The aquarium in the apartment allows you to get closer to wildlife - in addition, observing its serene inhabitants is considered an excellent relaxation therapy for the nerves. People often buy beautiful aquariums with exotic fish and suddenly find that the plants in them simply refuse to grow. Why is this happening and how to fix the situation?
Growth of aquarium plants
If the plants in the aquarium are not growing, the first step is to properly illuminate it. To do this, you need to turn on fluorescent lamps and incandescent lamps so that the lighting can be varied. The length of daylight hours for plants should be no more than 12 hours, and the intensity of illumination should be increasing - from less light to more. Plants should also be vacuumed from time to time using a hose with a funnel at the end. It will relieve plant leaves from soil precipitation, which slows down their growth - while clean soil will settle down.
The more fish there are in the aquarium, the more often it is desirable to resort to the procedure for cleaning the plants from silt and food residues.
In addition, the growth of plants in an aquarium depends on the composition of the water, which must contain a certain amount of substances dissolved in it. So, if the minimum amount of salt is present in the aquarium water, the better the plants will grow. In this case, the water should not be too soft - rather, moderately hard. Also, plants may not grow due to metal salts present in the aquarium water. They are responsible for the normal functioning of the aquarium flora, therefore their concentration should not be exceeded.
Rules for the care of aquarium plants
The aquarium should be intensely lit (40 watts of fluorescent light per 0.3-0.4 square meters of water surface). When installing incandescent lamps, the power should be doubled. The water in the aquarium needs to be changed several times a week. If the plants refuse to grow in the aquarium or their condition is unsatisfactory, you need to put into it a small number of fish caring for plants - labeos, mollies, girinoheils, guppies or platies.
It is advisable to plant an aquarium densely, using a varied species composition of plants.
The main fish species in the aquarium should not be large in size. In addition, they should not be herbivorous or burrowing, as this adversely affects the growth and condition of plants. They should be fed very sparingly so as not to pollute the water. Before starting the fish into the aquarium, the plants need to be given several weeks to adapt, and, at the slightest sign of deviation from normal development, soften the water, intensifying this process. Remember that plants are inert enough to be monitored closely.
