What is the better choice for your fish tank, artificial or natural plants? In this article we will help you to choose it.
Generally freshwater fish tank have plants. Most tropical fish come from fluvial and lake environments, where plants are abundant. Whether live or artificial, plants offer a place for them to hide and feel safe. They will also make your fish tank look much more pleasant and thereby create a natural environment closer to reality for the small fish that inhabit it.
But what is the best choice: live or artificial plants? The great truth is that both have their positive and negative points. Your choice will boil down to weighing the pros and cons and deciding what is most important to you.
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This article can help you choose the ideal ornament for your fish tank. Here you will learn about the benefits of natural and artificial aquarium plants, as well as some of the characteristics that you need to observe in each one.
There is no right answer, but the more you learn, the better prepared you will be when making your choice. You can certainly change your mind later, but you need to be aware of the impact that changing the layout of your aquarium can have on your fish. Remember: your aquarium is a tiny ecosystem and everything in it, real or artificial, plays a role.
Natural Plants
What Are The Benefits Of Natural Plants?
There are few things more satisfying about caring for the fish tank than enjoying it when it is well planted. When done properly, plants are beautiful additions to your aquarium. Like fish, they grow more, sometimes they expand to occupy new territory, gases exchange, consume food, create waste and may even breed.
The point is that natural plants are just that: living things in your fish tank. As such, they may have a special relationship with fish that is not possible with artificial plants.
While the fish in the aquarium take oxygen from the water and expel carbon dioxide, natural plants do the opposite, taking the carbon dioxide and exchanging it for oxygen.
Most fish tanks, when they have an efficient filtration system, have no problem maintaining acceptable oxygen levels in the water, but it is advisable to have reduced carbon dioxide, especially in aquariums highly populated by fish.
Your plants will have a similar symbiotic relationship when it comes to waste. There are many things that can cause danger to fish in aquariums, such as significant sources of nitrogen (ammonia, nitrates and nitrites). Plants will consume these nutrients in the aquarium and act as extra filtration.
Natural plants also serve to reduce algae in the aquarium. They compete with algae for the same food sources, and usually win the battle. Anyway, it may still be necessary to do some kind of scraping on the glass, removing algae from the leaves, but in general, a planted aquarium can really keep the algae under control.
Is There Any Disadvantage To Owning Natural Plants?
As we can see, there are great reasons to use natural plants in an fish tank. In fact, it is really the best way to create an environment that is more like what your fish would experience in the wild.
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But there are some negative points as well. On the one hand, if you plan to have a planted aquarium, you will have to spend time learning about plants as well as fish. Some doubts may arise, such as: How big will they get? Will they spread? What kind of water do they thrive in?
You will need to spend time pruning your plants from time to time. Otherwise, they can and will grow out of your control.
Cleaning the fish tank is not so easy. On the positive side, it is not so necessary, but you will still need to perform Partial Water Changes and vacuum up substrate residues.
What you can’t do is vacuum the gravel completely, as digging up the substrate not only disturbs your plants, but also removes some of your food.
Even reorganizing and redecorating the aquarium will not be easy, as you will have to deal with the roots of the plants.
After planting the aquarium, the ideal is that it is no longer disturbed. Frequent pruning, adequate lighting, CO2 injection and fertilization are necessary.
Artificial Plants
What Are The Benefits Of Owning Artificial Plants?
If you think that some negative points of natural plants are a little too much for you, there is nothing wrong with choosing an artificial decoration for your aquarium.
Artificial plants are mostly made of plastic, and some can look almost real. In some cases, an aquarium planted with artificial plants may look as beautiful as an aquarium with natural plants.
This type of plant is easy to remove and clean and replacement is simple. You can rearrange your aquarium whenever you want. In fact, rearranging the decor in an fish tank is a way of keeping semi-aggressive species under control.
Territorial behavior can be minimized when the aquarium layout is constantly changing.
Some fish that live in brackish waters, such as Green Spotted Puffer fish, require artificial plants, as natural plants quickly perish in their fish tanks. You may also find the durability of artificial decorations preferable in African cichlids fish tanks , as these fish have a tendency to turn gravel a lot, and can easily dig up natural or artificial plants.
Siphoning the fish tank is a much easier task when you have artificial plants. You don’t have to worry about the root system and you can even remove the decorations while cleaning the aquarium. There is also no need to worry about the accumulation of plant material in the substrate.
And The Harms Of Artificial Plants?
Owning aquariums with artificial plants is quite easy. But, as you have probably noticed, there are some disadvantages. The first has to do with appearance. Many plastic plants look terrible and some even come in colors that don’t really exist in nature.
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The bottoms are plastic, designed to grab the gravel, but this rarely works. Instead, they usually float to the top, causing a major problem.
There are also some great artificial plants out there. They have a weight to really stay where you put them and, at first glance, look very real. However, they are a little expensive, and adding three or four large ones can cost as much as the aquarium itself.
Of course, the biggest drawback is that artificial plants don’t have the same natural properties as their living counterparts. This means that you need to perform Partial Water Change, algae removal and general aquarium maintenance much more often.
Artificial plants serve the same purpose as live plants, providing shelter and a realistic environment.
However, it seems reasonable to assume that fish that live in artificially decorated aquariums are missing something. For some, it may be a dietary supplement. For others, there may simply be a sense of well-being that is only noticeable using natural items.
Conclusion
For both natural and artificial plants, there are benefits and harms, depending on the point of view. A natural environment, with natural plants, trunks and real stones provides a better quality of life for your fish, as they will be in a place that is close to their natural habitat.
On the other hand, to obtain an aquarium with healthy plants, it will require effort and a lot of study. Plants need to grow together with your fish in the aquarium, and you must take care of them just like you do with fish.
At some point, you may not be interested in taking care of all of this, perhaps due to the hustle and bustle of everyday life, or simply because you don’t have enough resources to invest in adequate lighting, fertile substrate and fertilizer for plants. And then, in that case, artificial plants will be the best option.
