Plastic and Real plants

[canarsie11]

I am newbie to hobby and eventually want to get into planted tanks. However, I will have my hands full just dealing with fish, cycling, and regular day to day tank things.

I am using plastic plants, but I am planning to do a fishless cycle. I was thinking of adding some real plants to the tank for

1. The bacteria introduction to the fishless cycle
2. To get practice on keeping live plants.

I was planning on just planting a little section within the plastic plants. Will this look funny, strange, or bad?

I figure I will get my on the job training with real plants, but I do not want to sacrifice the look of my tank.

I newbie truns to you guys for opinions!

Let me have it!

 

[Fresh_Start]

Real plants do look different than fake ones. Generally the real plants have a 'softer' look to them. They also help the water chemistry.

However real plants require more work. They need to be pruned regulary or they tend to spread all over the place. Also real plants often carry snails and these can be ugly if they start to multiply.

 

[Doggfather]

fake plants don't get eaten and don't die!

 

[modernhamlet]

I just set up my first tank a little over a month ago.

Perhaps the smartest thing I did (other than fishless cycling itself!) was to plant heavily. I know it seems like a lot of work, but it was actually quite easy. I got several varieties of low-maintenance, low-light plants like Hygrophila polysperma, thai onion, java fern and java moss. The only maintenance I've needed to do so far is to trim back the Hygrophila weekly when I do water changes.

My tank looks great now, far better than I could have hoped.

And the best part... because it's planted, it's FAR more stable. The plants act as an additional filter mechanism, absorbing nitrogen compounds quite readily.

Not trying for the hard sell, just wanted to share my own newbie experience!

That said, I've seen some folks do some great aquascaping that involved using both real and plastic plants at the same time. I can't find a link at the moment though.

Finally (I know... is this guy ever going to shut up?!), one piece of advice I keep hearing is to buy silk plants at your local arts and crafts store. They're more natural looking and much cheaper than what you can get at the LFS.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[tstenback]

I recently did this with my daughters tank and the result was great. I tried to put the live plants in front of the plastic ones and it worked out quite nicely. If this is your first crack at live plants have a look at the pinned posts in the how does your garden grow forum on this site. It has a great list of those easy to grow plants that we all love. Good Luck with the plants

 

[canarsie11]

fake plants don't get eaten and don't die!

I understand the concept and the pro and cons of real vs. fake. However, I think (and I am just a newbie), when most people start off with this hobby they want thier tank to develop and evolve.

Part of that is going from Plastic to Real plants. I want just planned on learning and teaching myself about it in a small section of my tank (which is 75 gallons). However, I dont want to disrupt the viewing plaeasure of my tank.

If it will look funny, I would just wait purchase a 10 gallon and practice my planting and pruning in there!

 

[canarsie11]

Modernhamlet, please tell me everything you know. I dont mind alot of good advice.

 

[DrOizo]

I mix plastic and Real in my ten gal and have no qualms about it. The only thing was that the plastic plant I had caught loads of hair algae but the real ones didn't. Plants are extremely useful for absorbing nitrates ans nitrogen compounds (As said). If you can get hold of a marimo moss ball they are really intresting and good for lowering nitrate level. Live plants also help to increase o2 level of the water which is also another benifit. I don't use a co2 system but in a 75 gal it would be recommended. I dont fertilise and my plants thrive on all my fishes organic waste but again it might be a good idea in a 75gal. So In my experience I've found plants pretty easy to grow without any additional help but I have been growing hardy species

 

[dannykerbles]

i also use live and plastic plants in my 10 gallon....there is a great diy Co2 injector
article in the garden grow section...its the same as buying a 50$ system. Save money and buy more fish!!
I also have seen ppl use small tera cota pots in tanks...