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Plants need three things to grow, light, CO2 and food.
Light
Correct lighting is of paramount importance, proper lighting enables plants to process the CO2 fish excrete. The deeper the tank, the stronger the light requirements and need for good reflectors, with an average height aquarium, 18-24" there needs to be somewhere in the region of 2-3 watts per gallon.
CO2
CO2 is the most important plant nutrient and can be introduced in various ways, products such as liquid carbon can be used successfully and probably the cheapest and most convenient method, depending on how delicate your plant species are, your budget will determine as to which if any method you wish to adopt and your local aquatic store will advise as to what products are available.
It must be remembered plants reverse the photosynthesis process when lights are off, taking in the oxygen and releasing CO2, there fore ensuring pumps and aeration is extremely important, do not be tempted to turn a noisy pump off when lights are out!
Food
A high-quality plant fertiliser is a vital component, we can not rely purely on fish waste which basically provides the nitrates or phosphates that are primarily introduced via the feed, plants require many micro nutrients, iron, potassium etc, with out these nutrients plants will go into starvation and will start releasing ammonia.
Other parameters needed to grow healthy plants
Healthy plants do help maintain a good balance, but we also need to remember any dying vegetation such as leaves or a dead fish or some uneaten food hidden in plants even in a well-established tank can cause an ammonia spike, it is not just a new system that has not had a full nitrifying cycle. The seneye will immediately alert any changes allowing the action to prevent damage to live stock.
GH is not critical in the water parameters needed for good plant growth, pH is far more relevant and a pH that is too high will be dextrimental to the plants well being,some plants such as elodea, vallisineria will take a higher alkhaline than plants such as cryptocorynes, amazon swords and similiar, the seneye will be constantly recording such changes in the aquarium. As with our choice of fish we select the plants that will flourish in our chosen aquatic envoirnment, if for example we are concentrating on fish that are more acidic loving then we plant appropriately and vice versa, if we choosing to do a general mix then we work on our pH to compromise for this.
The substratum is where the plants develop their roots and take in nutrients, sand or gravel of a fine to medium grade is best as if too fine, the substratum will pack down too hard and not allow the nutrients or water to flow to the roots, if too course the plants will be unable to root successfully, causing rotting due to the crown being exposed to fish waste and the plant will not anchor successfully.
Aquarium peat and other media can be obtained from your local aquatic store as can decorations such as petrified wood, rocks, these decorations will also effect the pH in your aquarium but a well aquascaped aquarium should be an object of interest and beauty.
Water flow is of importance to ensure even distribution of nutrients and to main tain the biological cycle, water flow that is too strong will uproot plants so a sensible compromise is required.
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