# Should I use fake or real?



## karleee (Dec 18, 2011)

Hi guys 

I'm going to plant out my tank and was wondering if i use fake natural looking plants or real?

I have on medium goldfish (not sure what breed he is-for a while i thought he looked like a koi!) and a large common goldfish


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

That's up to you and the equipment you have. 

Goldfish do like to rip up plants, so unless you tie plants to rocks, the fake ones might be a better fit.


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## grogan (Jan 23, 2011)

I always shoot for real plants but it really is up to you. They can be very difficult to keep sometimes. And your choice of fish is not the best for plants. Fake plants have come along way and can still make a nice looking aquarium.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Start with weighted bottom fakes as goldfish will dig up plants and eat them. Add a few cheap live plants like watersprite, hornwort or frogbit. It they grow, great, if they get snacked on, at least you didn't pay too much for the salad.


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## karleee (Dec 18, 2011)

thanks emc7-ill try that


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## Venemous Rock (Jan 16, 2012)

Yes, I also recommend fake plants. I have a common and a comet together. The common tends to run into the plants, hide in them, smash into them, etc


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## luis (Jan 18, 2012)

*heck yeah*

i used hornwort one time in a 55 gallon with 5 goldfish and it grew like a weed. use good lighting. i always believed that live plants help keep a more natural environment and water cleaner. good luck


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## karleee (Dec 18, 2011)

thankyou for your sudgestion luis


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## finnedfish123 (Oct 26, 2011)

Hi, I would suggest you have a mixture of fake and real plants. The Java Fern is a particularly good plant.


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## grogan (Jan 23, 2011)

karleee said:


> thankyou for your sudgestion luis


Lol, sounds like you had already decided on real plants before you even posted this.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

My goldfish LOVE live plants. Very tasty.


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## luis (Jan 18, 2012)

any of you guys have any experience with annubias? Trying to grow some in my brackish tank but it doesn't seem to be doing so well. leaves are turning a little yellow and a new leaf that was starting on one of them disintigrated? i put the light alittle higher and dropped the salt from 1.oo8 to 1.oo6, wondering if i should have tried to acclimate. any suggestions on how to save these plants?


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

My experience with this "easy, low-light plant" has been hit or miss, mostly miss. It will seem fine and then be dead next time I look.


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## grogan (Jan 23, 2011)

How is it planted? is the rhzome under the substrate?


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## luis (Jan 18, 2012)

i have it in between rocks with a thin layer of laterlite and live sand. light is a marine glow 33watt high otput, about a foot or so above the tank. i wonder if i shocked them by putting them in so much salt right away? i also used seachem fertilizer about 1/3 dose because i didn't want to hurt my eel and blue dragon with excess copper. there are four plants in that tank two nana and two of another annubias variety... not sure what?


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## luis (Jan 18, 2012)

oh by the way temp was81 but i lowerd it to 77, was thinking that it may have been a little hot?


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## luis (Jan 18, 2012)

just put in a different light 39 watt power glow and the leaves moved up toward the surface:idea:i hope these things aern't too damaged to recover


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## luis (Jan 18, 2012)

hey everybody, more good news, 3 new leaves on 3 0f my 4 plants gave it another half shot of flourish and flourish iron... hey though i've learned that carbon traps the fertilizer, any of you use carbon that is macroporous, i'm wondering if that will help


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## Fuzz (Jan 27, 2012)

interesting...does that mean my Aqueon QuietFlow filter will filter out my fertilizer?


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

If you have fresh carbon it might.


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## luis (Jan 18, 2012)

the lady at seachem told me that macroporous carbon will still let the components of fertilizer pass through, since it has bigger pores, but i would like some feedback from some guys with experience here. another thought i had was to just remove the carbon altogether and fill that chamber with more bio material.... any thoughts either way?


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

Maybe using a sponge filter would work.


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## Fuzz (Jan 27, 2012)

i've heard nothing but good things about sponge filters, but I have a 36 bow-front and the bigger sponge will take up a lot of "valuable" planting space...maybe I can cut the carbon out of the filter media and makeshift some sort of filtering media without carbon...or maybe break down and get a canister...


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