June 2009 - Kitchener Waterloo Aquarium Society

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source to grow anything in the way of aquatic plants. So,
knowing your light source will now give you some choices of
what plants can be grown in your tank. Most plants are
considered low, medium or high light. Low light is usually
considered anything less than 1.5 watts per gallon (wpg) of total
light source compared to the size of your tank. Medium light is
between 1.5 and 2.5 wpg and high light would be anything
more than 2.5 wpg. Also consider that you will lose some light
if you have a glass top over your tank and the deeper the tank
the less light will penetrate to the bottom. The amount of time
that you have the lights turned on each day will also be a
determining factor.
the LFS staff might ask to help you in selecting your plants.
“What kind of substrate do I have?” This can make a difference.
Many people have gravel in their tanks but the size can make a
difference when choosing plants. If the gravel is too coarse, fine
or shallow rooted plants will have a difficult time establishing
themselves and may not survive. If your substrate is too
shallow, deep rooted plants will not have enough room to be
planted and stay in place. If you want to grow plants at
optimum conditions you may even want to change your
substrate to some of the newer products such as fluorite or
“Eco-Complete”. Water quality can also be a factor. Some plants
need soft water to grow properly while others don’t care. Other
plants need fertilizers or CO2 added to the tank to flourish.
These are things that you may or may not want to invest in so
will also determine whether you want to spend money on some
varieties of plants. Even the size of your tank can be a factor. If
you have a 10 or 15 gallon tank that is 12 inches high, it doesn’t
make a lot of sense to buy a plant that will grow 20 inches tall.
The second question to ask is what kind of fish are you
keeping? If you have silver dollars for example, the answer is
easy – go look at the plastic plant section because silver dollars
will eat most plants. If you are keeping large Central or South
American cichlids, you may find that they love to tear up and
uproot pretty much any plant you get. African cichlids can be
tough on some plants as well. Goldfish and koi are also known
for uprooting or chewing plants down to nothing. It doesn’t
make a lot of sense in trying plants in tank settings that may be
doomed from the start, but there is no hard and fast rules that
say that rules can’t be broken and experiences can differ. Even
silver dollars which are notorious plant eaters can live in a
planted tank if you chose the right species of plants. Java fern
actually produces a substance within its leaves that makes it
unpalatable to fish and can be grown in the same tank with
herbivores. The type of fish you have may also steer you to the
type of plants you might want as well. If you are keeping
livebearers you might want floating plants with bushy leaves to
protect new fry. If you are keeping tetras you might want fine,
soft leaved plants that will still allow the fish to show off their
colour. If you are looking to set up a bio type you may want to
match fish and plants from the same geographical region. These
are things to consider.
You will have been able to whittle down your initial choices a
bit but there are a few more questions that you can ask – or that
Now, you have some answers to help make your plant
purchases much easier. You are primed and ready to go. What
comes next? Well, a trip to your LFS is in order. You have likely
made many purchases there before and hopefully staff will
remember you and you have established a rapport with
someone. Hopefully they keep fish and plants themselves. Ask
them what they keep to find out a bit of their experience. Look
over the selections of plants in the store and discuss what you
are looking for and what your needs and limitations are. If you
see a plant that you like and you aren’t sure if you want to buy
it, take down the name. You can do some research and find out
whether it is for you or not.
Things To Look For
As you are shopping for your plants there are some basic things
to look for that could help. Take notice at how long plants have
been in the store. This should help tell you if plants are moving
or not. A good store should replenish their stock to replace
plants and bring in different species. If there is something you
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