DIY Aquascape Hobby

Keeping a well-planted aquarium is easy as long as you choose the right plants for your skill level, budget and willingness to maintain it. A well-planted tank adds a natural underwater garden accent to a home or office. Many plant cuttings can easily be obtained for free or cheaply through other aquarists who successfully grow plants. It will not be long before you will be giving plant starts away to your friends.

  1. Planning and Research

    • Successful aquascaping requires some basic research to find out what plants, fish and invertebrates are compatible with each other and what types of water conditions and lighting they require. Most aquatic life is somewhat adaptable to various conditions but all have their limitations. Also consider how much work you are willing to put into the tank every day or week. High-tech, high-light plant tanks need constant maintenance while low-light, low-tech tanks require minimal effort.

    Plant Selection and Placement

    • Select a range of fast growing plants to absorb nutrients from the water quickly, this helps prevent green water and algae growth. Place taller plants like long grasses such as Valisneria in the back and shorter plants in the middle. Reserve the shortest plants for the foreground of the tank. If you have a very high-light tank, short low-light plants like Anubias nana can be planted along the base of larger plants where less light penetrates.

      Sloping the substrate helps give the illusion of depth in a tank. It also provides a deeper medium for the plant roots to grow for larger and taller plants. A general rule of thumb is to make the substrate depth about 2 inches in the very front of the tank and slope up to 4 to 6 inches deep toward the back. Rocks and driftwood help hold the substrate in place and can support terraces.

    Livestock

    • Many people choose to have plant-only aquariums while others like a basic cleaning crew of algae eaters, scavengers and possibly snails. Well-planted tanks are perfect for small freshwater shrimp that feed on algae. Good algae eaters include the Siamese algae eater and Otocinclus species. Plecostomus species that have teeth are good algae eaters but may damage broadleaf plants. Small non-aggressive loaches like Botia striata are good scavengers and will help eliminate pest snails that eat plants. Malaysian trumpet snails are a good addition to a planted tank because they will eat algae but not living plants. They hide in the substrate during the day and come out at night. Their hard shells make them resistant to loaches, but they still can be eaten.

    Filtration and Current

    • The surface area of plants will provide space for the same nitrifying bacteria found in a filter. Planted tanks with no fish may not need any filtration at all. Water movement is helpful to keep temperatures even but too much can uproot plants or push all the leaves to one side of the tank in an undesirable way. Unless you are designing a tank to mimic a fast-flowing streambed, try to keep the current and surface disruption to a minimum. Power filters and airstones disrupt too much surface areas allowing CO2 to escape the water that the plants could normally utilize.

    CO2

    • For medium- to high-light tanks, carbon dioxide fertilization may be needed to prevent algae growth. Many designs and commercial products are available using a yeast and sugar do-it-yourself method. For larger tanks, a pressurized system is a must. The initial expense can be high, but the benefits in plant size and growth rate are dramatically improved, when compared to non-CO2 or yeast method tanks.