# How plants are bad for you



## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

I had an interesting exchange of PM's with a person here that has two many hobbies. Made me think. It hurt but I pushed through the pain.

If you have been tinkering with planted tank for some time you will agree that having a fish-only tank is WAY different than having a planted tank. Fish are much nicer than plants in many ways. They are honest: they will let you know if they don't feel good. They are forgiving: reduce their feeding and they will not say much (and the tank will stay cleaner too). They are reliable: their elimination is proportionate to the amount of food you give them. And not last - they are interactive: come to see you, hide from you, or tirelessly play and pester each other. None of that can be said for plants, but we just love them.

This is a post about how plants are not good for you IF you just don't care to understand them. Today I realized that anybody that has ever plopped a plant in their tank did it with the clear understanding, rock-solid knowledge, and warm feeling that "plants are good for the aquarium". But that is not as simple as it seems. Plants, like a few special things in life (everything, for example) have two sides - good and bad.

Ok, so here's how the logic goes: A fish-only tank is easier to keep than a fish-and-plants tank. Not much room to disagree here. In our favorite simplistic way of looking at things we can say that a fish-only tank has much less moving parts than a fish-and-plants aquarium. A tank, a splash of water, some kind of gravel/light/filter, dump fish, grab a hose for water changes - done, you got a fish-only tank. But a fish-and-plants tank is more complicated - CO2, special lights, ferts, special substrate, special water movement, and many other things that both amazing companies and amazing individuals claim you got to have.

Plants-only aquariums are much like fish aquariums. They are easier to keep than fish-and-plants tanks. Not much room to disagree here either. In our favorite simplistic way of looking at things we can say that plants-only tanks have much less moving parts than fish-and-plants aquariums. And lofty, intelligent, folk will say that the plants create their own environment undisturbed by pesky, dirty fish. Algae finds no peace in that elite plant environment. Plants thrive and seem to need much less care than a fish-and-plants aquarium.

Many words or not, the bottom line is - plants only tanks are easier to keep than fish-and-plants tanks. Maybe because we all love to overstock the tanks with fish. Maybe because most of us have no clue what is good filtration. Maybe because it appears that from all possible combinations mixing plants + fish results in the most complicated system.

That last sentence is the reason why I'm typing this post. I caught myself assuming that plants are always on our side; They will make things both easier and prettier. Plants will always clean the tank in some way. Fish will feel more safe and find things to eat off or around the plants. Plants will pump Oxygen into the substrate and keep microorganisms alive in there (which as I found the other day is called "bio-filth-ratio" and has been invented around 2005 when another (even more amazing) invention hit this hobby - the so-called "'Estimatex Indive"). Plants will make Oxygen for both our eyes and the fish gills to feast on. They will conduct secret chemical warfare with all algae. They will have cleansing effect (German article from 500 years ago describes the suppressing effect that plants have on bad bacteria). Plants will also let us sell them and make a buck. And so on. Our beloved plants.

Except real life is different. We love plants and they lo... we like to think they love us back. See, plants don't interact with us "right here and right now": When they don't feel good they don't show it right away. You need patience. When they feel good they don't show it right away either. You need patience. They seem to like a kind of a binary code - 1: "Here, I'm good" or 0: "Here, I feel bad". Our best tactic to deal with that is to provide everything they need and smile. But plants not only don't smile back, they can actually act prissy and show us the "0" despite all our efforts, expenses, and intelligence. When they show us the zero you bet they stop doing all the good things described above - Oxygen production, algae warfare, cleansing action, and the opportunity to make $2 for 5 stems. But things are actually worst - while we sit there smiling sheepishly and waiting plants not only show us the zero, but can also silently and invisibly pollute the water by leaking juices in it. They can also pretend to be nice - grow well and make us happy and feeling even smarter than before. But their goal is to grow enough to block the water flow and change the dynamic of the entire system. Only to watch you grow frustrated and get increasingly kinky with all kinds of equipment, chemicals, and test. They just sit there and look at you silently when you seek amazing advice for hours on the internet forums full of gurus.

Now, how do we make sense of all that? Two ways:

1. Throw in lots of everything the plants need. Blanket approach. Force them to shut up and love you. Big water changes, big trims, big lights, big spoons for ferts, big CO2. Big. Bold. More! Grow!

2. Put the effort to learn more about plants in aquariums. How is everything connected? How do you provide opportunities? How do you listen and observe? How do you make plants like you?

Funny thing I noticed - plants could be like people. Figure out how everything is connected, what they see as opportunities, listen and observe more than be listened to and be observed. And you can make people like you. Maybe that's a universal thing. Maybe this hugely influential book has to do with plants too:









Except that there is no such "over 70 years in print" book for plants. It is all out there but not in a neat, money making book. Some day, someone, will publish such a book with the promise that all your dreams will come true. For now the internet has swapped real knowledge with something that feels very nice, hip, and cool - communication. Which as I heard lately has one basic issue - a tendency to fake that it is happening.

Moral of the story: Be realistic about aquatic plants. Or they will find a way to be bad to you.


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

To simply put it, the combination of plants and fish create a array of variables that we must continuously attend to. By eliminating plants or fish from the tank, you can devote your efforts into either one.


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