Planted Aquarium for Beginners
Here on this page, I will walk you through setting up your first planted aquarium for beginners. Starting up a planted aquarium can be difficult for a beginner with all the conflicting information and “one size fits all” advice on the internet. Or, the beginner hobbyist happened to visit a local LFS (Local Fish Stores) and has been misinformed to buy this or that which are not essential, compatible, or too expensive for the planted aquarium he/she had in mind as a beginner. Like me, many new hobbyists who want to progress to a planted aquarium naturally started from keeping a fish-only tank. Others were blown away upon seeing a planted aquarium for the first time and decided this is my new passion but has never cared for an aquarium in his/her entire life.
Table of Contents
Benefits of a Planted Aquarium
Inhabitants' Benefits
Beginner's Dilemma
Planning and Essentials
Closing Remarks
My Beginner’s Planted Aquarium
Where should we start?
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Benefits of a Planted Aquarium
Inhabitants' Benefits
Aside from the medical benefits, a planted aquarium provides to the hobbyist or owner. Live aquarium plants are more aesthetically pleasing in our eyes than the plastic plants and unnatural ceramic decors we currently have. Live aquarium plants benefit the aquarium by oxygenating the water during lights on and enhancing water quality. They act as a natural filtration by using excess nutrients produced by fish waste, uneaten food, and decaying organic debris. They help prevent algae growth, to some extent, by denying the algae of those nutrients. Fishes and their fry feels safe by providing them with natural refuges (and even food) and encourage many types of fish to spawn.
Beginner's Dilemma
Most beginner hobbyists don’t want to mess with expensive aquarium lighting, injecting CO2 and other additives due to budget constraints. Even if you are well off, I don’t recommend buying the most expensive equipment and the largest aquarium you can afford to start with. It is crucial to get the hang of setting up your first planted aquarium and maintaining it to make it stable. As much as possible, I will not use very complex and technical terminologies here about the science of a planted aquarium, not yet, or will use layman’s terms. We are not after the most beautiful, expensive, technical, physics-laden, competition-headlining aquascape here in this article. Instead, we give the best, natural-looking environment for your plants and fishes, which is the primary goal.
Planted Aquarium Essentials
As you progress on this website, you will find that the topics get more advance. And to tell you honestly, most of these topics are the boring ones. But these boring topics will arm you with the essential insights for successfully keeping a planted aquarium at your very own home. It will help you think outside the box, investigate in the right direction, formulate theories, test, and apply. It is not a set-and-forget system and then as your excitement wanes because your planted tank becomes engulf by algae and all sorts of problems because you didn’t even care to know the basics, you quit and decided this hobby is not for you. You need to continuously nurture and maintain it. Don’t worry. I don’t even know even a quarter or an eight of what I know now when I started. And we are still continuously learning. We will get you there and will guide you every step of the way.
Closing Remarks
I hope you enjoyed this article and if ever you have additional questions or want to share your experiences with planted aquariums, please leave a comment below. Next, we will be discussing how to determine the ideal location for your planted aquarium.
This is really good timing to become “immersed” in a new hobby like keeping a beautiful aquarium at home. I have always enjoyed looking at other aquariums and think it would be a nice addition to my home as well. I have a good location in mind, but I also have a cat who would be able to access that area. What do you recommend to allow the kitty to look at the aquarium without the cat being able to have access to the fish inside the tank?
My aquarium is open at the top and outdoors and we have lots of stray cats visiting our home day by day and I didn’t experienced any problems with them. Fish getting killed are the least of my worries with these cats, some cats are exceptions though. Its instinctual for them to hunt but they should have a means to hunt. The stray cats simply don’t have the means to stay on top of my tank for very long. Or they may fall to the water, or give up. There are aquariums with top hood (some have included lighting already, but not enough to grow aquatic plants) as well so you can have peace of mind. You might have to DIY to replace the default light into one that can grow aquatic plants. In a local forum here, I’ve never heard of cats trying to catch fish on their aquariums.
It will be out of place if I don’t thank you enough for such a concise article.
Planted aquarium indeed has so many benefits to family members, freshwater fish, snails, shrimps and others but the part I love most is the fact that it does help reduce anxiety and stress. But the cost is always a major challenge, so what’s the average cost of a Planted Aquarium?
Hi Sheddy,
Thank you and I am glad that you like this article. The cost in setting up a planted aquarium depends mainly on the size of your tank and what type of aquascaping style you have in mind. For example, in my 35 gallons, I was able to set up for around 100$ give and take and that includes:
A. Aquarium – euro braced – inexpensive compared to others types
B. Over head filter – cheap
C. Aquasoil 8 kg – costly that is why I just used 8 kg and did an island style scape with pebbles around it
D. Medium Size pebbles around 15 kg – cheap
E. Plants – undemanding – cheap
F. Filter Medias – cheap
I saved on fishes because I already have them from my 15 gallon community tank. I DIY-ed my lighting from my spare 5050 LEDs strips and LED Driver lying around. I sourced stones from a nearby excavation site.
There are many ways to be able to save but if you want to start a Walstad Tank, which we will cover on future articles, you can setup a planted tank for well under 100$s in the same 35 gallon tank.
I love the idea of having a planted aquarium inside the house, I just don’t want the fish that normally go with it, as the last lot I had were so expensive and they ended up dying on me. I still don’t know the reason. You have given some great ideas to get the aquarium set up.
Having a tank full of plants however would be more fun, almost like growing indoor plants. Does one need the fish to eat the algae, or can you have the plants without the fish?
If you don’t mind me asking what is the fish you kept before? Planted aquarium has so many benefits to the fishes and I doubt that you will be disappointed when its time you try a planted one. As for your question, yes you can keep a planted aquarium without fishes. Or you can just put shrimps and snails only. That’s totally up to you.
I love the idea of having a planted aquarium inside the house, I just don’t want the fish that normally go with it, as the last lot I had were so expensive and they ended up dying on me. I still don’t know the reason. You have given some great ideas to get the aquarium set up.
Having a tank full of plants however would be more fun, almost like growing indoor plants. Does one need the fish to eat the algae, or can you have the plants without the fish?
I always love the sound of water running back into a tank or pond, it is so relaxing. We have had several small tanks however always wanted to expand to a larger tank but didn’t know much about it until I came across your article. Thanks
Hello Rick,
Thank you so much! I hope in some way or two I was able to help you in your decision to go with a planted aquarium.
Wow wow. This is very educative positive. I see many people endulging in aquarium farming in their homes, but little dud I know that it has such a great benefits. Planted aquarium has such a tremendous health benefits: reduce stress, reduce anxiety, improve quality of sleep ang lower blood pressure and improves heart rate etc. These are so fascinating and makes me eager to get one in my house. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much that you find the article very educational. Yes, there are lots of benefits to the faunas (fish, snail, shrimps, etc.) and even to the owners and the hobbyist. Please watch out for more articles coming soon.
Wow wow. This is very educative positive. I see many people endulging in aquarium farming in their homes, but little dud I know that it has such a great benefits. Planted aquarium has such a tremendous health benefits: reduce stress, reduce anxiety, improve quality of sleep ang lower blood pressure and improves heart rate etc. These are so fascinating and makes me eager to get one in my house. Thanks for sharing.
this is awesome, it reflects getting close to nature right inside your home, i love the concept and the site navigations, good job
Thank you so much! Ibrahim! Please watch out for more articles coming soon.
Looks like this is one or the most expensive plant one can ever take care of, but the benefits seem to out weigh the costs. Precious plant, I think I will enjoy having to taken care one of my own. The benefits of the aquarium even seem too good to be true and will help keep a lot of people from worsening conditions of high blood pressure. Will recommend this to my friend who has these blood pressure. It might be of great help, all thanks to you.
Hi Donny,
Thanks for taking interest on my article! But believe me, the plants you see there are so cheap but its very rewarding to grow them. Please watch out for more articles coming soon.
Thank you for sharing such an informative article and nice photos especially of the tetra fish! I’ve been breeding fish since I was 10 so have a lot of different experiences with different tanks, plants and fish. Although I’ve never moved onto salt water fish (started with fresh water and moved on to tropical) I do have a 2 metre tank with curved edges and lighting and I must agree that natural plants are much better than plastic even though plastic is easier to maintain.
Hello Mo,
It is really nice to met someone with a passion related to mine. I certainly would want to try breeding fish. In my tank, the mickey mouse platties has been breeding uncontrollably. But at least I was able to give some of them to my friends who wants them.
Thanks for this beginner guide to setting up planted aquariums. What I think I found most intriguing were the potential health benefits! Lowering levels of stress is a huge benefit in these uncertain days. That alone could help some who struggle with anxiety get through social isolation until we can all move about freely again. Additionally, as someone who deals with adult ADHD, having something to help me focus would be really nice. Thanks for this!
Hi Steve thank you for sharing your experience with ADHD. My planted aquarium really helps my son to focus and divert his attention. He is even counting all the fishes, snails and shrimps. He also wants to feed the fish, of course, with my supervision.
I have really been enjoying the articles on your site. You do a good job of breaking down all the things to consider and steps to take to set up a planted aquarium. There seems to be a lot of planning and effort involved, but it looks like it is worth it. These aquariums look so much better than the ones with artificial plants. What size aquarium do you recommend for a complete beginner?
Hi Randy thank you for appreciating my efforts and find the articles informative and well-detailed. Indeed, planted aquariums have so many benefits to you and the fish and did I not say they look more aesthetically pleasing? If I can recommend you the size of the aquarium to start with, 10 gallons to 15 gallons long. Enjoy your aquascaping! Please watch out for more articles coming soon.
Hi Lem, I’m so impressed with this article of you. I didn’t know that you are so passionate about this, but I’m glad you did. I had an aquarium before because of your cousin Maryanne. I thought she will look after but unfortunately I ended up looking after them. Unfortunately I’m not an expert and they all died hahahahaha. I wish you are so that you could teach me how to look after them. So proud of you lem. Love and miss you so much. Love, tita
Hi Lemuel, what an amazing site to visit everyday! Just by looking at the background of your site, it gives me the feeling of tranquility! I love looking to all different kind of Aquariums designs. I will definitely include to my plan, is to have my own Dutch and jungle style aquarium, not sure if I could manage it? I think just by working on it, like trimming the plants would be like a therapy for me. Thank you so much for sharing your passion to us. Surely, I can discover my own sense of Artistry in aquascaping. Keep safe and God Bless
Hi Mamita,
Thank you for the appreciation about the website. Indeed, just by looking at the background brings you closer to nature. You can do it too, once a week water change only 25% and occasional trimming of the plants should be no problem, sans algae. But we will discuss algae management in the future articles coming soon.
Wanted to say what a great site and we have an aquarium and we had a couple of plants. And our oscar fish keeps on pulling it out and float to the top for us to put it back.
The only way to make this happen I think is to get a bigger tank but would like to put them back into the tank. Afraid that the Oscar will pull it out again.
But we would like to make our tank with the way yours looks and the so nice could not stop looking at it reminds me of our tank at home.
Like you said that it makes you feel relaxed and make things better for the moment. Very informative in the way you think about the fish passion.
Cheers,
Mathew&Deloris
Thank you Matthew for sharing your experience as well. Yes, as you notice we don’t recommend Oscar fish in a planted aquarium as they wreak havoc on plants. There are other medium to large fish that are safe with plants. Please watch out for more articles coming soon.
Hi there,
Thank you for sharing this useful article, I have learned a lot from it.
I always wanted to have a plant aquarium at home, but I never did anything to start with that because I didn’t know anything about it.
I do have a question, please. I love to watch fishes in aquariums, it relaxes me. So I thought I would put an aquarium in my salon, but the problem is I don’t have a lot of space. I also have only one window. So my question is do fishes and plants need natural light? Also, I would like to know if there are rounded aquariums? It takes less place:)
Thank you again and I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Hello Daniella,
Thank you for visiting our website and glad to know that you have learned a lot from it. As for your questions: if you only have tight spaces, you can measure the dimensions of that space (LxWxH). Then go to your nearest tank makers (if you want to have your tank dimensions customized) or pet shop to compare what tanks they have in stock that closely matches your dimensions. Another concerns are the stand where you will put your aquarium, can it carry the weight of your chosen tank full of water and where will you put your other equipment, filter for example)? Yes, plants need light to be able to photosynthesize and create their own food. And not just any ordinary light, it needs the right spectrum and intensity to grow plants. You can opt for any planted aquarium LED lighting brands (like Chihiros, WeekAqua, LEDSTAR, etc.), there are so many options, depending on the size/height of your tank, your budget, and whether you go with demanding plants or hardy aquatic plants.
And yes there are bowl aquariums made of glass but it’s difficult to fix your equipment on them. There are also nano cube tanks (2.5 gallons to 10 gallons). There are also acrylic cylindrical tanks. Acrylic tanks can be made in any shape imaginable but are pricier and easier to scratch.
For your references, here are some links:
https://allaboutplantedaquariums.com/where-to-place-a-planted-aquarium-at-home/
https://allaboutplantedaquariums.com/planted-aquarium-tank-dimensions/
https://allaboutplantedaquariums.com/rimless-or-braced-tanks/
https://allaboutplantedaquariums.com/the-right-material-for-aquarium-tanks/