Terrestrial (emersed) plants instead of normal aquatic plants

ayman.roshdy

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If you are facing problems with aquatic plants, but still need some plants in your aquarium then consider using some terrestrial plants with their roots in the water while their stem and leaves are in the air just above your tank, in my opinion this has many benefits:
  1. It helps a lot in case you are not able to keep aquatic plants or they keep dying on you
  2. Terrestrial plants are very powerful in getting rid of excess nutrients, ammonia ... etc. and keeping for you a healthy tank
  3. It gives a very beautiful theme for the place
  4. A lot of these plants help in purifying the air as well
  5. You don't have to dose CO2, they will get it directly from the air
  6. Say good bye to algae
  7. Less maintenance and water changes to you tank
I kept myself a guppies pond created using a plastic plant pot in my balcony since I live on the 5th floor and I never made any maintenance or water changes for almost 6 months, was only adding more water to cater for water evaporations and that's it, after the 6 months I had to do some maintenance because the terrestrial plants were growing at a very fast pace that made the place looks like a jungle, and to my surprise aI found tons of guppy fries plus the water was crystal clean

I trimmed the plants, removed the gravel from the pot and started it from the beginning, you can check the new pond from this video

Ah and BTW I am not doing any filtration in this setup, I only use a small air pump and a couple of water heaters to make sure that the temperature don't become very low during winter nights
 
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I keep a tiny unfiltered betta tank with mostly houseplants hanging out the top, floaters and some java fern. It stays clear and clean all the time with just a 50% wc once a week. It is my husband’s favourite tank!95D9ADE9-B08A-4DEA-9E57-49E8FD6FECDB.jpeg
 
Plants are the ultimate filters! Tunze, a German company, is famous for making filters that allowed for terrestrial plants to grow and using their roots to filter out water. They were doing this back in the 1990s. I'm sure they weren't the first to do this either.

Ci, that is a BEAUTIFUL tank. Really looks like an antique. Where did you get it?
 
Ci, that is a BEAUTIFUL tank. Really looks like an antique. Where did you get it?
It is a 4g Jewell cast iron and slate tank from the early 1900’s. I found it at a flea market in Illinois back in the 80’s, missing the original bulb edged glass, sadly. It has had many iterations over the decades!

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It is a 4g Jewell cast iron and slate tank from the early 1900’s. I found it at a flea market in Illinois back in the 80’s
How cool is that? A real vintage aquarium. I love it!
 
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