Tumbleweed

What are the benefits to having living plants in your tank vs. not having living plants?

pauliface

They are healthier. How ever I read in my fluval (external filter) manual that if you have live plants in the tank, that the carbon filter will counter act the plant. So i guess if you are using carbon filter, then live plants may be something to avoid, try looking more into it o get more advise here.

Isabella

There are many benefits of having live plants in your tank, provided that the plants grow instead of rotting. Plants help remove ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate from the water (ammonia and nitrite being very toxic to fish). They also use up heavy metals contained in tap water, which - if in large concentrations - can also be harmful to fish. Plants also produce oxygen for fish to breathe with. I don't think there are any disadvantages whatsoever of having live plants. Only remember, the plants have to be healthy to be water purifiers.

This is true, especially if the tank is moderately to heavily planted. activated carbon will remove a lot of elements from the water that are plant's nutrients. So this is why people that have planted tanks don't usually use activated carbon.