In this addition of the Planted Aquarium Care series, I’ll talk about substrate – the pebbles, gravel, or sand at the bottom of your aquarium – and how your choice of substrate significantly affects the wellbeing of your plants. In particular, I’ll explain why the health of your plants’ roots is affected by the quality of your aquarium substrate.

First, a Very Brief Overview of How Plants Transport Food:

Apart from moss, all true plants, including ones for the aquarium hobby, transport nutrients internally by way of a vascular system – one composed of xylem and phloem. Notice the distinct sections of xylem and phloem in the below cross-section of a plant root.

While the phloem transports most notably sucrose produced during photosynthesis mainly in the leaves down throughout the rest of the plant, the xylem transports water and soluble mineral nutrients (ones absorbed by the roots) upwards and throughout the plant. Hence, the plant leaves and roots are co-dependent upon one another: The leaves provide the plant (including the roots) with sucrose, while the roots provide the plant (including the leaves) with water and mineral nutrients.

So, why am I telling you this?

Well, because of the particular function of the xylem, the health of plant roots is absolutely vital for the wellbeing of the plant as a whole. After all, the roots absorb the nourishing water and minerals that the xylem transports throughout the plant. Hence, in addition to adequate lighting, a healthy and full root system makes for green, vibrant, and full foliage.

And that’s exactly why choosing the right substrate for your planted aquarium is so important.

Before I discuss why grain size affects the health of roots let me make this one point: Aquarium plant roots are extremely delicate!

You may think that this is not the case when witnessing an aquarium shop seller tear through the thick jumble of roots in order to remove the plant from its home at the aquarium shop. But, keep in mind that those most visible thick roots you see are the primary roots – roots which are hardly responsible for water and nutrient absorption!

In fact, it is the secondary roots (also termed lateral roots), which sprout from the sides of the thick primary roots, that are responsible for the majority of nutrient uptake. And, these secondary roots are much, much thinner than their primary counterparts and are far more delicate.

Substrate Grain Size Makes a Difference.

Since the secondary roots which significantly contribute to the health of the plant are extremely delicate, they are very susceptible to physical damage – to damage caused not only by the plant’s physical removal from the pet shop aquarium, but also by the shifting of large sized pebbles in the home aquarium substrate.

For this reason, I feel that the smaller the grain size of the aquarium gravel, the healthier the root system will be. Indeed, very fine gravel and sand shifts significantly less than does large grained gravel and pebbles.

Especially when using a gravel vacuum (by the way, you should gravel vac areas around plants only VERY gently), large grained substrate moves around a whole lot …even in the areas of the aquarium that are not being gravel vacuumed.

Imagine the damaged sustained by the secondary roots when pummeled and pulled by a 2 inch deep and tumbling layer of large pebbles! Now fathom the plant roots having to suffer this abuse on a continuous weekly or biweekly basis (and, even when you’re not gravel vacuuming your aquarium, large grained substrate does tend to shift)!

That said, how in the world can you expect the secondary roots to keep up with the sustained physical damage, and, consequently, why would you expect the roots to support a full foliage if you place the plant in large grained substrate?

The good news is that you can easily alleviate the above mentioned problem by simply using fine grained gravel, or even sand (intended for freshwater aquarium use), as opposed to bulky gravel or pebbles.

In fact, fine grained gravel not only provides your aquarium plant roots with a stable environment, but it also offers far more surface area for biological filtration and looks much nicer too.

From My Personal Experience:

When I switched over from regular sized gravel to sand in 2006, my aquarium plants displayed an explosion of growth! I witnessed a huge and visible benefit to the health of my plants literally within a week and a half! They grew to a much larger size, became fuller, and turned greener, and the only change I made was to replace the normal sized gravel with sand!

Although some of my readers may be concerned with the development of oxygen starved (anaerobic) zones within the deepest layers of the sand substrate, keep in mind that 1) I only keep the sand layer deep in the parts of the aquarium nearest to the plants, and that 2) the roots actively pull water through the substrate anyway.

In fact, after I added the sand to my aquarium, the plant roots expanded to such a great extent that even the thinnest layer of sand in the front of the aquarium is inhabited by a shockingly dense patchwork of roots.

So, if you want to take it one step further and add sand instead of fine gravel to your planted aquarium, I say go for it! Also, if you have any questions about my aquarium setup, feel free to post them in the comments section below.

Take care, and happy fish-keeping!

A quality lighting solution is needed because plants require light for the production of food and, without adequate illumination, they won’t be able to sustain normal growth. In other words, insufficient lighting results in malnourishment. Most aquarium plants shed old leaves on a regular basis, and malnourished plants are simpley not able to replace leaves lost with new foliage, resulting in an assortment of ever shrinking plants.

Generally, the more light your plants receive, the better they’ll do under your care. That said, there are a few aquarium plants that will do well under less than optimum lighting solutions. In fact, the ever growing multitude of aquarium plant species available to the hobby require varying amounts of light. Below, I will discuss some plant options for low light, medium light, and high light aquarium plants.

Low Light Plants

The most attractive and notable low light plants are the many Java Fern, Cryptocoryne (often called “Crypts”), and Anubias varieties and species. All three of these plants are a mainstay in the aquarium hobby, and all three are highly recommended for beginners. Anubias, in particular, is a very hardy and will do well under normal output fluorescent bulbs. Though Anubias grows slower than most other plant species, large specimens with broad leaves are readily available at most aquarium shops.

Medium Light Plants

Medium light plants will need compact fluorescent or, better yet, T5 fluorescent lights to do well in the home aquarium. Most Sword Plants (Including the popular Amazon Sword), Banana Plants, Wisteria, and Water Sprite are among the more popular medium light specimens available. All tend to grow to a larg size, and serve as excellent mid-ground to background plants.

High Light Plants

Surprisingly, many, if not most of the plants you’ll find at your local aquarium shop require a large amount of light supplied by multiple T5 bulbs or metal halide lights (for very tall aquariums).

Most of the plants sold as bunches (often tied by a rubber band and/or led weight) require an ample amount of light. In particular, Four Leaf Clover Plants, Dwarf Tears, Ludwiga, Moneywort, Myrio, and Rotala all need high light. Madagascar Lace and the Chain and Red Sword Plants will also do best under ample illumination.

Unfortunately, aquarium shops often keep high light plants under low light. As a result, many costumers either assume that these are low light plants, or are misinformed by ignorant sellers into believing that these plants will do well under normal output fluorescent bulbs. Just a week after taking home some Myrio or Rotala for example, misinformed customers are left with a fish tank full of withered plants, with Myrio that lacks its feathery foliage, and specimens of stemmy Rotala with heaps of decomposing leaves beneath their emaciated bodies.

My aim is not to terrify readers with images of doom. Instead, I am merely illustrating my point: keeping high light plants under normal output fluorescent bulbs is a recipe for failure. It is therefore essential to determine whether your aquarium setup will accommodate the needs of the plants you plan to keep.

Simply doing a little research prior to purchasing aquarium plants will go a long way. If your aquarium is illuminated by normal output fluorescent bulbs, some Anubias and Java Fern is a good choice. If, however, you’d like to add a Madagascar Lace accented by a carpet of Chain Swords in the foreground, you will have to invest in a more powerful lighting system (there is no way around it). And believe me, you won’t regret making the small investment in a T5 lighting fixture!

Also, keep in mind that adequate lighting is just a part of the equation. Clean water and the presence of CO2 and nutrients, including iron, are also essential for success with aquarium plants. I’ll discuss these issues in future Planted Aquarium Care 101 articles.

Unfortunately, not all schooling and/or shoaling fish make for good aquarium pets.

The Tiger Barb, for example, while attractively colored and quite lively, proves too quarrelsome and nippy for most other (more delicate) tankmates. The famous Neon Tetra, though beautiful and extremely peaceful, has been bred (and even inbred) to the point that the vast majority of this once easy to care for fish have become far too frail to handle all but perfect aquarium conditions!

A great alternative to both fish is the Red Eye Tetra. These fish have been in the aquarium hobby for a long time and have acquired a fitting reputation for being very hardy, yet are unfairly overlooked or brushed aside as mundane.

Although their silver coloration may seem all too ordinary, Red Eye Tetras, when kept in sizable groups of 7 or more, produce a shimmering mass of aquatic life that’s not easy to ignore. Moreover, their distinctive red eyes and black and white tails produce attractive points of contrast to their silver bodies.

Red Eye Tetras are active swimmers and will occupy the middle portion of the aquarium. Although these fish have a peaceful temperament and are a great addition to almost any community aquarium, it is not recommended to keep Red Eye Tetras with slow moving long finned fish (the betta comes to mind) for sporadic cases of fin-nipping have been reported.

Aside from the above noted consideration, Red Eye Tetras make for great community fish. They tolerate a surprisingly wide range of aquarium water conditions (see Aquarium Care below) which makes them a great beginner schooling fish.

Aquarium Care:

Scientific Name: Moenkhausia sanctaefilomenae

Origin: Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru

Water Temperature Range: 74-82 °F (23-28 °C)

Water pH Range: 5.8 – 8.2

Temperament: peaceful

Maximum Size: 2.75 inch (7 cm)

Minimum Tank Size: 10 U.S. gallons (38 liters), though, as I indicate in this Freshwater Aquarium Care Guide, a larger aquarium size is strongly advisable.

Diet: omnivore that will take all kinds of food, including flake food, frozen brine shrimp, cyclops-eeze, frozen bloodworms (not recommended)

First, a quick introduction:

So, what is a planted aquarium anyway? What makes these aquariums different from other tropical fish tanks?

To put it very briefly, planted aquariums are ones that rely primarily on plants for aesthetic appeal. In other words, plants serve as the heart of the planted aquarium with tropical fish accenting and complementing the lush underwater garden.

For this reason, planted aquariums are specially made for providing plants with a suitable environment. Success with this planted type of aquarium, therefore, requires a bit of extra planning in order to ensure the health of your plants. Indeed, lighting quality, water-flow, substrate type, the variety and amount of tropical fish your aquarium sustains, and perhaps the addition of extra equipment are all issues to consider before setting up a new planted aquarium or converting an existing freshwater fish tank into an aquatic garden.

That said, the extra planning and input will go a long way. Moreover, both the presence of plants and the extra attention you’ll pay to maintaining optimum water conditions will significantly contribute to the health and vitality of you fish. Believe it or not, tropical fish and aquarium plants share many basic needs.

Lighting the Planted Aquarium

Like all plants, aquarium plants rely on photosynthesis for the production of food. They need light for nutrition and growth. Choosing suitable aquarium lights, therefore, seems like the natural starting point for planning a planted aquarium.

While regular tropical fish tanks will do well with normal output fluorescent lights, planted aquariums require a more heavy duty solution. That’s because normal output bulbs – the type used for household use and, unfortunately, for most aquarium “kits” and complete setups – produce a small amount of poor quality light.

In other words, the intensity of normal output fluorescent bulbs is not strong enough to sustain aquarium plant growth. These bulbs also tend to produce a reddish yellowish hued light that will stimulate algae growth, but won’t do wonders for your plants.

Fortunately, there are other lighting solutions for the planted aquarium. Metal halide bulbs work wonderfully. Nevertheless, they are both costly and expensive to operate (they’ll double your electricity bill!). Power compact fluorescent bulbs are also great and cost much less than their metal halide counterparts, but they’re still not the best way to go.

Instead, I highly recommend T5 fluorescent bulbs for planted aquariums.

T5’s are long lived, they produce a high quality of light, they pack more punch per Watt than other bulbs (excluding metal halides), they’re more compact than their normal output fluorescents (T12’s or T8’s, depending on where you live), and they don’t produce excessive heat! T5’s stay cool. They are by far the best lighting solution in the planted aquarium hobby.

With T5 bulbs, I suggest getting about 2 to 3 Watts per gallon. This arrangement will ensure that your aquarium plants will receive the sustenance they need to thrive under your care.

That’s it for this Planted Aquarium Care 101 post. In the next installment of the series, I’ll discuss plant varieties according to lighting needs: namely the so called low light, medium light, and high light aquatic plant categories.

Still, many freshwater aquarium hobbyists choose to buy “cleaning” fish and/or snails only to find that many of them end up producing more waste then they consume!

The infamous Plecostomus – variously called “pleco,” “suckerfish,” or “algae-eater” – comes to mind. People often purchase baby Common Plecos only to find that their cute little suckerfish turned into a smelly, small-fish-eating, 1 foot (30 cm) giant just a few months down the road! Yes, these fish do produce more waste than they consume, and, no, I do not recommend that anyone gets one (unless it’s purely for ornamental value).

Fortunately, hobbyists who want to add bottom dwelling fish to their aquarium have an excellent alternative. The Cory Catfish (also known as the Cory Cat) is an excellent addition to most community aquariums.

The Cory Cats are bottom dwelling catfish that originate from South America. These extremely peaceful fish grow to only 2.5 inches (6.25 cm) to 3.5 inches (8.75 cm) in length, and more than a few species are available for the aquarium trade. In fact, it’s common to find variously colored and patterned Cory Cats at a single store. These fish are readily available.

Moreover, Cory Cats are actually pretty good at sucking up uneaten food from the bottom of the aquarium. Any food your other fish will miss, the Cory Cats will quickly consume, thus lessoning the amount of stress put on your biological filter following feeding time. Yes; Cory Cats are excellent bottom feeders.

Because of their specialized feeding behavior, I recommend adding Cory Cats (or any other bottom feeders for that matter) to your aquarium only after a few other fish have been added. Indeed, as I describe in Chapter Nine of The Kick-Ass Aquarium Book, bottom-feeding fish rely on the presence of other fish – sloppy eaters that provide scavengers with a continuous supply of food – for nutrition. If not enough fish are present in the aquarium, the Cory Cats’ diet must be supplemented with at least one of the foods described below.

I would like to mention again that, although the Cory Cats are wonderful scavengers which will reduce the amount of waste present in the home aquarium, no animal will replace the cleaning power of physical waste removal. Still, the Corys are wonderful little fishes, and are an excellent alternative to the monster mentioned at the top of the article.

Aquarium Care:

Scientific Name: Corydoras spp. and Brochis spp.

Origin: South America

Water Temperature Range: 74-82 °F (23-28 °C)

Water pH Range: 6.0-7.0

Temperament: peaceful (like to live in small groups of 6 or more, though 2 specimens can be kept successfully)

Maximum Size: 2.5 to 3.5 inch (6.25 to 8.75 cm) depending on species

Minimum Tank Size: 10 U.S. gallons (28 liters), though, as I indicate in The Kick-Ass Aquarium Book, a larger aquarium size is strongly advisable.

Diet: bottom feeder – algae wafers, flake food, frozen brine shrimp, cyclops-eeze

Perhaps the best way to define a community aquarium is to explain what it is not. So, let’s do just that.

Some types of tropical fish require very specific aquarium conditions, and ones which many other fish are not used to. Discus Fish, for example, do best at low pH and water hardness levels that are beyond the tolerable range of most tropical fish (see January’s Fish of the Month post for a description of Discus Fish care). Moreover, Discus Fish are delicate animals that will not do well with fast-swimming, boisterous, and/or aggressive fish.

For the above two reasons, many hobbyists choose to keep Discus Fish in what’s called a “species tank” – in an aquarium that houses only one type of fish. A “species tank,” therefore, is the exact opposite of a community aquarium.

So, a community aquarium is basically one that houses many types (or species) of tropical fish.

Now, just because a community aquarium, by definition, houses many different types of tropical fish, that doesn’t mean that you can mix and match any fish species you want. No, not all tropical fish will do well with one another, and not all fish will thrive in the same aquarium environment (see Aquarium Care 101: Part 1 for more information).

So, before you go out to buy fish for a community aquarium, be sure to determine whether or not the fish you plan to get will coexists peacefully with one another, and whether or not they like similar water conditions (which include water hardness/softness, pH, and temperature).

Just a bit of planning is well worth the small effort. It’ll make aquarium and tropical fish care simple, easy, and fun. After all, how much fun can watching an aquarium full of expensive fish that fight to the death be?

One of the aquarium care videos (usually available for members only), is up and running at the Kick-Ass Aquarium Information Page. It’s now available for all! Just scroll down through the information page to view this aquarium care *video*.

The video explains how biological filtration works, and how to “jump-start” the biological filtration process. In other words, it explains how to “cycle” your aquarium (“cycling” a new aquarium is also explained in Aquarium Care 101: Part 4).

This bit of knowledge is extremely important to understand, regardless of the type of fish or aquarium filter you have! Let me say it again: The information presented in the aquarium care video is EXTREMELY important to know!

In a nut shell, that’s because the beneficial bacteria, which are responsible for between 60% to 100% of the filtration in your aquarium, need time to multiply to sufficient levels. For the sake of avoiding redundancy, I’ll leave it at that… just check out the video and you’ll understand exactly how biological filtration works, why it’s important, and how you can use it to make aquarium and tropical fish care really simple and easy!

So, I highly encourage all people interested in the aquarium hobby to view this essential aquarium care *video*.

After all, just 10 minutes of your time, which is the length of the video, may very well save you a small fortune and your tropical fish.

Here’s the link again: Kick-Ass Aquarium Information Page

Happy Tropical Fish Keeping,
Luke

But, the guppy doesn’t deserve this insipid reputation! The guppy’s longtime presence in the aquarium hobby and its ease of breeding has spawned a vast variety of interesting color variations. In fact, most aquariasts now use the term “fancy guppy” to name this colorful tropical fish.

Indeed, today’s guppies exhibit all the colors of the rainbow and a multitude of body markings and patterns. Although the males of this tropical fish species possess distinctive large tails and are far more colorful than are the females, you can often find female fancy guppies that have a flash of blue, yellow, red, and/or orange on their tails.

Caring for these tropical fish in the home aquarium is simple as long as you provide them with clean and stable water conditions (see the how to sex live-bearing tropical fish on this site.

That brings to mind another issue to consider: fancy guppies are prolific breeders and even a small batch of guppies is capable of producing dozens of babies in no time.

So, if you don’t want many baby fish in your aquarium, I advise purchasing no more than three fancy guppies. However, for many hobbyists who enjoy breeding fish, this isn’t a problem. Conversely, it’s an added benefit that makes fancy guppies all the more enjoyable to keep.

Aquarium Care:

Scientific Name: Poecilia reticulata

Origin: Central America

Water Temperature Range: 70-80 °F (21-26 °C)

Water pH Range: 6.5-8.0

Temperament: peaceful

Maximum Size: 1 inch (2.5 cm)

Minimum Tank Size: 5 U.S. gallons (19 liters), though, as I indicate in The Kick-Ass Aquarium Book, a larger aquarium size is strongly advisable.

Diet: flake food, frozen brine shrimp, cyclops-eeze, frozen bloodworms (not recommended)

So, the time has finally come! You’re now ready to add tropical fish to your aquarium!

When you place your newly purchased beauties in your fish-tank, keep in mind that tropical fish are very sensitive to rapid changes in water temperature and to other water conditions (such as pH and hardness/softness).

When you put your tropical fish in your aquarium, you must, therefore, first get them used to their new environment. This process of slowly letting your fish adjust to their new aquarium habitat is called Acclimation.

There are various ways to acclimate fish to your aquarium.

The first involves floating the clear plastic fish bag, in which the fish came, at the water’s surface for a period of about 30 minutes. During this time, the temperature of the water in the fish bag will slowly adjust to match that in the aquarium. This way, your tropical fish won’t suffer from temperature shock when you release them into your aquarium.

After the 30 minutes is up, you can release your fish into the aquarium.

But, if you want to go the extra mile you can also get them used to the pH and the hardness/softness of your aquarium water!

Some of the more sensitive tropical fish, including the school of cardinal tetras pictured above, do best when acclimated not only to the water temperature, but also to the aquarium hardness/softness and pH.

If you do choose to go the extra mile, you’ll need a clean bucket (one you only use for aquarium maintenance) and a clean disposable plastic cup.

After the tropical fish have been floating in their bag in the aquarium for 30 minutes, take the bag out and release the fish, along with their water, into the clean bucket. Then take the plastic cup, fill it with aquarium water, and add it to the water in the bucket.

Repeat this step every two minutes for a period of 20 minutes.

After you have completed this process, your tropical fish are used not only used to the aquarium temperature, but also to the aquarium water! You can now catch the tropical fish out with a net, and add them to your aquarium.

Note: In the “members area” there’s an Aquarium Care *video* lesson that demonstrates how to acclimate new tropical fish to your aquarium. The video is based on the information provided in Aquarium Care digital book found here.