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Aquatic Plants - A few tips

© Winston Vaughan Schoenfeld

Lighting as you can imagine is something that you should take into consideration. What makes the lighting tricky is that you need enough lighting to provide for the aquatic plants in the aquarium, but you do not want too much such that you end up promoting algae growth. I must admit that I could not find good figures on the amount of light that one should have (in watts/gallon), but I am sure that you should be able to find such information, particularly at the fish store that provides you the aquatic plants. More importantly, realize that there is a window of the correct amount of light, and be aware of what may happen if you go outside of this. Also, an important consideration is the layout in the aquarium. You want to avoid having tall aquatic plants that reduce the amount of light getting to the deeper, shorter plants in the aquarium. One way to avoid this is to check on the amount of light that certain species of aquatic plants need, and to choose them such that those that will be somewhat shadowed by the taller plants in the aquarium require less light. Another way to avoid lighting problems is to properly layout the position of the plants.

Since your aquarium is your own work of art, there really is no particular way to place each plant. However, some good ideas are as follows: Start with the tallest plants in the back of the aquarium...this way they won't hide those smaller ones. Also, leave a bit of space between them so that you can still see the back of the aquarium. This will add the appearance of additional depth to the aquarium. As I said above, take into consideration the lighting requirements of the plants. If you have chosen species that have different lighting requirements, try and place them such that those requiring the most light are not covered by other plants. Most fish are compatible with aquatic plants, but be aware that some species, such as Oscars, have a tendency to "rearrange" and uproot the plants. If this becomes a problem, you may consider sticking with plastic plants.