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Plants in Tanks

Joined
Dec 4, 2008
Messages
505
I have noticed that a lot of people have plants in there tanks and I don't have any. Do a lot of people use fake ones or live plants? I would think the live plants would grow and you would have to trim it. Also where is a good place to get some fake or live plants?

Thanks:smile:
 
If you are talking about a dedicated ceph tank, I would recommend plastic, as the octo will love to move the stuff around to it's own sense of decor. Many of us grow macro-algeas and salt water grasses for use in reef tanks.

The closest match to a good m.a. in plastic is Jungle Val, and available at every pet store.
 
We keep live macro algaes in our tank. Looks better than the plastic stuff, gives the babies extra places to hide, and helps the 'pod population. Your LFS should have several varieties available... or ask some local tank keepers for some pieces.
 
well my octo is a good size. All I want really is to make it look like under the ocean the best I can. Would macro algae grow out like a plant or just kind of stay like an hair algae on a rock?
 
I like my macro alges, some want to "root" and others don't. They add color along with fore mentioned benefits, I've had brooding otcos use them to stuff into holes of their dens, and if they grow out of hand just cut them back!
 
I'd never reccomend plastic plants. In Nut's place you can see Caulerpa Prolifera, Chlorodesmis, and some Rhodophyta, red algae.

Its true that Nut bury parts of them from time to time, but thats not a problem for a plague like Prolifera.
The benefits 4 me are clear: this kind of live macro algae take rid of the high amount of Nitrates and Phos that your octo send to the water, including rests of crabs and food, etc.
Algae help in this environment is vital.

IMHO, plastic plants dont represent any benefit, and some of them just trap debris causing even worse water quality.

Hope this may help

KR
 
I would avoid caulerpa if I could start all over again. It grows too well. Easy to keep though if you don't mind wrestling with your octopus while you're trimming it out. If you don't trim it occasionally it will all die off when it reproduces and release all the junk it's been absorbing from your water.
 
I fully agree with AM
Caulerpa has great pros over high nutrients environments but also very big cons, and this also depends on the caulerpa spec
Anthony Calfo describes very well this scenario to help take a decission on it.
I guess refugium strategy is the best solution
 
The calupera should, especially if you can get a West Coast variety (that may be hard as there are problems with it there and I don't know if it can be shipped).
 

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