FRESHWATER AQUARIUM PLANTS - The Best Planting Techniques

Aquarium

There is nothing as spectacular as a freshwater aquarium with well-groomed live plants. If you have ever thought about incorporating live plants into your aquarium but haven’t done it yet – quit wasting time and get it done. It can make all the difference in the world. The benefits to your fish and the whole underwater environment completely out weight the extra effort it takes to care for the plants and their slightly higher costs.

Before you start, make a rough sketch of how you want the aquarium to look when completed. This will give you a simple plan when you go to buy the plants and a roadmap to follow when you begin the planting process.

One of the best planting strategies I’ve seen is to plant the taller plants toward the back of the aquarium and the shorter ones in front. This is a good technique to use if you are mixing plants that have different lighting needs. The taller plants can be used to shade any shorter plants that need less light.

These short bushy plants should be arranged to hide any unsightly equipment in the tank. Try to arrange them so they don’t look symmetrical in the tank. There’s nothing symmetrical about the way they grow in nature so don’t plant them that way in your aquarium.

When you start the planting process, make sure the tank is full. It may seem like it would be a lot easier (and it would be) to empty the aquarium to do the planting but that would be a mistake. You need the water to see how the plants will spread out in the water. You can’t do this with a dry tank.

Don’t bury the plants in the substrate below its crown. The crown is the area between the plant’s roots and the stalk. Be sure to place the plants far enough apart to let the roots grow properly. A rule of thumb is to separate them by the length of one leaf. Overcrowding causes the plants to eventually wither and die.

By John C Stoner - Article Source: EzineArticles

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