Should I get real or fake plants?

it really depends on what fish you are going to get. some eat plants, some dig them up. imo, if you dont have cichlids, live plants are the only way to go. they look so much better and help keep the water 'clean' (not to detour you from doing reg. water changes though). your best bet is to find out what fish you want first then see if live or fake plants will work for you. maintenance shouldnt be to time consuming, adding liquid ferts, and a trimming from time to time takes about an extra minute a day.

you could put 4 rams, geman blue rams, or gold rams in there and they would be fine with live plants. some other small apistos would look really nice. gouramis, tetras, mollys, theres really a wide variety of fish you could put in there. but being that you like cichlids, i would recommend some type of apistogramma though, they are beautiful fish, generally peaceful and stay pretty small. then maybe throw a couple tetras of your choice in also for a little more variety

hmm....
live plants look better than artificial plants, yes.
artificial plants easier mantinence (but really, don't be lazy about it )
live plants absorb ammonia, nitrite and nitrate
live plants create algae (true? seeming that plants and algae are really the same thing.)
since live plants absorb the stuff, if something goes wrong, the plants die and the stuff gets released. So dead plants=remove asap or regret it!

as for health of the fish, as long as it's hiding spaces, nothing really different to them...

you need CO2 systems for live plants and full spectrum lighting and stuff.

but if you still want to go live plants, then the recommended substrate is flourite...
but java fern's roots MUST BE ABOVE SUBSTRATE or the roots die, the plants die, the whole releasing thingy happens, fish unhappy and stuff.

but live plants add soooooo much beuty for your tank. They also release oxygen into the water, in return for taking in CO2. at night when the light's off, the absord oxygen to create CO2 (respiration )

but i chose artificial, since i couldn't get the CO2 system set up... but I really have to say for myself, it looks cool
would've looked better with live plants, tho.

btw, if you see plants in a tube out of the water, roots in some gelatin thing (product called sometimes snail-free) STAY AWAY FROM THEM!

btw, if you're going artificial, you should go gravel. flourite is dirty but has lots o minerals for the plants.

I use to work at a LFs many years ago and w3ould get this question every so often.

I asked them if they were also thinking about real or fake fish.......
That seems to put it in prespective

Regards,
Tom Barr

plantbrain said:

I use to work at a LFs many years ago and w3ould get this question every so often.

I asked them if they were also thinking about real or fake fish.......
That seems to put it in prespective

Regards,
Tom Barr

Click to expand...

The next big aquarium product...plastic cichlids! Perfect for the live plant enthusiast!! :laugh:

There are a few threads in the archive that take this reasoning to the "n"th degree.........

Regards,
Tom Barr