Welcome back guys, In this video on Fishaholic, i will share how i added
live aquatic plants to my aquarium. And as you can see the Guppies are
already excited and they're really interested in these plants and also
exploring around new changes. There are two main reasons why I added these aquatic plants.
And later on this video, I'll share those two important reasons with you. Choosing
the plants wasn't an easy task as i was keen in plant like this with the wider
leaves or something that can live in low light. I am still looking around trying to
see what other plants I can get from here. This plant is pretty good as well, good
colors so I selected two plants from this store and now I'm making my way to
another store. This store has got quite a lot of plants as well. And instead I'm
looking for something different, maybe this plant? I think I already picked this
up from the other store but this one is really healthy. And I can see a plant at
the back, leaves are pretty long and the plant is tall as well so I'm definitely
buying this plant. All these are good plants but not
something I'm looking. There are some more plants on this side, this plant is pretty
cool, nice colors wide leaves so i will take that one.
Yeah and yep this plant, so i bought 4 plants from the store because they
were on special. I am at Bunnings now to buy some pots, 68 cents for a pot and since
I've got 6 plants so i will need 6 of these.
So I've got all the six plants on me, there's a bag of gravel that's from my
really old aquarium and I've got the pots ready. Now i will start un-boxing these
plants, add them to the pot and fill the pot with gravel. The plant I'm holding
right now is called Aluminum plant and if you look at the plant, it is absolutely
beautiful. It has got wide green leaves and some
silver marking on the foliage. And there's one thing I want to mention
about this plant is that this is not a true aquatic plant that means they're not
gonna live in the aquarium forever. In saying that, it could live in the
aquarium from a few weeks up to few months or could be one year. It just
depends on the water condition, amount of nutrients present in the water and the light
in the aquarium.
The 2nd plant is called Purple Wafer, again such a beautiful plant.
It has got broad leaves, the top of the leaf is dark green and the bottom is
purple. It adds variation to the tank, and again this is not a true a aquatic plant.
It's more suitable for terrarium but it will be a great addition to my aquarium.
The easiest way of potting this plant is by scooping gravel with a plastic cup
and tip it in this cup. And then I can just move gravel around with my fingers
to make sure the plant is positioned right in the center.
I've got another Purple Wafer and the reason I bought this plant was because
the store I went to, they had a special deal so i bought 4 plants for the price of
3. And just because of the color of these leaves and the broadness I just
grabbed another plant. So one of the main reason I bought these plants are;
Adding these to the guppy tank is to provide some sort of comfort to the fish
and if the Guppies have fry at least those fry can hide under these broad
leaves. In this way the adults won't get to them and if they're hungry at
least they won't eat them. The second most important reason of adding plants
to the aquarium is due to nitrogen cycle in the tank. Sponge filter is the most
recommended filter for all small tropical fish but the sponge filter only
provides biological filtration. It means all the excess food and fish waste stays
inside the aquarium. Which then gets converted to ammonia and ammonia is toxic
to the fish but the bacteria will convert that ammonia to nitrite.
Now nitrite is less toxic than ammonia and again there's bacteria present in the
filter which we can convert that nitrite to nitrate. Now nitrate is less toxic but
there's no bacteria in a sponge filter that could convert that nitrate to
something else. So, there are two ways, how you can get rid of
nitrate. 1 way is by doing water changes. Obviously most of the aquarium hobbyist
do water changes. And the other way is by adding plants because these plants
thrive on those nitrates. The plant I just added to the pot is called Purple Temple
and again it's very very beautiful and the colors and the shape of the leaves
just add variation to the aquarium.
I have two more plans to pot. The main reason i bought this plant is
because of the size of the leaves. They're really long and looks really
beautiful. If you look at the leaves; they have got 2 different colors; dark green and
light green or bit yellowish. I don't know exactly the name of this plant and
if any of you's know the name of the plant then please feel free to share that in
the comments section below.
And as you can see I'm running out of the gravel.
I have had this gravel in this bag for a really long time and I didn't want to
throw it out at that time.. Because I thought like maybe in future I might
have a use for this gravel and today is the day.
Bear with me guys I know it's bit boring, but this is the last plant I'm going to
pot. Again the reason i bought this plant was just because of the length of the
leaves. They're not too broad but they are really long and unfortunately I
don't know the name of this plant. So if any of you's know its name then please share
it in the comments section below. If you look at the bottom of the stem, it is
already rooting. so that's not bad!!! I am almost done with this and fortunately I just had
enough gravel to do the last pot. Have a look at these plants now. This is
the 2nd plant that's the 3rd one. Some of them are not standing upright but that's
not a big deal because when it goes in the tank they will be all standing upright.
The fun part starts now, adding these to the aquarium. As you can see I moved
the coral rock to somewhere in the middle of the aquarium and extra care should be
taken while lowering these plants in the aquarium because the gravel might come
out of the pot or the stems might go lose and the plant might start floating in the water.
Take your time and lower this slowly. So, I'm thinking of
adding three plants to the left side somewhere along the back glass and one maybe
somewhere next to the thermometer. And then I want to add three plants on the
right side of the coral rock.
I'm positioning Purple Wafer to the front of the aquarium due to just these
beautiful broad colorful leaves and another similar plant on the right side
just to balance the look of the aquarium.
So, this plant is not aligned properly but later on I'll just fix it with my
finger. Just has to be bit upright and that's the last plant, "Aluminum plant",
broad green leaves with these beautiful silver marking on the foliage. My job is
almost done, just added the last plant and I hope they serve the two important
purposes I have mentioned earlier. And in the breeder box, i have got 4 fry from one of my
female guppy. I've got two other female guppies, they're pregnant and they
might deliver in next few days. So, if I don't move them to your breeder box on
time and they deliver the fry then at least all these plants will provide enough
hiding spots to those fry. If you have enjoyed watching this video please hit
that LIKE button and also SUBSCRIBE to the channel if you're not currently
subscribed. I really appreciate your time and thank you for watching and I'll see
in my next video.