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Overview of Different Planted Aquarium Styles

• Natural style is pretty wide open. Even though the appearance may appear unplanned, often times, nothing can be further from the truth! A Natural style aquarium strives to replicate what you'd find in nature within your tank. Plants will be placed so that they appear random and without design (this doesn't mean that you're actually dropping plants into your tank without design, but it just won't look manicured when you're finished). Think "zoo exhibit."
• You'd never come across a patch of water with a "Dutch style plant painting" in real life. Dutch style aquariums are the Home & Garden of all aquariums. Think, a "horticulturist's back yard." Many tanks might not even include fish or if they do, they'll appear to be an afterthought. The fish included will certainly never be bright or interesting enough as to overshadow any of the plantings! Dutch style aquariums are usually terraced so that the entire tank is full of plants, all of which are viewable from the front. The front of the tank is lower than the back. The tank may have 2-3 three "steps" of terraced substrate supporting different types of plants. Dutch style aquariums are fantasies that have come to life.

• Open Planting style tanks are those in which the top of the aquarium is left open and plants are allowed to grow out of the water. A Mangrove is a perfect example of a plant used in an Open style planting. If you go this route, make sure you don't have any jumpers!
• A community tank or a habitat tank is a tank where you've placed species of fish and plants that are well suited for each other. Ideally, they'd be from the same place geographically and would mimic an ecosystem found out in the wild.
• Sometimes, hobbyists will use the term "Habitat tank" to mean a tank that they've limited to just one kind of fish. The planting in this style tank aren't as exciting (to the viewer at least), at least not compared to other aquarium planting styles. That's because in a community or habitat tank, what you do is place plants that would naturally occur in the wild, as they do in the wild. To the hobbyist, a community tank can be an extremely complicated, challenging, and rewarding venture.

Plants for your Tank

• will they stay rooted,
• are they bunches that move around in the water, or
• do they like to float on the top.

Manufactured Plants for your Tank

• Real plants help reduce carbon dioxide levels in the tank water.
• Real plants help reduce the nitrate level in the tank water.
• Real plants give additional oxygen to the tank water.
• Real plants can provide a natural source of food for fish (if the fish aren't too aggressive with their nibbling!).
• Real plants can inhibit algae growth by releasing chemicals in the water that inhibit algae growth.
• Real plants can serve as a "miner's canary" for your tank water. While plants have different needs from your fish from the water, plants will be the first thing to start dieing off if something in the tank isn't right.

Cons Against Having Real Plants in your Tank

• Keeping real plants in your aquarium requires you to actually keep something alive in your tank besides your fish. Keeping real plants in your tank means that there is one more thing you have to nurture. They have specific needs that differ from your fish needs. You'll need to educate yourself on how to best grow plants in your tank.
• Keeping real plants in your tank requires maintenance time. Plants will require you to trim dead or decaying parts as well as cull parts that are too numerous or prune the plant back to keep it the appropriate size for your tank.
• Real plants will require replacement as they don't last forever (or at least not as long as manufactured plants).
• Plants require more lighting than your fish do.
• Real plants require CO2 reactors if you want to keep your plants at their best. If you have an expensive plant set up, you may want to consider this.
• Plants create waste when they die which negatively affect the water quality.
• Plants can often introduce pesky snails, unwanted fish, or even hydras who hitch a ride along from the pet store.
• Real plants can introduce disease to either your other plants or your fish in your tank!
• Real plants may not be able to keep up with herbivorous fishes' appetites! Nibbled plants don't usually look that great.
• Keeping real plants in your tank may require you to limit yourself with suitable substrates. You can also try to keep the plant potted in its own substrate, buried within the more general substrate (gravel) that you keep in your tank.

Popular Freshwater Plants

• Java moss
• Java fern
• Crypts
• Valersia
• Water Sprite
• Hygrophila polysperma
• Anubias
• Duckweed

Popular Saltwater Plants & Algae

• Red Mangrove plant

• Halimeda, also known as the Cactus algae, is one of the oldest cultured algae you'll find in a saltwater tank (its inclusion goes back to the 1960s).
• Red Gracilaria Algae

Reasons to have plants in your tank

• Plants in your tank give the aquarium a more natural habitat.
• Plants in your tank can give your fish both physical security and help them feel better by having that physical security (even when there aren't any actual threats in the tank.) More specifically, plants in your tank will give fish:
  • Good resting places
  • Good places for new fish to hide, get acclimatized, and feel secure
• Plants in your tank give fish spawning ground.
• Plants in your tank also provide natural habitat for baby fish (fry). Of course, you'll want to move fry into their own tank if you want them to make it.