Plants in Tanks

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leanne_and_jono

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ElleJay
Is there any benifit in having a heavily planted tank?
and also are there any downfalls?
Ive heard that the plants can keep the nitrate levels down, but in turn rotting vegetation creates ammonia.
i personally think that real plants are alot more aesthetically pleasing as well.
just my opinion.
any thoughts on the matter?

cheers
 
Plants use amonia and other nitrogenous compounds for growth, so as long as the growth rate is faster than the decay rate the net effect is removal of nitrogen from the water column. If you remove dead leaves and excess growth from the tank then you're removing nitrogen (and phosphates and other animal wastes) from the tank. If you've got enough light and other conditions are suitable for real plants I'd give them a try :).
 
Thanks for the input peterj.
also do plants need a fluorescent lights to stay healthy or will any form of light be adequate?
 
Depends on the plant. If you see something you like google it to find out about its light and temperature requirements - there's plenty of aquarium plant sites online. Another option if you take the lids off is to grow some indoor plants emersed (leaves above the water and roots below). I use plants like lucky bamboo (Dracaena sanderiana), devils' ivy (Epipremnum aureum), "white butterfly" (Syngonium podophyllum), peace lily (Spathiphyllum friedrichsthalii) and chinese evergreen (Aglaonema modestum). Emersed plants are great for using fish wastes because their growth is not limited by dissolved CO2 in the way that fully submersed plants are.
 
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