Plants in my aquarium

[Kinky Boots]

In my tank I like to have a couple of plants, both for aesthetic purpose and I believe they have some environmental benefit for the inhabitants.

The thing is, my plants seem to last maybe 4 or 5 weeks, but over that period they seem to 'die' - some of the vegetation dies off and floats around, or the foliage goes brown. I replace them at regular intervals in order to keep things fresh, but I was wondering how long plants such last in an aquarium, and what (if anything) I could do to prolong their lifespan.

 

[nightlife20]

it depends realy on how keen u are into keeping a plated aquarium, take a look into the 'how does your garden grow' section of the forum by clicking HERE read some of the articals to get some kind of idea how much effort needs to be put into it

its not easy, but it pays off in the end


hth

 

[luxum]

When plants die quickly it is almost always a lighting issue. Most common aquarium plants need fairly high light levels. If you only have 1 watt per gallon (which is common) then stick with low light plants like anubias, crypts, java fern, java moss, and other slow growing, low light plants. If you want to grow more demanding plants, you'll have to consider their substrate, lighting, and nutrient needs.

 

[Dakota Ice]

There can be many possible answers to your question. You are just like me. When I first started plants, I just threw some in there, saw some die, and threw in some more, untill I got this:

Now that is just a horrid array of plants and algae. That was without CO2 or the right light. Lets start with a reason for your plant deaths..

• Too low light.
• Not enough nutrients in the substrate or water column.
• Pet Shops also tend to sell quite a few plants that truely are not aquatic and over a period of 2 weeks, give or take, decompose.

That is a list of the simple reasons why. I could bet you a million dollars its the first one. Not enough light. Plants need light to live and send out new runners, roots, etc. If they dont get enough life to live, they slowly decompose into nothing. Now, you probably bought a kit for your tank. Most kits dont supply you with adequate light for a planted aquarium.

Now that I've told you the most likely reason why, lets look into how to fix it. There is a thing called WPG, or watts per gallon. This is where the size of your tank comes in. How many gallons? Low light plants require anywhere from .5 wpg to 1 wpg to live and thrive. Medium light plants require 1 to 2.5 ish wpg. And High light plants need 2.5 - 3.0 and up.

For instance, a 5 gallon tank with a 8 watt light would have 1.6 wpg. Thats a nice low light tank. A 5 gallon tank with a 15 watt light has 3 wpg. Thats a medium - high light tank. You probably have a whole assortment of different light level plants, guessing you didnt look up each plant before you bought it. (Dont worry, I dont do this either.. *guilty*) Because of this I suggest looking into a better light system and some liquid ferts at your LFS.

It is usually hard to find better lights in your LFS that fit your tank's size and top, and this is where you truely must choose if you want to spend your time and money on the beauty of live plants. If you do, you must order either online, or a custom hood builder, to build you a custom hood/or light for your tank. Although some people hang regular desk lights, I believe, over their tank. I've heard that works well. I, myself, just got the hood of a 20 gallon tank and put it on top of my 5 gallon. There is a little bit of a hangover on the sides, but it works well.

I'm not going to get into the substrate or C02, because thats just a whole nother world. I'll leave you be after my horridly boring lecture to soak in this information.

Hope I helped..
Dakota

 

[thecichlidaddict]

You can keep plants alive under normal aquarium conditions if you make sure you choose the right types of plants. This limits your options drastically, but still keeps it possible.