15.4. Types of Planted Tanks – Aquarium Science

Many of the successful planted aquariums in the world are very simple affairs without carbon dioxide additions and pretty much ANY combination of substrates, plants, aeration and filtration. And as long as they follow one "guideline" they can do well.

This one “guideline” is:

Only have a Few Small Fish in the Planted Aquarium

Adding a sizable number of sizable fish to a planted aquarium is possible, but challenging.

There are several general methods used by hobbyists to give beautiful planted tanks free of algae. We will look at those methods in this article.

Specialized Planted Aquariums

There are several basic types of specialized planted aquariums as to the technology used. Each of the several types has an infinite number of possibilities, all of which can be made to work well.

“Natural” planted tanks are low tech affairs with little in the way of fertilization and no CO₂ injection. The following chart summarizes those several types of planted aquariums for what are called “natural” Planted Tanks:

	Low tech	Walstad	Father fish
Plants	Only very easy	Only easy ones	Only easy ones
Fertilizer	Fish waste	Fish food in excess	Fish waste
Bottom substrate	Typically sand	1 inch (2,5cm) nitrogen poor organic soil	1 inch (2,5 cm) nitrogen rich organic soil
Capping substrate	None	0,5 inch (1,2cm) gravel	3 inch (7,5 cm) sand
Carbon dioxide	None	From Soil and Food	From Soil and Food
Lights	Moderate 16 off – 8 on	Moderate 5 on – 4 off – 5 on – 10 off	High 14 off – 10 on
Filter	Small	Small	Deep sand bed sump
Aeration	Airstones	None	Some
Water movement	Some	Very light	Some
Number of fish	Light	Light	Light to moderate
Inoculate	None	Soil	Pond mud
Difficulty	Easy	Easy	Easy

Then there are the various “High Tech” or “Chemical” methods for running a planted aquarium. These use fertilization and typically some sort of CO₂ generation, The three general methods are:

	Hau method	Hybrid	High Tech
Plants	Any	Any	Any
Fertilizer	Only fish food and root tabs	Light fertilization	Heavy fertilization
Bottom substrate	3 inch (7,5 cm) gravel	1 inch (2,5 cm) wood pellets	2 inch (5 cm) commercial planted aquarium soil
Capping substrate	None	1 inch (2,5 cm) coarse sand	None
Carbon dioxide	Low tech bottles	From the pellets	Heavy injection
Lights	Light 8 on – 16 off	Moderate 4-4-4-4-4-4	Very High 14 on – 10 off
Filter	Small	Big	Varies
Aeration	Little	None	Varies
Water movement	Little	Some low in the tank	Varies
Number of fish	Moderate	Light	Light
Inoculate	Plants	Pond mud	None
Difficulty	Easy	Moderately	Moderately

We go into each of these several types of specialized planted aquariums in these links:

15.8. Walstad Aquarium

15.9. High-Tech Planted Aquarium

15.10. Hybrid Planted Aquariums

15.11. Many Fish Many Plants

15.13. Hau Aquariums

15.14. Low Tech Planted Aquariums

Trimming Plants

There are two basic types of planted aquariums: the wild, untrimmed look and the formal trimmed look. There is a very good analogy that can be used here. With terrestrial front yards that are planted there are two types seen: the informal bushy look and the formal very trimmed look with hedges and poodle plants. Aquarium plants are much like terrestrial plants in that they will stretch out and get leggy if allowed. Trim them and aquatic plants become thick and bushy, just like terrestrial landscaping plants.

So there develops two distinct classes of planted aquariums: the wild untrimmed look and the bushy “formal” look. Which you have just depends on your aesthetic sense.

Aquascaping the Planted Aquarium

Another aspect of the planted aquarium is something called “aquascaping”. This is an art form much like gardening. There are all sorts of styles and preferences. There are even competitions at various aquarium shows as to who can do the best aquascape of a new tank. A typical “mixed style”, high tech, untrimmed, planted aquarium aquascape looks like this:

Note the small school of harlequin rasboras which are the only fish in the aquarium.

“Dutch” Planted Aquariums

Then there is a school of aquascaping called the “Dutch” method. Linear rows of plants running left to right are referred to as “Dutch streets.” This style was
developed and started in Netherlands in the 1930s.

The Dutch aquarium follows an orderly, often symmetrical arrangement, in which multiple types of plants having diverse leaf color, sizes and textures are displayed in much the same way as terrestrial plants are shown in a flower garden. It displays plants located on terraces of different heights, but these displays often omit rocks and driftwood. There is even a society which crafts standards for these aquariums.

“Japanese” Planted Aquarium Styles

The Japanese make their planted aquariums much like their terrestrial “Japanese” gardens, They emphasize artistic form and rocks over plants. Often they use only one type of plant. Many aspects of religion, namely Zen Buddhism are incorporated into fresh water plant arrangement and placement. For instance, large stones that are used in the aquarium should always be in odd numbers, i.e. 1, 3, 5 and so on. Zen itself draws a lot from nature, so it is no surprise that Zen has an influence on aquascaping.

There are several Japanese aquascaping artists who set up beautiful planted aquariums

Freestyle Aquascaping

Personally I like a more free style aquascaping. Not completely natural but also not closely manicured. Rachel O’Leary (great YouTube channel) visited Melo Salazar’s 500-gallon (1890 liter) aquarium in Mexico. This aquarium is a stunning example of this approach. Rachel has a five-minute video on the aquarium and I’ve watched it five times, drooling more with every view. Rachel is a superb videographer.

Melo Salazar's Planted Aquarium — Melo Salazar’s Planted Aquarium

Again, Mr. Salazar probably had 300 very small fish in this large aquarium, which is very light stocking.

The “Natural” Look

Then finally these is the good old natural look. The objective is to duplicate Mother Nature rather than make a garden. This often uses Diana Walstad’s soiled tank method.