# Fake or real plants better??



## DRAE. P (Aug 15, 2017)

Hi, new user here and semi new to cichlids. Just after opinions on real or fake plants in a large 4foot tank. Which is better/ easier in regards to maintaining and cleaning...?? Cheers


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

The fake plants won't die and don't need fertilizer...but they are clearly fake. Both need cleaning if you have any algae at all and most tanks have some.

African Rift Lake cichlids are nice because they prefer sand and rocks. You can skip the whole plant dilemma.


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## DRAE. P (Aug 15, 2017)

Ok great thanks for the reply. *** experimented for about 12 months now and only used a couple little fake greens with black and white pebbles...was happy but a mate gave me a heap of fresh real plants for my tank as he reckons their better and tank was a bit bare... i say just need more fish..haha. will give the real plants a go and not offend my mate.
Not great with species etc yet but i have a few cobolt blue starting to get some size, 2 big pink peacocks and 2 sold to me as milomo vc10 or Placidochromis milomo. Bought as fry 6 months ago and still waiting for them to color up but dont know much about time frames or if female or male... any ideas?


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

Wouldn't do real plants with Mbuna because they'd get eaten and with haps and peacocks they'd get dug up unless you can put rocks around the base of the plant.


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## DRAE. P (Aug 15, 2017)

caldwelldaniel26 said:


> Wouldn't do real plants with Mbuna because they'd get eaten and with haps and peacocks they'd get dug up unless you can put rocks around the base of the plant.


cheers, yeah your right about the peacocks i think but do have a rock base so will give the live plants a go till.next water change and clean i think. Thanks for your reply


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

Alright, good luck and hope it works out


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## mambee (Apr 13, 2003)

Plants are underappreciated regarding improving water quality. They do a great job of using excess nutrients for food. Plants such as anubias and Java fern grow best attached to rocks or driftwood. My anubias grow very large with LED lighting.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

If they're a viable option I would recommend plants as well, but it takes a lot of fast growing plants such as water wisteria and ludwigia repens etc, or plants that grow out of the water, to really make much difference in water quality. Plus you have to be attentive to dead leaves and trimming or it sort of defeats the purpose. I've had everything from low tech, dirt, to high light with co2 injection and that has been my experience.


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## The Morning (Nov 22, 2017)

If you decide to go fake, Universal Rocks has some fantastic options. They can get a little pricey but they are huge. I had to trim one to fit my 27 inch high tank. They are also weighted at the bottom which discourages cichlids from digging up nicely.


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## The Morning (Nov 22, 2017)

Here are some examples


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

So much bad info is shot out as if all cichlids are the same. But we do know that there are hundreds of different cichlids and they are all different, just as dogs, cats or people are all the same but different. So what you want to do on plants is also different depending on you, what plants and what cichlids. I went with just fish for years but now that I have found how much live plants do for the tank, I will not likely go back. But it does take some thoughts on what you want, are able/willing to do as well as what you have available. Full bore planted tanks are much more expensive in both money and labor but they are also much more pleasure when done right. 
I would first caution that much of the info on cichlids and plants will not be true if you choose to go that way. Like keeping cichlids differs from keeping something like guppies, keeping live plants requires a different tool set to make it work. First "tool" is believing it can be made to work! This is the hard part because you will be fed all kinds of nonsense by people who don't keep cichlids and live plants. 
First step might be to visit some of the sites where live plants are the focus and search out those who do keep the two together. There are lots of people who do keep both who can advise how to best start, if it is something you want to do. 
There are many here who do not because it is " too hard" ,etc. but then if we only did what was simple, we probably would not have a tank at all! It's all, "too hard" until you want to do it? 
I'm currently keeping four tanks from 10 to 125 gallons and all have African cichlids and live plants which I don't find too hard. A 20 gallon long ?


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## fish_gazer (Nov 9, 2017)

I prefer real plants even though my fish seem determined to destroy them. It's cool though, the process has taught me which kinds of plants I can have, and those I cannot. I had a beautiful, simply magnificent Brazilian pennywort for example that they tore to shreds in less than a week! On the other hand, my rosette sword, anubias petite and anubias barteri coin leaves are still going strong.

I had some hornwort that swayed gracefully to the flow of water from my filter, but was no match for my finned friends (that stuff is messy when disturbed!). My couple of bunches of moneywort is hanging in there though. I had some jungle val but finally gave up on it. One of my more intriguing purchases was a madagascar lace bulb plant. They've taken a couple of leaves off of it, but it is starting to take off. I am planning on adding another, GASP.

The other issue with plants are the snails that are transported with them. Until they are eaten. Oops. Seriously, I haven't added anything new in weeks, yet baby snails are popping up all over the place. I've even found them in my canister filter. What??

Real plants can be time consuming, but combined with rocks, driftwood and a hefty flow of bubbles from two 4 inch diameter air stones, I have an aqua-scape that's really cool to look at.


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

When one doesn't want snails, it is always a good idea to do a quick dip in some form to kill eggs that are almost impossible to spot as they are so small and clear. I find a quick dip in weak bleach water and a dip in rinse water is a good investment. Once they are in the tank they are almost certain to get too the filter media and lay eggs so it takes more work to clear them. I find MTS is among the worst as they are so sharp that I hate them in squeezing out and rinsing sponges.


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