The major factors we must look at are:

  1. Lighting – a decent light is needed to grow and keep plants t5 lighting for the aquariumhealthy, for java ferns, moss and basic stem plants around 1-2 watts per gallon will do very nicely.  E.g. if your tank is 50 gallons, you would want between 50-100w of light, about 90 being ideal.
  2. Nutrients – just like fish, the plants require trace elements and vitamins that just aren’t there in a tank, in the wild fresh flowing water will replenish these but sadly not in the aquarium. I advise you to buy a liquid plant fertilizer such as Seachem Flourish, which will provide the plants with nutrients it needs to grow, especially plants like java fern and anubais which feed directly from the water column.fertilizers for planted aquascape
  3. CO2 – carbon dioxide is the third major factor affecting the growth rates and health of plants in the aquarium, many professional aquarists use large CO2 canisters which diffuse into the aquarium. This works very well but is quite expensive especially for the beginner. A better option would be to use DIY co2where yeast reacts with sugar in a coke bottle, slowly releasing co2 increasing the plant growth rate dramatically. This is a very cheap method it can be a hassle, a possibly better option would be to buy a product such as seachem flourish excel,  a liquid that provides a different form of carbon for the plant but works in the same way.

Some brief pointers:

  • If you have followed the above, you will have 3 variables to play with – Lighting, Nutrients and CO2. These need to be in equilibrium with each other so the plant can consume each evenly, if there is excess of one it can lead to unwanted algae.
  • When dosing both the excel and flourish (or other products with the same purpose) it is not essential to dose what is required on the label, this is a lower-tech setup and does not require large amounts of fertilizers.
  • If you choose the method of DIY CO2 be sure to calculate how much you want bubbling out which in turn will govern the size of the bottle/s that you use. metal halide lighting for aquarium
  • Only keep the lights on for 8-10 hours a day and try to avoid all natural light, leaving the light on for too long will promote excess algae. Never leave it on 24 hours a day either, it will not let your fish rest, nor will it let your plants respire, killing them.

Continue to the next step:

PLANTING YOUR AQUARIUM

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