Fake Plastic Plant Decor VS Real Plant Decor

I was wondering what is the difference between fake plant decor and real plant decor?

Is there a benefit to having live plants?

What are the pros and cons?



P.s. I am not good at looking up subjects on this site
so if there is somewhere I can find this info and you can direct me I would greatly appreciate it.

 

First off, try learning how to search on this sight and other aquarium forums. Research is your best friend. All you have to do is type something in the search bar at the top right corner of page. In your case you could type "live plant benefits", "live plant questions", etc. Another good forum that specializes in plants is planted tank. They have lots of good links and plant profiles that are helpful for beginners. Knowing the basics before hand will help you ask more directed helpful questions.

To answer your question, yes there are many benefits to live plants. They help oxygenate and clean the water. They consume ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. They make a natural looking setup and can help fish feel less stressed and more at home. The cons are that you will have to do a bit more research to find out how to take care of them. Beginner/low light plants don't require too much rigorous care. Mainly they need a light in the 6500k range. Shouldn't need fertilizers or any special substrate for beginner plants. I normally suggest these plants for ppl just getting into planted tanks....java ferns, java moss, anacharis, hornwort, and frogbit. These are all easy to grow and don't require anything to special. A good homework assignment would be to do a search on all of these and figure out 1 or 2 of them to try. Hornwort is the easiest in my book, it's a floater so you just throw it in the tank. planted tank has a profile page where you can type in any plant name, and it brings up a care sheet, pics, and user comments/tips. Try it out, do some research, and let us know when you have some more questions. Hope this helps, and good luck.

 

Hi,
The benefits to live plants are that they help absorb nitrates, add oxygen to the water although I think they take away oxygen when the lights are off, plants and algae compete for nutrients so less algae. Even with hardy plants you'll need good lights, enough nutrients etc. Easy beginner plants are anacharis, anubias, and java fern.

 

First off, try learning how to search on this sight and other aquarium forums. Research is your best friend. All you have to do is type something in the search bar at the top right corner of page. In your case you could type "live plant benefits", "live plant questions", etc. Another good forum that specializes in plants is planted tank. They have lots of good links and plant profiles that are helpful for beginners. Knowing the basics before hand will help you ask more directed helpful questions.

To answer your question, yes there are many benefits to live plants. They help oxygenate and clean the water. They consume ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. They make a natural looking setup and can help fish feel less stressed and more at home. The cons are that you will have to do a bit more research to find out how to take care of them. Beginner/low light plants don't require too much rigorous care. Mainly they need a light in the 6500k range. Shouldn't need fertilizers or any special substrate for beginner plants. I normally suggest these plants for ppl just getting into planted tanks....java ferns, java moss, anacharis, hornwort, and frogbit. These are all easy to grow and don't require anything to special. A good homework assignment would be to do a search on all of these and figure out 1 or 2 of them to try. Hornwort is the easiest in my book, it's a floater so you just throw it in the tank. planted tank has a profile page where you can type in any plant name, and it brings up a care sheet, pics, and user comments/tips. Try it out, do some research, and let us know when you have some more questions. Hope this helps, and good luck.

I did in fact try to research thru the search bar but didnt get much help.

"live plant questions" and "live plant benefits" as well as "fake plants, real plants" didnt get me much info.

and I don't mean to sound rude but what's the point of a forum for questions if when I ask questions I am told to do research? is this not a place to ASK questions for research purposes? just curious.

but thanks anyway for the info...

 

Hi,
The benefits to live plants are that they help absorb nitrates, add oxygen to the water although I think they take away oxygen when the lights are off, plants and algae compete for nutrients so less algae. Even with hardy plants you'll need good lights, enough nutrients etc. Easy beginner plants are anacharis, anubias, and java fern.

Thank you!

 

https://www.fishlore.com/aquariummagazine/oct07/plantedtank.htm



https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads/aquarium-plant-important-topic-stickies.14287/

Good information in the links/threads above. I think every aquarium should have live plants either in the tank or in refugiums. Not only are they pleasing to the eye, they are so beneficial for the tanks and fishes overall health.

Ken

 

The benefits of keeping live plants are many. Along with what has been mentioned they will not injure a panicked fish, and they provide greens for fish that like to nibble on plants.

 

and I don't mean to sound rude but what's the point of a forum for questions if when I ask questions I am told to do research? is this not a place to ASK questions for research purposes?

Well you did say you weren't good at searching for info and I think Dolfan was just trying to help encourage you to become better at it since it seemed like something you wanted to be able to do better.

Dolfan did give an answer to your question, so it isn't like you were told to just go research it.

 

About the only good thing I can think of regarding plastic plants, well 2 things actually---they don't grow (so no trimming needed) and they don't die. Otherwise, live plants are the way to go

 

Cass,

I was simply replying to your questions....
"P.s. I am not good at looking up subjects on this site
so if there is somewhere I can find this info and you can direct me I would greatly appreciate it."

If you read the first paragraph of my response, I tried teaching you how to search for this info and at the end of the paragraph I directed you to planted tank. Doing precisely what you said you would greatly appreciate.

In the 2nd paragraph I listed all of the pro's and con's of live plants, in my opinion. I was very thorough and redirected you to research beginner plants. I said the same things that you thanked Tropicalfishlover for, but only was more thorough in my explanation.

In this hobby it is wise to know how to do your research and learn things for your self. This is a great forum here on fishlore with very valuable info but it's only the tip of the iceberg that the internet has to offer. Google and other forums such as planted tank are very helpful. How do you think others have the info that you need, they researched it. I just googled, "benefits of live plants in an aquarium" and I couldn't even finish typing the words out before google had about a million hits. Without reading info ppl are just blindly throwing information at you with no base in actual research, science, or reality. I was trying to help you be ready for future questions, as the pro's and con's of live plants is easy. As I mentioned doing your research will help you direct your questions on the forum to get productive answers. Sorry if I offended you, I was trying to answer your questions and help you better yourself with knowledge of the hobby.

 

About the only good thing I can think of regarding plastic plants, well 2 things actually---they don't grow (so no trimming needed) and they don't die. Otherwise, live plants are the way to go

No hitch hikers! 3 good things lol

 

Live plants:

Pros: cons:
Real. Need proper lighting
Natural. May need ferts
Sway. Can die
Pretty
Good for fish
Can trim and propagate
Can sell to others for their aquariums
Help maintain healthy water

Fake plants:
Pros: cons:
Can't die. No natural benefts
Don't need trimming sometimes float away
Help fish hide Can injure fish w/ sharp edges
Come in aweful colors
Can look fake

 

Definitely live plants are the best way to go but if you are like me ( some reason my aquatic plants have a hard time thriving ) I tend to go with fake and real.

My fake ones being the tall background plants and my real ones being anarchis ( easy ) as well as Marimo balls and Najas grass ( both easy )

 

Unlike my kids I was born analog and I have to agree with Cass that at times search function on FL, just like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. are temperamental and don't act like my best friends. Fortunately my digital kids help me out with heavy doses of sense of humor and, because they know what is goof for them and theirs, impeccable manners.

 

Fake plants can be used for hiding but can damage fins and live plants could contain nuisence snail eggs or very small snails that could over run your tank.

 

Snails lay eggs on plastic plants too, so if you got used plants they could have them.