Jul
10
Starting A Planted Tank, Here’s How
I’ve recently read a post by Roy Samit with few tips for starting a planted tank.
He has some rather wise advices as knowing in advance the plants and their compatibility with each other. make sure the plants very carefully to make sure they are clean of any pests such as snails, algae and the much harder to find snail eggs. I recommend quarantine for few weeks if there are snail eggs you are bound to see them after the quarantine period.
The third important thing is to choose fish that are compatible both in size and in their behavior. If your fish eat plants or are too big for the tank they would ruin the leaves so as with most other things the best advice I can add is to think few moves ahead.
I have to disagree about worrying so much about quarantining plants for snail eggs or algae. In general, most plants that you get, whether from hobbyist’s tanks or commercially will potentially have snail eggs or algae spores. Most of these snails will not eat your plants, and I’ve never had them do my tanks harm. If you really don’t like them, add a couple loaches (I prefer Botia sidthimunki), and you’ll never see the snails in your tank. For algae, as long as the plant isn’t visibly overrun, you’re not running much more of risk then when you do a water change. Algae spores are in water, period. It’s a matter of keeping the conditions in your tank such as that algae is not able to out complete the plants and take over the tank. Algae, kept in check, is a natural component to a healthy ecosystem. For me, with new plants, I worry more about other plants, such as duckweed, wolffia, or Utricularia gibba getting into my tank. Those things are far more problematic than any snail that I’ve encountered.
Snails are really less of a problem. How do verify that you don’t introduce unwanted elements in the tank?
I have to agree that snails go along with planted aquariums, but live plants add so much that they’re worth the attendant problems. With good maintenance and a good balance between all elements of an aquarium, both snails and algae can be controlled, although they will always be part of the environment.