only gotten 1" in the last month or so so lots of open space.

My centerpeice of my tank is a large 12-14" tall Amazon sword. It's the first plant you see and i placed it dead center behind a peice of driftwood.

Also, i attached some Java fern to the driftwood at the ends. After a month, it's only gained maybe 2-3 leaves each plant but has started to creep in to fill in the entire peice.

Much about live plants involves patience. Instead of setting up your tank for the here and now, you really need to think 2-3 months down the line when your plants take and start to grow. My vision is for a thickly planted tank that looks wild and out of control where the fish can hide for days and you would never see them.

But i got bored waiting so I tossed a couple breeding cons in for a while.

 

[modernhamlet]

and fake dont

my tank

Nice tank. Still sparse and the plants do still look fake, but it's a fine piece of work nonetheless. I particularly like how you integrated your "plants" with the driftwood.

Good luck with your new tank!

 

[Bol]

Plastic don't rot.
Plastic don't die.
Plastic ain't sensitive to water parameters.
Plastic need not defend itself from herbivorous creatures.

Well, based on an argument like that, sounds like plastic fish is the way to go too.

Live has the potential to look this good.

and fake dont

Sorry, but no, they don't. Just my opinion, of course.

Despite the talk you hear about lots of fertilizers, blinding amounts of light, and industrial-strength CO2 injection systems, it's usually quite easy to successfully grow plants without all of that ... provided you do research, and choose plants suitable for your conditions.

Just as an example (and not to pick on tempestuousfury), it's not surprising that someone would have trouble growing mondo grass. Mondo grass is not a true aquatic plant -- it's not meant to grow completely submerged, so it's not surprising that it dies. Unfortunately, some pet stores "feature" terrestrial plants in their aquatic plant selection. Prior research is your friend, and time well spent.

Similarly, if you go out and get some rotala, glosso, and Eusteralis stellata, and toss them into a tank with only the single light bulb that came with the tank, they're almost certainly going to die. However, if you do some research, and decide instead to pick up some java fern, a crypt or two, some hornwort, and a couple of anubias, you'll probably find that your plants are doing well without you even so much as looking at them.

 

[fishdude]

i'd go with live. For all the reasons everyone said unless ur tank has cichilds.

 

[Alien_spawn]

I have live but once my clown loaches have totally eaten them for dinner I'm switching back to plastic, too many problems with live, it caused a algae boom and the clown loaches think its lunch lol

 

[nightlife20]

sorry but thats in ur opinion... iv got both fake an live planted tanks... well one of each... when i first started out i had plastic... fair enough they were cheap ones an it did look tacky.. so i set it up with live plants... it looked much better... but like u said with live plants it does take planning and sometimes it does cost a little bit more....

i spent well over 40 on live plants for my 3ft tank about a month ago... out of that iv got roughly 5 pounds worth left. To someone like myself who has no idea how to take care of live plants (iv got co2 set up made sure they were only low light needing plants ect) its a waste of money... plastic all the way...
35 pounds worth of live plants rottin away in ur tank dosnt look good.... but i tell u somthin as soon as i get chance all my remainding plants are commin out an im puttin fake in...

it took me all of 3 hrs to arrange the fake plants in the way i wanted them... it had the right effect.. iv never been nominated for totm.. i have now.

for live it took me longer.. and i never got the right effect out of them... they never looked right...


iv now cast my vote for plastic


if u have time money and dont mind them rotting away in ur tank when u fail go for real.


but if u havnt got time , money and u dont want them poluting ur tank go for fake.

 

[noop]

i got an amazon sword and some other plant i don't know the name of. the sword thrived but the other one kept losing leaves and every day i would have to fish one out of the water

the amazon sword sprouted a runner with lots of baby plants on it, so last weekend i removed the other plant and i planted the babies in the substrate

i've never grown aquatic plants before but i have had great success with the amazon sword, without much effort, and without great lighting

and the amazon sword looks really cool

 

[dcraveiro]

My cichlids would tear them up!

 

[Olive]

Live.................

 

[bstier]

I went from 5 plastic plants to 5 real plants and my fish definately notice it. They swim through and play in the live plants. They have more give. I got some really really nice hornwort plants for 1.99 ...cheaper then plastic too. I like the idea of your tank always changing and im satisfying my urge by getting new plants. If you are going for a certain look I could definately see plastic being used though.

 

[Angry_Platy]

PLASTIC for sure....my tank has never looked betetr since getting plastic plants.....

I agree....there are benefits to live plants...but when they continually die on you I think there is more harm than good....like rotting plant clogging up filters and all that....

And my bnose catfish still loves sucking on the algae on plastic plants!!!