The life activity of fish grow plants. Growing aquarium plants. Simple method. Growing plants the easiest way
Understanding the nitrogen cycle, during which certain types of bacteria process the waste products of living organisms, is vital for keeping healthy fish. The bacteria involved in this process colonize the aquarium soil, live in ...
Using rainwater may seem like the ideal solution to avoid problems like hardness and over-alkalinity, but doing so is fraught with danger. Rainwater is almost always acidic, because atmospheric carbon dioxide is dissolved in it ...
The aquarium in the house is a small piece of the underwater world with its beautiful inhabitants and plants. In addition, a beautiful aquarium can become a stylish element in the overall interior. The beautiful design of the aquarium, combined with bright pets, will be able to fascinate for a long time,...
The biotopes of West Africa are very diverse. In addition to tropical rainforests, there are savannahs with large and small ponds, rivers and streams, as well as depressions and ditches not far from the coast, where fresh water mixes with sea water. How diverse biotopes are, so ...
Novice aquarists who decide to go in for growing plants, often ask questions on the forums: how to fertilize, how to apply CO2, how to plant, how to prune, what to do with black coating on the leaves, etc., etc. They are usually advised to "reach a balance" ... And this is certainly true , but all these are general words, there is no instruction like: "How to achieve balance in an aquarium, step by step ..." Recently, I have also been often asked about similar topics and the idea came to me to write such an instruction based on my own experience. Why not? After all, we all launch new banks and use the same launch schemes and parole ..
In order to immediately avoid the wrath of the great gurus who are always and everywhere, I will give a photo of my aquarium (at the bottom of the article) and how it looks at the time of writing this opus. From the moment of launch, all this has passed through all types of algae without chemicals and technical means such as CO2 cylinders, external filters, UV lamps ... Regular T4 6400k daylight lamps replace standard ones, as I wrote earlier ... No super-spectra and there are no such super-funds for super loot!
I will most likely get a multi-variant instruction, and the number of options will depend on the goals of the aquarist and the initial conditions .. However, it seemed to me possible to average it out so to speak)) Therefore, I decided not to take into account the initial conditions at all! No, no, I don’t have a fever and I’m not delirious)) But since we need to achieve a balance, it means that it doesn’t exist yet ... which means that the initial conditions are as they are. Well, I think it will be clearer...
Let's start with the simplest option: aquarist grows plants for himself and the growth rate of plants for him is not fundamental. If only it was clean and without algae. A gardener-aquarist does not grow plants for sale in bulk, does not cut them after three days and does not have technical devices such as CO2 installations and expensive UDOs, which, by the way, for example, I did not need at all. As I already wrote, I use my self-mess)
So the first option and call it:
Growing plants the easy way.
We have an aquarium aged 1 or 6 months with a flip flops, a beard and black coating on the leaves, the water is clean but periodically crawl out, green threads, sometimes blue-green (for example, in the ground or at the roots) ... The light in the aquarium is simply very important. LIGHT AND NOT SUPER-LAMPS! For example, I have ordinary fluorescent lamps, but: 100 watts per 140 liters ...Let's start, as previously suggested, with a change of water. But first, let's take a couple of steps. To do this, we need clay balls and sames udo, which are described by me below.
Step one:
We densely plant the aquarium with plants such as valisneria, hornwort, hygrophila and, for example, rotala indica ... In short, we plant penny but very unpretentious plants that grow quickly and are designed to survive excess nitrates and phosphates. Plants are chosen by me so that there are both lovers of nitrates (hornwort) and big lovers of phosphates, or rather, quickly absorbing them - as a rule, plants actively give aerial roots and are ready to eat not only leaves ... Rotala, by the way, contrary to popular belief, perfectly eats both nitrates and and phosphates, well, this is so, by the way, I had to ... The main problem is the number of fish and organic matter in the water. That's why
Step two:
We cultivate in the soil, EXACTLY IN THE GROUND, the culture of nitrobacteria. I would advise Nitrivek, I myself use it at start-up .. Why in the ground? Because since there is a lot of organic matter in the water, the filter (simple, with a sponge) needs to be washed often! Once a week and properly.
We add clay balls to the soil to the plants, which you can make yourself, it would be clay. This is necessary in order to make less udo in the water ... After top dressing, we begin to change the water.
The first week - every other day by 30%. The second - in two days by 30%, the third week - once by 50%. Further change of water weekly by 25 - 30%. And important: we try to keep the temperature, if possible, no higher than 25 degrees! The fact is that at low temperatures, plants that have not yet started to grow properly will have an advantage in the supply of nutrients over algae. At higher temperatures, plants are less likely to grow unless they are already actively growing. Algae will start much faster!
At this stage, we are not pouring any udos at all! We rely on fish. The number of fish can be calculated approximately like this.
Optimal 7 cm per 10-12 liters of water. Those, if you have a jar of 120 liters, then it is desirable to have no more than 12 fish there, the size of which is about 7 cm ... This is, of course, roughly and roughly, but the principle is clear, fish are the best producer of fertilizers, but also organic matter, and we need it in such a proportion that would have time to decompose and nourish our grass. The task is to ensure that bacteria quickly decompose organic matter and plants have time to absorb it faster than algae.
Step three:
We take a time out... Approximately 2-3 weeks... We change the water and don't do anything.... The aquarium is a self-regulating system.. Clay does its job in the ground. after 2-3 weeks. How to see it? Just. You will see that the filter has become clogged more slowly, the water is always clear, and you wipe the glass from plaque less and less often ... and ... you cut the rotala once every 10 days and the valisnria begins to spread its shoots over the jar ... All this is still not in perfect condition but it is clear that the life of the grass began to spread in volume ..
Now we are one step away from what we want!!!
Step four:
This step depends on the results of the previous steps. Namely:
If algae disappear in the aquarium, and the plants start to grow, then you should not give additional water.. In general, you don’t need to climb into the biosystem while it heals itself! Then, when cleanliness comes, you feed the plants by leaf and improve their size, but for now, just watch the miracle: everything grows by itself! This is really a miracle, nature regulates itself very effectively without our intervention and chemistry... You can add more complex and beautiful plants)
If purity has already come, then with a planned change of water, we start feeding with self-mess. Very careful! Macro and micro + separately iron citrate. Slowly. Keep the temperature low. If the temperature is reduced to 23-24 gr. then you can increase the number of fish by 50 percent! Temperature and light are the most important factors, and in my opinion the temperature is more important.
That's all! It's simple. but there are some additions.
- if the aquarium is young, less than 6 months old, then the denser you plant it, the better.
- if the jar is older than 6 months, then the stocking density will affect the amount of CO2 in the water, the rate of absorption of UDO and metabolism, and it can be changed arbitrarily by changing the amount of UDO and the amount of CO2, respectively.
- if the light in the aquarium is less than 0.6 watts per liter, then CO2 is not needed at all when planting grass 30% of the volume. If the light is brighter, then either give CO2 mash or tighten the fit.
- Separately, I note the usefulness of settling shrimp cherries, Beeline snails, etc. into the aquarium. Organics will become many times less and black plaque, respectively, too. With thick grass, cherries will survive even with barbs and cichlids - it’s checked, I’ll even publish a video soon.
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Business idea: fish + plants = income |
Aquaponics - growing fish and plants in symbiosis
In nature, everything is balanced and created for each other. Balance needs to be compensated. The simplest example is the underwater world. The waste products of fish provoke a high level of metabolism in them, and can even cause death. That is why the water in aquariums is constantly changed. Under natural conditions, water is purified by algae.
It is known that they, being a species of the plant world, consume ready-made organic matter, including those of fish origin.
At the same time, plants, including vegetables, need natural organic matter, which in the age of industrial production in agriculture was replaced by chemistry - nitrogen, potash and phosphorus fertilizers. True, often businessmen, in pursuit of productivity and profit, grow vegetables and fruits that do not meet environmental standards.
That is why at the beginning of the 21st century, such a unique way of vegetable growing as aquaponics begins to gain popularity. Its essence lies in the fact that fish produce fertilizers that are pumped along with water into the hydroponics system, where vegetables are grown. The product turns out to be natural, and the yield is not inferior to the norms of intensive farming. In Europe, in Canada, in the USA they see the future behind aquaponics: growing fish, growing vegetables. Both products are healthy and will always be in demand.
We decided to tell about this new aquaponics business.
Aquaponics - 127 years
Aquaponics is rightly considered a variety of hydroponics, the history of which begins with the experiments of the Dutchman Johann van Helmont in the first decade of the seventeenth century. Helmont proved that plants can be grown without soil, properly preparing the water.
Numerous observations have shown that the water used to grow plants using the hydroponic method is self-purifying, i.e., the substances dissolved in it are absorbed by the root system.
The first to benefit from this fact were ornamental fish lovers. It was for them that aquarium phytofilters by Nikolai Fedorovich Zolotnitsky appeared. In 1885, in the book "Amateur's Aquarium", he gave a brief description of them and explained the mechanism of work. He noticed that plants that decorate aquariums, the roots of which were lowered into the water, grow with no less efficiency than on soil with intensive fertilizer. And the fish swimming in such water develop well and do not get sick. True, at that time this scientific fact had limited application.
Nowadays, in the era of energy saving and environmental priorities, aquaponics has received a new development. In the West, there are many farms that grow organic products using the aquaponics method, and even films have been made that popularize this business. At first, vegetable growing on aquaponics supplemented fish farming, and was secondary, but with the growing demand for ecological products, it was aquaponics that became primary.
From biofilters for ornamental fish to crop production
Biological filters are a closed system in which water from an aquarium is pumped through the root system of plants growing in special devices using the hydroponic method. Unlike algae, land plants consume organic matter more actively.
“I have made the same biofilter for the aquarium,” Ivanow said on the Hydroponics forum, “it has been working for almost a year, the plants feel great.” He is echoed by nonpro: "The fish like clean water." “Fish” aquaponics works exactly the same way: water from a pool with fish is pumped into a container in which plants are grown on solid substrates.
Igor Nekrasov, a student from Moscow, spoke about his aquaponics experience: “Everything turned out spontaneously, we decided to decorate the aquarium with a flowerpot and at the same time filter the water through the roots of the plants planted in it. This was done for only one purpose, to change the water as rarely as possible, since this is a very troublesome task. I used aquarium soil at the bottom and expanded clay on top. They planted what was at hand - onions. When this hydraulic system started working, I saw that the onion in the biofilter grew twice as fast as in the soil on the window.
According to the young man, he became interested in this topic and found many positive examples on the Internet. However, he learned about the negative experience. Aquaponics for industrial purposes is a knowledge-intensive process, and a simplistic view can adversely affect the results. Therefore, the comments “I tried, and nothing happened” speak, rather, about a lack of knowledge.
carp tomato
The Dutch were the leaders in aquaponics. Many developments are being carried out as part of the EcoFutura project, in order to reduce the nitrate content by several times, while maintaining high yields, which is important in the context of increased environmental control. So the aquabiologist Pim Wilhelm developed aquaponic technology for growing organic tomatoes in the winter. It is known that the growth of tomatoes on closed ground in winter is accompanied by abundant nutrition of their nitrates.
Reservoirs are adjacent to each other. A high yield of tomatoes is achieved through partial treatment of aquarium water - its sterilization with ultraviolet light and pH control. At the same time, the water is actively mineralized, as required by the technology of growing tomatoes. The water is drained back into the aquarium after being filtered by osmosis, as the mineralization level remains high.
This, in fact, is the specificity of growing tomatoes. For other cultures, other approaches and technologies are required. In this regard, Wilem Kemmers, director and project manager of EcoFutura, sees the difficulties of industrial cultivation of vegetables using aquaponics in bringing aquarium water to the standards required for a particular agricultural crop, since it requires expensive control and measuring equipment and dosing devices.
Industrial cultivation of fish and vegetables requires high start-up costs, because it is necessary to build greenhouses and place reservoirs in them. The profitability of such a business may be sufficient in the southern regions of Russia. At the same time, the demand for environmentally friendly products is constantly increasing. Thus, in the European Union, tomatoes grown using aquaponics technology have a nitrate content ten times less than in greenhouses, and cost five times more. At the same time, the costs increase by only two times.
In Russia, aquaponics has not yet found wide application, but small pilot farms are already known, in which the cultivation of fish and strawberries is combined. The forum member ZAFIRA told about this, saying: “I have been growing strawberries for three years now, using water from the aquarium in which my husband keeps sun perches. From an area of about half a meter, every six months I collect up to 2 kilograms of delicious berries.
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In Russia, this business is rather exotic, since the demand for environmentally friendly products with high added value is not yet great. However, following the West, vegetables grown using aquaponics technology will certainly be in demand in our country.
Alexander Sitnikov
Photo from ponics.ru, uzv.su, vkontakte.ru
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Touching upon the topic of the agricultural business, we have repeatedly talked about growing various types of plants and breeding animals in order to obtain further material benefits. Today we will tell you about aquaponics - a unique process that allows you to grow all kinds of plants and different types of fish at the same time. Moreover, thanks to the combination of these two processes, it will be possible to achieve impressive results, which are almost impossible to achieve with separate breeding of fish and growing plants.
What is the essence of aquaponics?
To begin with, let's understand what aquaponics is and how an impressive result is achieved from the use of this technology in fish farming and horticulture.
In simple terms, aquaponics is the process of growing fish and plants together. Two containers are used for this process. One container for fish - it is located below. The second container for plants - it is located directly above the tank with fish.
Fish, like any other living beings, leave behind waste products that are toxic to them. That is why, in reservoirs with stagnant dirty water, fish get sick and die most often. So what do we have. We have a tank filled with water where fish live. And this water is constantly polluted. The water needs to be purified. But at the same time, fish waste products are an ideal fertilizer for the growth of various plants - be it flowers, herbs or even vegetables. Aquaponics is based on this feature.
Water from the tank with fish is pumped into the upper tank with plants using a pump. In this way, plants receive all the necessary nutrients that accelerate their growth. In addition, the water brought upstairs is cleaned and sent back to the reservoir where the fish live. That is, plants live at the expense of fish, and fish at the expense of plants. Here is such an interesting symbiosis of flora and fauna. For us, this is an ideal, almost waste-free, business with minimal investment.
How to start an aquaponics business?
The first thing to start with is to decide what plants and what types of fish you want to grow. Don't start with something complicated. As an “ideal fish”, you can choose unpretentious cyprinids (if you have enough experience, you can even try to breed sturgeon species of fish). As for plants, the easiest way to start is by growing some flowers or herbs (parsley, dill, basil). By the way, instead of fish (or even together with fish), you can try to breed edible frogs or common crayfish. Here the choice is yours.
The second important step is containers for fish and plants. For a small home “production”, one tank for fish and one tank for plants is enough. If you are aiming for large production volumes, then you should think about an artificial reservoir (pool or pond) for fish and several containers for growing plants. If you choose the second method, the investment will be quite serious. But the income from the sale of fish and flowers, herbs and vegetables will increase significantly. You can grow several types of plants at the same time. And a rich assortment has never harmed a business.
The third step is to install a water pump that will pump water from the fish to the flowers. It is the operation of the pump (or rather, the consumption of electricity for its operation) that is the most significant item of monthly expenses. Do not forget about the water level. After all, over time, it evaporates and it needs to be “topped up”. With large volumes of production, it will be necessary to install the appropriate equipment, since doing all the operations manually will be problematic.
The fourth step is to fill the plant container with soil. Plants don't just grow in water. Gravel is used as a filler, as well as expanded clay.
After everything is built and configured, you can launch fish and plant plants. Everything is ready to start the aquaponics process.
How else is this technology beneficial?
In addition to the convenience of simultaneous interdependent cultivation of plants and breeding of fish, aquaponics also stands out for the quality of the finished products. Pure water, "treated" by plants, allows you to speed up the process of breeding fish. In addition, constant water purification in a natural way allows you to keep more fish per square meter of pond area. In turn, vegetables grown using “fish” fertilizers contain significantly less nitrates than their “relatives” grown on ordinary soil.
That is, in your ability to offer the market a large number of truly environmentally friendly and tasty products. And in our "age of greenhouse vegetables" the consumer is ready to pay for an expensive, but high-quality product.
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Now residents of the United States can easily acquire their own household, because ready-to-use farms for growing fish and vegetables at home using aquaponics technology can be bought.
In the modern world, residents of megacities are increasingly interested in subsistence farming and quality food. However, only those who have suburban areas can afford it. But in urban conditions, farming can only be done with the help of hydroponics. In addition, at home it is quite possible to grow plants and breed fish, this process is called aquaponics. Aquaponics is the cultivation of fish and plants in symbiosis.
Its essence lies in the fact that fish produce fertilizers that are pumped along with water into a hydroponic system, where vegetables are grown. The product turns out to be natural, and the yield is not inferior to the norms of intensive farming.
American engineers and biologists have developed Aquaponics USA farms, which allow natural food lovers to enjoy home-grown fish and fresh vegetables. Studies have shown that fish grown in such conditions contains a large amount of protein and omega-3 that are beneficial for the body, which commercially grown fish often cannot boast of.
The Aquaponics USA farm includes two containers, one of which is an aquarium with fish, and the other grows greens, as well as all the pumps, pipes and other units necessary for the system to work.
Plants grow directly in water, which is constantly fertilized, as greenery needs food. Fertilizers - 100% natural - are fish waste.
All that is needed for the operation of the system is electricity, water supply and sewerage. A closed and virtually waste-free aquaponics system will provide the family with natural products all year round.
This new method is currently being developed more and more. The revolutionary agricultural technology is a logical extension of the soilless method of growing plants like hydroponics. The description of the method of coexistence of plants and fish was first heard in the 19th century, and was given by N.F. Zolotnitsky in his work on breeding aquarium fish. He noted that indoor flowers, the roots of which were immersed in the aquatic environment of the aquarium, developed very well, were in no way inferior to their counterparts growing in the ground. At the same time, it has been observed that fish also benefit from plant society.
Currently, these ideas have been developed, and the essence of agricultural technology has been finalized and developed by scientists at the University of the Virgin Islands, who gave it the name "Aquaponics", based on a combination of aquaculture techniques, which involves fish farming in an artificial system, and hydroponics, the technology of growing plants in water with adding nutrients. A distinctive feature of aquaponics from the two methods mentioned above is that the coexistence of fish and plants creates a single, closed, waste-free system that is in ecological balance, and in terms of economic costs, it competes with traditional agricultural agricultural technologies. The principle of innovative development is that fish waste is filtered out of the water in which they live and enters the plant growing environment as a fertilizer, and the purified liquid is returned to the pond or aquarium in which the fish live with a special pump.
Aquaponics technology is in a state of constant improvement, in particular, at a farm in Alberti (Canada), the head of the experimental greenhouse, Nick Savid, has been working for three years to increase the productivity of this project. Further expansion of the aquacomplex is predicted. According to the observations of the specialists of this enterprise, the bacterial environment, which forms a harmonious balance of microorganisms in the system, is the key to its success and health, and allows you to harvest two crops of vegetable crops per year, each with a volume of at least 75% of the level of vegetable productivity in hydroponics. No less interesting is the Dutch project, which is being developed within the framework of EcoFutura developments, which allows growing tomatoes and simultaneously breeding carps in the winter. The water from the tanks in which the fish colony lives is carefully controlled for pH and disinfected with ultraviolet radiation, after additional mineralization it is supplied to the roots of tomatoes. Returns back to the fish tank after the filtration system.
Commercial development of aquaponics systems requires a large initial investment, which is necessary for the construction of greenhouses and the construction of reservoirs. But the profitability of the method is just as great. Given that environmentally friendly products are becoming increasingly popular and the demand for them is constantly growing, there are prospects for introducing this innovation in the southern regions of Russia. Currently, this technology is used so far only by small enterprises specializing in the cultivation of strawberries in this way, along with fish farming.
Thus, the aquaponics technique has a good future as an agricultural innovation, and will be able to provide the food market with environmentally friendly crop products and fish all year round, both in Russia and anywhere in the world.
About the benefits of aquarium plants.
Plants in an aquarium play an important role in the life of its inhabitants. We can say that the presence of plants in the aquarium is only a huge number of pluses:
Plants are the "lungs" of an aquarium.
During the day, they release oxygen during photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis is the process of converting light energy into the energy of chemical bonds of organic substances in the light by photoautotrophs with the participation of photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll in plants, bacteriochlorophyll and bacteriorhodopsin in bacteria). In modern plant physiology, photosynthesis is more often understood as a photoautotrophic function - a set of processes of absorption, transformation and use of the energy of light quanta in various endergonic reactions, including the conversion of carbon dioxide into organic substances.
Simply put, in plants, the process of converting water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) under the influence of sunlight into an energy-rich organic compound - glucose (C6H12O6) takes place. The formula for photosynthesis can be represented as follows:
6CO2 + 6H2O = C6H12O6 (glucose) + 6O2
In the dark, the reverse process occurs:
С6Н12O6 + 6O2 = 6CO2 + 6H2O
Plants are the key to a stable biological balance in the aquarium.
One of the main elements that plants use to build their bodies is nitrogen (N), which they take from nitrate (NO3). Nitrate is a poison, a breakdown product of nitrogenous compounds. To make it even clearer to you, let's analyze the chain that flows in the aquarium.
"DIRT AND GARBAGE"
(dead organic matter, fish food, feces, etc.)
decomposed by bacteria
AMMONIA/AMMONIUM NH4
(the strongest poison, destructive to all living things)
under the action of another group of bacteria decomposes into
NITRITE NO2 followed by NITRATE NO3
(less dangerous, but also poisonous)
further decompose to
GAS STATE OF N2-NITROGEN
and come out of the aquarium water
For those who want to study the issue in more detail, I recommend going to the forum thread:
The above diagram shows the process of nitrate formation, which is used by aquarium plants as fertilizer. Thus, we can say that they are connected to the process of removing poisons from the aquarium. Moreover, we note that in dense herbal plants NO3 is zeroed out to such an extent that the aquascaper has to replenish it using the appropriate fertilizer mono-compositions.
Plants are a tool for setting up an aquarium.
Of course, the processes that take place in the aquarium do not end only with the nitrogen cycle. There are many aspects that affect the condition of the aquarium. Plants are an aquarium tuning fork, with which you can immediately assess the condition of the aquarium. An algae outbreak, crooked plants, holes in the leaves are signals to the aquarist that something is wrong and action needs to be taken.
Live plants are the natural habitat of many fish and other aquatic organisms: shrimps, snails, and so on. The concept of a natural aquarium, which was praised, was based primarily on the postulate of recreating naturalness.
Plants are fish food and spawning grounds.
Many hydrobionts are phytophages. Moreover, many of them use plants as shelter and spawning grounds.
Note that some fish generally just graze like sheep in a meadow and mow down all the vegetation. For example, the family, well, just loves plant foods. For these types of aquarium inhabitants, plant foods are needed, for example, Tetra Vegetable. But the question arises, why spend money when you can feed the fish with fresh, actually grown vegetation. In an aquarium separate from goldfish, you can grow fast-growing duckweed or hornwort and periodically feed it to golden gluttons.
Live aquarium plants are beautiful and natural!
Aquarium with live plants.
Aquarium with artificial plants.
What do you need for aquarium plants?
A novice aquarist usually thinks that plants in an aquarium are too much of a problem. Actually, for the normal life of plants in an aquarium, as well as for fish, the main thing is to create optimal conditions. In relation to plants, this is achieved by selecting proper lighting, neutral soil, the correct concentration of fertilizers, and proper water parameters.
Lighting. A very important role for plants is played by the intensity of lighting and daylight hours, they must be optimal. After all, the process of photosynthesis will not be without it. Some plants need a lot of lighting, some vice versa. You can learn more about the nuances of lighting in the following articles. ,.
Soil for aquarium plants. In general, we can say that the soil for plants should be neutral (not hissing), 5 to 7 centimeters thick, light and fine. It is this thickness and more that will allow the plants to take root well. Detailed article about soil and substrate for aquarium plants -.
Rules for planting aquarium plants.
An example of preparing a Cryptocoryne bush for planting.
Who interfered with the whole process? =)
Fertilizers for aquarium plants . Plants need macro and micronutrients. Macro fertilizers (NPK) - nitrate (NO3), phosphate (P/PO4), potassium (K). Micro-fertilizers - .
Modern aquarists do not know this problem. Any pet store sells tablets or liquid plant fertilizers. For example, . Such tablets are crushed and applied under the root system of plants. There are other fertilizer complexes that a beginner can use. For example, . There are also more "serious" fertilizers, which are already separated by macro and micro elements.
- Protects and strengthens new plants.
- enhances growth thanks to a valuable plant hormone.
- promotes the formation of roots.
- improves root survival during planting and transplanting.
- Enhances resistance with macronutrients.
- fertilizes plants purposefully through roots.
How to use: The tablet should be crushed and placed on the ground near the roots of plants.
This is an intensive fertilizer that is used for the development of all varieties of aquatic plants. Contains iron and a complex of all nutrients necessary for leaf growth. Promotes the formation of chlorophyll (green leaves), guarantees a uniform long-term supply of residual elements. Free from nitrates and phosphorus, which causes no load on the natural environment existing in the aquarium.
It is especially effective when used together with TetraPlant Crypto fertilizer. Fertilizer promotes the development of healthy and strong plant roots.
Aquarium plants and fertilizer video from Tetra
In addition, it is possible to independently prepare fertilizers for aquarium plants. Of course, this is a whole science for a beginner. Therefore, at this stage, we do not recommend beginners to get involved in this topic. But we will give the link =) .
There is also an old, old-fashioned method - to put lumps of clay under the roots of the plant. We do not recommend this method at all. In practice, beginners get a cloudy aquarium, but there is not much use from it. Clay is very dusty!
Caring for aquarium plants
Caring for aquarium plants consists in cutting and pruning them as needed. When trimming, you need to: remove rotten leaves, trim an overgrown plant, cut off daughter plants, planting them in a new place. Be sure to replace the aquarium water with fresh water weekly.
In this section, we will highlight one of the most important aspects for plants - CO2. CO2 is a gas that aquarium plants need. Plants are 50% carbon (C). Under natural conditions, the concentration of CO2 in water ranges from 15-40 mg/l. But in the aquarium, this indicator tends to zero, even though the fish and other inhabitants of the aquarium produce it in the process of life, but in very small quantities.
CO2
It is the main building material of the plant organism! Plants in an aquarium, with a competent supply of CO2, become: beautiful and healthy, fast-growing.
Plants release O2 during photosynthesis! This process is popularly called bubbling or perling of plants. In turn, the oxygen released by plants is consumed by fish and other hydrobionts, which eliminates the need for mechanical aeration of the aquarium during daylight hours.
- in addition, when CO2 is supplied to the aquarium, the pH level decreases. What virtually all plants and some soft-water fish like.
We hope that our video materials will be useful to you and encourage you to be creative!
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To not miss anything
How many plants do you need in an aquarium?
List of aquarium plants for beginners.
Like fish, there are a huge number of aquarium plants. Here is a section of the site where there is a description of most aquarium plants with photos and videos -. List of aquarium plants -Fish, even very beautiful ones, swimming in the clear transparent water of an aquarium in which there is nothing else, look like astronauts soaring in intergalactic space. Of course, someone likes such minimalism, and we have no right to prohibit something or impose our point of view on them. Perhaps such people like to watch the “flights” of fish and they want nothing to distract them from this activity. But there are other aquarists for whom an aquarium without plants and algae is not an aquarium. They want to have in the aquarium a lot of different plants, beautiful and useful. And we will devote this article to aquarium plants.
The role of aquarium plants
Aquarium plants serve two roles. The first is decorative. They decorate the aquarium, give it an unusual, attractive look. The second role is no less important. Let's call it biological. Plants maintain the biological balance in the aquarium, saturate the water with oxygen, play an essential role in the metabolism, which are important for the life of both fish and the plants themselves.
To saturate the aquarium with oxygen, the total surface area of the plants plays an important role. But, more effective are plants not with wide leaves, but, on the contrary, with narrow leaves, but of which there are a lot. These include: kabomba, egeria, ferns. We will devote a separate article to specific types of plants.
Aquarium plants also purify water from excess minerals. At the same time, they absorb them not only by the roots, but also by the pores on the leaves. For example, by absorbing excess potassium, plants reduce water hardness.
Another role of plants is that plants serve as food for some fish species. At the same time, plants can be both the main food and, say, a vitamin supplement to the main food ration.
And also plants are used by fish for spawning and serve as a refuge for fry.
Types of plants for the aquarium
Aquarium plants are divided into the following types:
- Plants growing in the ground. They have a developed root system, a dense rhizome, and developed leaves. They can also grow on poor soils, but it is better, after all, to feed the plants.
- plants that float in the water column. This type of plant does not have a developed root system, it may be absent altogether. They have small leaves that absorb minerals and inorganic compounds from the water well. Well saturate water with oxygen, serve as a place for spawning. Sensitive to temperature changes. They usually reproduce vegetatively.
plants that float on the surface of the water. This species of plants can live both in the water column and on the surface of the water. Plants floating on the surface of the water protect the aquarium from excessive sunlight, are a spawning ground for fish, serve as a place to build a nest, and assimilate the remains of the life of fish.
How to choose aquarium plants
The choice and cultivation of aquarium plants is no less important step than the choice of fish. When choosing plants, pay attention to their appearance, the absence of rot, damage, the color of the leaves should be bright green. You should not buy tropical plants from cold tanks. It is undesirable to catch aquarium plants on your own and immediately transplant them into an aquarium. Plants must be acclimatized in separate tanks, and only then transplanted. The best option is to buy plants in specialized stores or from experienced aquarists. Plants should not be immediately flooded with water, let them be in a warm and humid environment. And more advice. Young plants take root better.
How to prepare plants for planting
Before planting plants in the ground, they are thoroughly washed in water at room temperature, cleaned of rot, foreign algae, snail larvae, etc. Then they are disinfected in a 1% solution of alum or a 2% solution of potassium permanganate diluted in a liter of water. Plants go down there for 5-10 minutes.
How to plant plants in the ground
We will have a separate article about the soils themselves, but for now, how to plant plants in the soil. Plants are planted not too close to each other. Of course, the concept of "close" and "far" will appear only with experience. And at first, you need to consult with sellers in specialized stores, or with familiar experienced aquarists, or regulars in markets that sell fish and related things, if such markets are still preserved.
The soil should not press on the plants, the roots should be located with their natural growth, and so that the water flows freely around them. The growth bud should be on the surface of the soil, and the roots themselves in the soil itself.
Aquatic plants that feed on substances dissolved in water are planted without roots by cuttings, before that, removing the leaves from the lower nodes of the plant.
Creeping plants are planted in bushes, 4-6 pieces together. To achieve the effect of a solid wall, plants are planted in a checkerboard pattern.
Another very useful planting tip is to plant your plants in special pots. Then, when cleaning the aquarium, you just need to remove the pots from the ground, and then return them to their place. In addition, pots protect plant roots from fish that like to dig in the ground.
How to place plants in an aquarium
As you understand, it is better to plant large and dense plants at the back wall so that they do not block the view of the aquarium. Smaller plants are planted on the sides of the aquarium and in its middle. Well, the smallest plants are planted in the foreground. Tall plants are best planted at the edges, or individually in the center of the aquarium. We place light-loving plants under lighting lamps.
Plant compatibility
When planting plants, it is necessary to adhere to the principle of plant compatibility. As a rule, plants are planted in groups, and are separated from each other by snags or roots.
Plants are planted in this order: first, plants growing in the ground are planted, then, having filled the aquarium with water, plants floating in the water column and on the surface of the water are placed.
Criteria for the number of plants in an aquarium
The ratio between the number of fish and plants should be optimal. It's easy to say. But how can this be achieved? A large number of plants purify the water well, and quickly utilize the remains of the vital activity of the fish. An excess of dirt particles indicates a lack of plants, and an excess of fish in the aquarium. Practice has shown that plants should occupy no more than a third of the aquarium. An overabundance of plants will lead to oxygen starvation of fish in the dark, when plants absorb oxygen, and do not release it.
Plant propagation methods
Vegetative propagation of plants.
Plants growing in an aquarium reproduce mainly vegetatively: with the help of a creeping shoot, stem branch, rhizome, seeds, tubers or buds. After a daughter plant has formed from the parent shoots, it is transplanted so that dense thickets do not form. Daughter plants are separated when they have formed a sufficient number of roots.
The second method of plant propagation is leaf propagation.
This method is typical, for example, for ferns of the genus Ceratopteris. On the edge of the old leaf, young plants with leaves and a root system are formed. Then it separates from the parent sheet and pops up.
Growing aquatic plants using seeds is carried out in a separate container, where the water level is no more than 10 cm. The seeds are buried in the ground by 5 mm. Seedlings are planted in a container where the water level does not exceed 30 cm.
Optimal conditions for keeping aquarium plants
For most aquarium plants, the optimal development conditions are:
- acidity 6.5-7.5 pH;
- water temperature 23-26 degrees Celsius;
- illumination - 1500-3000 lux;
- daylight hours - 12-16 hours, night time - 8-10 hours;
- area for the plant - 5-15 sq.cm;
- soil layer - 4-7 cm;
- CO2 concentration 10-20 mg/l;
- Weekly 10% water change.
Diseases of aquarium plants
Diseases occur in plants for various reasons - poor water characteristics, insufficient or too strong lighting, soil, lack of chemical elements, etc. Diseased plants differ from healthy ones by a changed color of the integument, the appearance of rot, slowing down or stopping growth. Therefore, the basic rules for the prevention of plant diseases are regular water changes, cleaning and careful monitoring of the health of the plant.
Plant food for aquarium plants
Although many plants can extract nutrients from water, they still need additional nutrition. For this, boiled peat chips, compost, birch charcoal, sapropel, hydroponic mixtures are used. But, there should be moderation in everything. An overabundance of nutrients is just as harmful as their deficiency.
Ground feeding of aquarium plants
Sapropel, birch charcoal, and preparations sold in specialized stores are also used in this capacity. Fertilizers are rolled into a ball and buried in the ground at a distance of 2-3 cm from the plant. At the beginning of plant growth, they very carefully begin to feed them with nitrogen fertilizers.
Lack of minerals, trace elements
With an insufficient amount of iron, the plants turn yellow, as if "glazing". To increase the amount of iron in the water, several red or orange stones are dipped into the aquarium (they contain a lot of iron), or 0.1-0.2 mg of iron sulfate per 1 liter of water is added to the aquarium. Manganese is used to destroy excess iron.
A sign of potassium deficiency is the yellow edges of the leaves. To eliminate this shortcoming, an empty shell is placed in the aquarium. After the disappearance of signs of the disease, it can be removed.
Nitrogen starvation. Growth retardation, premature death of old leaves, yellowing of leaf edges. As a treatment, you can lower the water temperature by a few degrees, but do not overdo it.
Lack of carbon dioxide. A sign is the coating of leaves with lime. To restore the balance of carbon dioxide, it is necessary to introduce a few more fish into the aquarium.
Sulfur deficiency is manifested in the reddening of the leaves. You can replenish it by dissolving 1-2 grains of sulfur in water.
The lack of phosphorus is manifested in the twisting of the leaves, the appearance of reddish-brown spots on old leaves. Phosphorus is replenished by dissolving orthophosphoric acid salts in water.
The lack of potassium is replenished by adding nitrophoska to the water (1-2 grams per 100 liters of water).
Micronutrient deficiency
These include - boron, zinc, copper, manganese, molybdenum, cobalt. These elements are added to the water when it is replaced, using complex preparations that are purchased in specialized stores.
Influence of illumination and water temperature on the condition of plants
If the illumination in the aquarium is insufficient, then the plants have a pale color, their lower leaves fall off. This is due to the fact that plants are drawn to the light, as a result of which their internodes are extended.
It should be borne in mind that the higher the water in the aquarium, the more illumination is required.
Water temperature, of course, plays a huge role in plant life. At low water temperatures, plants can “freeze” and die. At elevated water temperatures, the processes in the "organism" of plants are accelerated, and they require more nutrients, including carbon dioxide, and this requires an increase in illumination to speed up the processes of photosynthesis.
artificial plants for aquarium
The need to use artificial plants arises when the aquarium contains large herbivorous fish. They gnaw at the plants, and they lose their "commodity" appearance. Therefore, artificial analogues can be used instead. In appearance, they are in no way inferior to real plants, and perfectly enliven the aquarium in combination, for example, with mosses. In addition, artificial plants do not get sick, do not decompose, do not require top dressing. But, as elsewhere, the use of artificial plants needs a measure. Artificial plants cannot remove pollution from water, do not absorb nitrate, etc. Therefore, it is necessary to find a balance between living plants and artificial ones.