To plant or not to plant

[Blackwood]

I always assumed that a planted tank would be much less maintenance than a non-planted tank because of the plants doing most of the filtering.

I had a 115 gallon show tank with crushed coral gravel two Fluval 303's filtering it. I would routinely go 2-3 months between filter cleanings/water changes, and rarely lost fish. If I was going to buy new fish, I would just do a filter change and a 20% water change and everything would survive.

I gave that tank to a friend of mine and she hasn't done a water or filter change in over a year (yes, I know, extrememly bad idea), but 90% of the fish are still alive in it.

The 4 years I had it, and the 1 1/2 years she's had it, I would have to clean the algae off the glass about every 6 months or so, and it was barely noticable then.

When I gave her that tank, I bought a 125 tank (wide instead of tall like the 115) and made it a live plant tank. It's been MUCH harder to take care of. I can't seem to keep fish alive in it and the algae is insane (see http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=78107 ).

Going by past experience, the fish only tank was much easier to deal with. Is a planted tank really that much more maintenance?


Blackwood

 

[dskidmore]

One of the following is usually true in a planted aquarium:
A) You have a situation for ideal plant growth, and you have to trim the plants regularly.
B) You have a situation for ideal algae growth, and you have to fight the algae.
C) You have a situation for no growth and all the plants die, clogging up your filter and spiking your ammonia levels.

So, yes, a planted aquarium is more work. I find it more enjoyable, though. It is an interesting challange.

That said, if I do a major trim-back, I can afterwards go a month without doing maintenance. I have a forest to mow at the end of the month though.

 

[Purrbox]

A high light tank is definately going to be more work, a low light tank on the other hand may be less work. You might want to check out Steve Hampton's article on Low Light Low Tech tanks.

 

[malkore]

with a high light planted tank, you trade maintenance over testing ammonia and nitrites for testing nitrate and phosphate, CO2 levels, and dosing fertilizers appropriately.

a planted tank is more work, especially a high light tank. but a planted tank should never make you more prone to unexplainable fish losses.

 

[noncentric]

It sounds like the suggestions made to decrease your lighting would best match what you're looking for.

I had initially planned to have lustrous plants and have been looking into changing the lighting in my tanks to get into the med-high light range - but my plants (anacharis, java ferns, java moss) have been growing at a steady, slow rate with the low lighting that I have...and they are creating enough greenery that I can enjoy my "planted tank" without doing much maintenance. I add ferts a few times each week, trim down some anacharis during each weekly water change, and that's about it.

With low lights and low-light plants, then there's no requirement to use CO2 or overly complicated fertilizer regimens - plus, the growth won't be so rampant as to require lots of trimming and re-scaping.

I hope you don't decide to nix all of the live plants.

Good luck!