Whats the deal with aquarium live plants?
Ok so I'v had my fish tank for about 3 years now and I never used live plants in it, although it looks really cool, I put blue gravel, old castles and sunken ships in it along with fake plants and sea shells. I am pretty good on fish care and have learned a lot about aquarium and fish care in my 3 years, but I haven't had the interest to research or explore the pro's and con's of live plants in aquariums, can anyone explain?
-Thanks.
In general, It depends on your fish...
don't bother with plants if:
-your fish like hard, alkaline water (plecostomus, livebearers like mollies, platies, swords, etc)... Plants prefer low PH.
-your fish eat plants- unless you're putting them in there as food.
-your fish are diggers- they'll just uproot them
some other things to remember-
algae is an aquatic plant... so if conditions are good for your plants, it'll also be good for algae.
BUT, if you plant enough of them, you can reduce algae because they compete for the same resources
Otocinclus are a great fish for planted tanks (if your existing fish are compatible) as they eat algae off plant leaves.
most plants carry snails... they are a pest, multiply rapidly, and can easily over run your tank and clog filters. Unless you have a clown loach in your tank, spend a little more and get plants that are guaranteed snail free.
They can also make cleaning more difficult, but it would be required less often.
Also- many of the plants sold in petstores are not really true aquatic plants and most times, the employees don't know any different... the problem is they aren't meant to live completely underwater and will slowly die over a few weeks or months making a mess in your tank and wasting your money. Make sure you know what you're getting.... get a book and match the pictures to what they try to sell you if you have to. LOL
They benefit greatly from proper lighting, added trace elements and CO2... but many of the hardier types will make it without all that.
Doubtblush: Sunken Garden Car Wreck Aquarium Ornaments 
The tough nut to crack, he says, is that the pictures of this roughly 190-foot-inclusive disk-shaped formation were taken using side-through sonar, a relatively inexpensive type of sonar know-how useful for finding sunken ships. However, the images themselves reveal and more »
