What are your tips or suggestions on having a pretty planted tank?

Question

What are your tips or suggestions on having a lush, pretty planted tank?

-Example: Plant Arrangement, Plant Species, Rock Placements and Driftwood Palcements?

Answer 1

My first "rule" would be to forget about all the other "rules". Anything that comes with a formula just won't look as good... The old "tall plants in the back, short in the front" schpiel just doesn't work here, it makes the tank look too uniform... Spice it up, do something different. Take a tall plant and put it in the front, near a corner and use shorter plants to make "paths" heading into the back in between taller plants. Keep as much contast as possible by varying leaf colors, sizes, and textures close to each other. Also, do NOT bookend the tank (if it's symmetrical it will look silly). Cryptocorynes make great paths while Vallisneria, Swords, and Ludwigia will make great focal points.

If you use driftwood, don't worry about it staining your water. Unless you get mopani driftwood, it's bound to happen, but it's not necessarily a bad thing... As Aqua said, some activated carbon will suck it right out. Check your fish stores for driftwood and imagine how it would look in your tank (take a picture of your tank that you can take to the store). Experiment with vertical arrangements as well as horizontal placements that could provide shelter for your fish as well as great surfaces to grow Mosses, Java Fern, Anubias, and even Crypts on. Do the same with rock, but be sure NOT to overuse either... To much driftwood and rock will detract from the plants and fish.

CO2, high lighting, and heavy fertilizing aren't always necessary. As long as you have those three components balanced, you will still see plant growth, just not as rapidly. If you aren't sure that your fertilizer is balanced enough (many only contain iron and potassium, meaning that magnesium, manganese, sulfur, copper, zinc, and numerous other trace elements are left out of the mix), there are numerous "recipes" that give clear instructions on making your own, which you can tinker with to make it tank specific.

As with all tanks, natural substrates like white or black sand or earthy toned gravels will bring out the colors in your fish, plants, and decor.

Soop Nazi

EDIT: While fish may provide sufficient nitrogen (in the form of poop->ammonia->nitrite->nitrate) and possibly enough CO2, they will NOT provide adequate iron, potassium, or any other trace metal I previously listed. Without these elements, plant growth will be stunted, and can often lead to holes in the leaves, improper leaf formation, leaves dying prematurely, and plant death (plant death is EXTREME imbalance).

EDIT 2: In many cases, it is much harder to maintain the plants than it is the fish (and more expensive). Fish will adapt to a different pH, but plants will not be able to extract CO2 from the water if the pH is too high. Plants need lighting (obviously), fertilizer, trimming, "food", and transplanting... If you aren't prepared for that, I wouldn't suggest it...

Answer 2

Plant arangement -
you could have the whole tank planted, tall plants at backround, medium mid ground, small, carpet, foreground or you can have an island leaving spaces around the edge or you could have one side planted gradually sloping down to the other side of the tank to nothing.

Species - very important, only choose plants that are easy to care for unless you upgrade your standard lighting as this is usually enough to just grow the basics, an average rule to use is WPG watts per gallon, take the gallons of your tank and divide it by your wattage of your lighting, this is an average, low 0 - 1.5 medium 1.5 - 3 high, 3 +.
Co2 systems can realy boost your plants growth and can be a range of price from DIY £1 - pressurized cylinders £150 but a small amount of co2 is better than none.

A golden rule that is used by many 'proffesional' aquascapists is take the lenght of your tank and divide it by 2.618 and then take your answer and measure from either end of your tank and this is were your focal point should be, like a rock, driftwood or a bright red plant that catches the viewers eye, you don't want to let your eyes wander all over the place or it will get to much.

fertilising, some plants take nutrients through their roots and others through their leves, so you should use varieties of fertilisers, tablets in the gravel, and liquid fertiliser. Yellow leaves are a sign of lack of iron.

if you get all 3 components right, bright light, co2 and fertilising, then you will have lush green plants, all thats left is a bit of planning from you. Also don't plant all of your plants seperate, 'merge, them in together to get a more natural look but don't cut of the light source for slower, low growing plants.

Contact me for other info, my tank is is a planted tank : )

here are some good plant shops and forums

FORUMS

http://www.aquatic-eden.com/

SHOPS

http://www.plantsalive.co.uk/index.php

http://www.aquarium-gardening.com/index.php

Answer 3

okay, i'll gladly answer 'em in order^^

PLANT ARRANGEMENT:
all the big tall plants need to be on the back of the tank, this makes a very lovely background! :D
shorter and smaller plants are usually at the front and middle, this will provide free swimming space for the fish.
think of the arrangement is like a stage, you need to be able to see the fish from front view, while they can also retreat to the back. ^_^
each plants need to be distanced around 2 - 3 cms, so that there are space to grow their roots.
for floating plants, well, there's no special arrangement for them since they just float...

PLANT SPECIES
*for the background :
myriophyllum hippuroides
vallisneria spiralis
sagitaria platyphylla (in right condition it produce flower)

*for the middle:
vallisneria tortifolia
microsorium pteropus (a.k.a. java fern)
bacopa amplexicaulis

*for the front:
java moss (vesicularia dubyana)

*floating:
piscia stratiotes
riccia fluitans
salvinia auriculata

ROCK PLACEMENTS
remember when i said imagine it like a stage?
big rocks can be arranged around the middle, but not covering the plants!
littler rocks are of course at the front, again not covering the plants.
at the back, usually the rocks will just get covered by the tall big plants... so its no use...

DRIFTWOOD PLACEMENTS
for this is quite the same as rock placement, remember not to cover the plants from getting light.

now the special thing about driftwood and rocks is that you can attach plants such as java ferns, as these are also usually sold being attached. java moss are also tightly attached.

SUBSTRATES
you'll need to get soft sands and gravels, not the sharp ones as it can hurt and damage the plants and their roots.
stones can be scattered on top of the sands.
i don't need fertilizers as my fish already took care of that (using their poops :p)

i hope that satisfies you! ^_^

Answer 4

reig gives you good information if you have a large tank, are very serious, and willing to buy an expensive light to keep the plants alive. If not, you need to say what size tank, if you're also keeping fish and what kind, and what kind of lighting you plan to have. You can get some very nice plants that don't need a lot of light. And driftwood is fine. If you use carbon in the filter, the water will be clear, but I don't use it and don't even notice the slight color it adds to the water.

Answer 5

Awesome driftwood: Malaysian driftwood
Well, there are alot of good answers here, but just remember place tall ones in the back, and some smaller plants behind the tall ones. Doing this creates a three dimensional look and you will love it!

Answer 6

You need a thick layer of sand with gravel on top to give the plants a place to root. Use plant fertilizer to keep them well fed and a light designed for plant growth. Ordinary aquarium bulbs don't cut it.

Ask about the height of plants when you purchase them and keep tall ones to the back. Be wary of driftwood because some types of wood can change your water quality or discolor the water.

Your fish will love you if you can maintain a well planted tank but it is as much work to maintain the plants as it is the fish!

Answer 7

I think a nice piece of wood surround by different plants looks really good, its also were the fish can hide. I also think when the fish are brightly coloured it make the whole tank look good. any way that's my opinion

Answer 8

Interesting question, i will keep an eye on this!!

The only plants i can keep alive are moss balls lol and it would be really handy so i didnt have to keep buying new plants for all the fish fry and baby shrimp