Aquatic Plants

[hengdaen]

Do aquatic plants help speed up the biological filter?

[Allan Asis]

I think they are a biological filter

[Urban Aquaria]

Plants consume ammonia and nitrates for photosynthesis and growth, so they can be considered as part of the biological filtration in an aquarium.

[tetrakid]

Plants consume ammonia and nitrates for photosynthesis and growth, so they can be considered as part of the biological filtration in an aquarium.

Shifu UA, can you help me with my plants problem?

You see, my aquarium does not have aquarium lighting and is not situated near a window. Window lighting is available but limited.

I recently bought some big Java ferns from a LFS where their plant tank is well lit with its own tank light.
That Java fern had turned brown and died in my tank after a month in it. But somehow, the small Java fern which I have been having in the same tank had survived in fairly good condition and remained green for more than a year now.

Can you recommend me a suitable plant for my tank, as I do not intend to instal any lighting on my tank? I know this is odd but I go for ultimate simplicity. My big goldfish are happy in crystal-clear water for more than a year now due to good biological maintenance effort.

Please help me choose a plant which does not need so much light to survive.

[Urban Aquaria]

Shifu UA, can you help me with my plants problem?

You see, my aquarium does not have aquarium lighting and is not situated near a window. Window lighting is available but limited.

I recently bought some big Java ferns from a LFS where their plant tank is well lit with its own tank light.
That Java fern had turned brown and died in my tank after a month in it. But somehow, the small Java fern which I have been having in the same tank had survived in fairly good condition and remained green for more than a year now.

Can you recommend me a suitable plant for my tank, as I do not intend to instal any lighting on my tank? I know this is odd but I go for ultimate simplicity. My big goldfish are happy in crystal-clear water for more than a year now due to good biological maintenance effort.

Please help me choose a plant which does not need so much light to survive.

Most likely the larger java fern melted due to the change in light conditions, sometimes if left alone they may recover and grow back again, but at slower rate and with smaller leaves (due to the lower light conditions).

The usual hardy plants could be suitable for your tank, anubias, java ferns, java moss... though java moss will usually be munched on by the goldfishes, so thats out.

Without much light, plants can't photosynthesize much anyways so their growth will naturally very slow, at most just survive. The nutrient uptake will also be very low too, so can't rely on them to soak up much nutrients.

Since your tank parameters are already okay without much plants, then i guess its fine. Maybe consider plastic plants instead, no need to bother about maintaining them and the goldfishes wouldn't eat them too.

[Dscheng]

HHaha plastic plant suit you. Tetra why not go get a cheap light? Don't need so high watt led?

[Jimmy]

HHaha plastic plant suit you. Tetra why not go get a cheap light? Don't need so high watt led?

Go plaza sin lfs, even plastic plant also got algae. Haha

[MCE]

I noticed some of the plants at the Lsf are easily adaptable in our aquariums and some aren't. May be it depend on their supplier's nursery, transit condition / in-display duration before they were sold.



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[Urban Aquaria]

Go plaza sin lfs, even plastic plant also got algae. Haha

Plastic plants get algae is okay, can just take out and use a brush to scrub them clean at the kitchen sink... then look like brand new again.

[cumzilla]

borrow your thread TS, and i think this maybe is asked many times before, but for a planted goldfish tank, what is the best way to remove algae? Can introduce SAEs or yamato shrimps, can they live together?

[Cmlee]

How to get raid of dark brown or green spots algae on leaves of real plants?

[Urban Aquaria]

How to get raid of dark brown or green spots algae on leaves of real plants?

Nerite snails can help to clear spot algae from leaves.

Use horned nerite snails (the ones with yellow/black stripe shells), choose the smaller sized ones, as they are small and light enough to climb on most plant leaves to do the work.

[Cmlee]

Does ramshorn clear them too?

[Urban Aquaria]

Does ramshorn clear them too?

If its the soft algae film (those you can rub off with your finger), the ramshorn snails can clear it... but for the tougher spot algae, so far i've only seen nerite snails clearing those.

[Cmlee]

The problem with nitrite snails is their eggs are difficult to remove?

[Urban Aquaria]

The problem with nitrite snails is their eggs are difficult to remove?

Yeah, if you happen to have female nerite snails, they will tend to lay white eggs around the tank, which need a fair bit of effort to scrape off. I guess its the trade-off between algae clearing vs white eggs.

Though you could try and detect male nerite snails by buying a group of them (ie. 5-6 snails), then watch which ones like to climb on top of the others and ride around... high chance those are the male ones.

Just keep the males in your display tank and keep the rest in a separate tank (or give them away).

[tetrakid]

Go plaza sin lfs, even plastic plant also got algae. Haha

Also have some bacteria stick and live on it, I like.

[tetrakid]

HHaha plastic plant suit you. Tetra why not go get a cheap light? Don't need so high watt led?

Hahaha, my habit is to use just a spotlight shining on the aquarium front from a distance.
I found that it is extremely effective, especially for guppies, neons and rainbow fish, etc.
At night the flourescing effect on their body colour is superb, like a miracle.