I love the look of live plants and am considering changing to them. Will they make my tank higher or lower maintenance? What are the advantages/disadvantages?
Discus and live plants question
- Thread starter newedwrds
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Advantage- it looks more natural and the discus feel more secure. I think amazon swords look sweet with discus, and they are easy to keep.
Disadvantage- you can't get everywhere to clean and you want the cleanest water possible while your discus are small.
I personally only have my plants on driftwood, so I can pick them up and syphon under them. No more work for me then there would be if I had fake plants.
Depends on your definition of a planted tank, sometimes they can be tons of work. Any idiot can do water changes, but when you have a tank running on co2 and dosing..exc it is with out a doubt more work. Basic plants and driftwood, they are easy, but I'd wait for your discus to get a bit larger if that is one of them in your avatar.
Disadvantage- you can't get everywhere to clean and you want the cleanest water possible while your discus are small.
I personally only have my plants on driftwood, so I can pick them up and syphon under them. No more work for me then there would be if I had fake plants.
Depends on your definition of a planted tank, sometimes they can be tons of work. Any idiot can do water changes, but when you have a tank running on co2 and dosing..exc it is with out a doubt more work. Basic plants and driftwood, they are easy, but I'd wait for your discus to get a bit larger if that is one of them in your avatar.
a planted tank may be harder to clean, but it also makes some kinds of cleaning less necessary.
for example, in a heavily planted tank, you don't want to do extensive gravel-vacs, because that disturbs the plant bed. however, much of that detritus in the gravel will now be consumed by the plants as nutrients, so it's kind of a win-win situation
also, plants can be very helpful in keeping ammonia and nitrate levels down, as plants naturally consume these as nutrients as well
worth looking into, anyway . . . I certainly don't find planted tanks difficult to clean
now, if you want to talk difficult, try netting a fish in a planted tank! what a pain!
for example, in a heavily planted tank, you don't want to do extensive gravel-vacs, because that disturbs the plant bed. however, much of that detritus in the gravel will now be consumed by the plants as nutrients, so it's kind of a win-win situation
also, plants can be very helpful in keeping ammonia and nitrate levels down, as plants naturally consume these as nutrients as well
worth looking into, anyway . . . I certainly don't find planted tanks difficult to clean
now, if you want to talk difficult, try netting a fish in a planted tank! what a pain!
Ive kept discus w/ plants and without. The advantages were pretty much covered..but i have heard of small discus not having the proper nutrients in a planted tank to grow. Discus require certain trace elements found in tap water, but so do the plants..At the size your discus are now, it shouldnt be too big of a problem
Seems those discus at that size should be fine in a planted setup then. Are you looking forward to doing it high or low maintenance? Low light plants such as cryptocorynes won't require CO2 injection and high lighting setup. Bury fert tablets near their roots and they'll nourish from there. You can tie Java ferns and anubias on driftwoods and leave Java moss to settle anywhere.