LizardsAreLovely wrote:Today I made my biggest leap towards getting some aquatic friends, buying a fish tank! I'm consulting this thread as I'm curious on whether I should get live plants or fake plastic ones. I love the look of live plants but I'm worried that they will either die on me or make the tank a gross green color. So I was wondering if anyone with live plants in their tank could list some pros and cons about them or say if you prefer live or plastic plants. Thanks!
- another thing to keep in mind is what type of fish you're planning on getting, as some will just eat your plants, it's mostly goldfish but there's a few other species that will too.
live plants
pros:
won't tear your fish's fins
make a more natural environment
absorb waste
look a lot nicer
cons:
they cost more to care for
take a little more time to maintain
could carry pests (if you want to, a good way to avoid that for sure is by dipping them before planting them in your aquarium or getting tissue cultured plants)
decaying plant matter can rot, which will cause ammonia spikes
artificial plants
pros:
require minimal upkeep, easy to clean
as they come from clean packages, parasites + diseases aren't likely
cost a lot less and come in lots of different colors
don't have any special requirements (temperature, ph, ferts, substrate, etc.)
won't cause changes in your water parameters
they can't die !
fish won't eat them
cons:
depending on the plants (if they're hard/sharp), they could end up tearing your fish's fins. silk plants are an option that will help prevent that from happening
don't absorb nitrates
won't hinder algae growth
all in all, with live plants, i don't think the cons should change your opinion too much, the pros outweigh them. minimal effort can prevent anything too bad from happening, like getting proper lighting, ferts, properly maintaining everything, etc. if you only use low-light plants, co2 doses aren't really necessary. liquid fertilisers and root tabs aren't expensive and they're quite easy to use.
if you go for live plants, i'd definitely recommend to research the type of plants you want before getting them, rather than just choosing what looks nice. there are a lot of nice looking low-light plants out there!