whats the benefits of having live plants in an aquarium?

Benifits of live plants =
They provide some oxygen, they use ammonia and nitrites for fertilizer. they use up nutrients that algae needs to grow, so you might have less algae. Fish love then. They are beautiful.

down side of live plants =
they can be hard to keep alive and require special care like Co2 and fertilizer and specific lights and timer lights. They give out a small amount of oxygen in the day, thats good, but they release Co2 at night, not good if you have a lot of fish, especially since many plants require that you do not have an air pump to provide the fish with extra air in the water. Decaying, dieng plants mess up the water and need pruning....Show more

Live plants are a nice and natural filter for the aquarium. They will aid in keeping nitrate and other appearances of nitrogen low (like keeping ammonia and nitrite low).

They provide natural cover and natural forage for fish, so also reduce stress.


As far as oxygen production, yes, they improve O2 levels in the day, but can also work in reverse at night when photosynthesis is not occurring, thus mildly reducing O2 levels at night. Normally there is not an issue, unless the water quality of the tank is marginal to begin with....Show more

Both have their pros and cons. Live will filtrate the tank, increase oxygen, and overall give it a more "real" look.

Fake plants and decor do not die, pollute the tank, need extra lighting, or deep substrate.

However, fake plants can get lots of algae on the and need to be cleaned. I keep a half live, half fake tank with live hardy plants like anachris and java. Then I use rocks and fake plants to fill the rest of the space. Some fish like cichlids love to uproot plants, so be careful to choose your tank mates.

It really depends on your lighting, time you are willing to put into maintaining the tank, and the money you can spend on nutrients and substrate. Good luck! (:...Show more

they are going to be relaxing on your oscars to interrupt and that's approximately it. Fish like oscars will pass out of their thank you to be unappreciative little ***holes once you purchase them flowers. For plant tolerant fish they're stable to offer a organic (or greater organic) environment, places to cover, will in all possibility shrink rigidity, places to reproduce, won't injury fins like plastic and that they seem stable. they might additionally advance algae on them which some animals like shrimp eat. on condition that i had fish that quite destroyed flowers might i no longer positioned any in. i might in no way positioned plastic flowers interior the tank. One plant the can not be uprooted is anubias, do a sprint prognosis on the thank you to advance them and doubtless think approximately getting one, it would additionally supply some thing on your oscars to do, like a litte christmas present. have relaxing Oh and that they get rid of nitrates, oxygenate the water (purely throughout the day), and that guy who stated they're hard to look after yet thats incorrect, i does not care if my flowers died so yeah. and that i purely fertiliser and function lighting fixtures fixtures, CO2 i do no longer think of is mandatory...Show more

Benefits;
* oxygen production
* ammonia, (fish waste), metabolized...Show more