Freshwater

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Part III: Water, Chemicals, and Plants
Medications
Aquarium salt, copper medications, and metal-based treatments can be very
harmful to your plants. Make sure your new fish are quarantined so that you
will not have to medicate them if they become ill after arriving home. If your
fish do require medication, treat them in a separate hospital tank away from
your live plants.
Planting Techniques
It is a whole lot easier to put live plants in your tank after you add the water.
Arranging plants in a dry aquarium can be a very difficult job. All they do is
look limp and fall over. Lock your front door until all the decorating is complete.
That way, you can work undisturbed and then look cool when all is said
and done. A full aquarium allows you a better view of the plants after they
spread out into the water.
Don’t push a plant into the gravel below its crown (the area between the
plant’s stalk and the roots). Space plants far enough apart so that they have
room to spread their roots and grow properly. The distance between them
should be approximately equal to the span of one leaf. A crowded tank
causes the plants to wither and die.
One of the best strategies is to place all of your tall plants near the back of
the tank. Fill the center of the aquarium with short or bushy plants. Use taller
plants that spread out (such as elodea) to hide heaters, undergravel filter
tubes, and other unsightly equipment. Place small plants near the front of the
glass. Try to arrange your plants so that they don’t look too symmetrical (the
same on both sides of the tank) because they normally don’t grow that way
in nature.
Sketch a picture of how you want your tank to look before you start planting,
so that you have a simple plan to follow. If you continually remove and
replant the little shoots that grow out of a main stem, the parent plant grows
faster.
Nothing is as astounding looking as an aquarium with live plants. If you have
the chance to try out live plants, don’t hesitate to add them to your aquarium.
The benefits to your fish and natural underwater system far out weigh
the slightly higher cost in terms of finance and time that are needed to keep
plants healthy.