# Plants Vs Gallons



## M1ster Stanl3y (Dec 10, 2010)

Is there a plant to gallon ratio one should know before planning a planted tank?


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Never really thought of that, but I think it doesn't matter as far as how many you can have in X sized tank. If you wanted to do something like go natural, unfiltered or something like that then maybe. There certainly isn't an amount that is dangerous to fish that I've ever heard of.

I go to the planted tank forums and look at the pics on there and the plant count in some of them is massive and jungle-like.


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## squirrelcrusher (Sep 23, 2009)

You can have as many plants as you want to plant in your tank. But the strong will survive and can push the "weaker" plants out if you aren't careful about pruning regularly.


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

I had a unique incident in my earlier planted days when I became enamored with guppy grass and let it overrun one corner of my tank. I had a koi angelfish (Tito) in there that one night got tangled up in the guppy grass and it ended up killing him cause he got turned upside down.

So my advice would be - if you're going to go the aquatic jungle route, get small guys that don't need lots of swimming room. On the other hand, other critters like shrimp absolutely love a jungle for the fact that there's lots of hiding spots.

Really the only limiting factor on how much flora you can have in your tank is from the addition of light, nutrients, and CO2. Low tech aquariums with none of these additional supplements can support only limited plant growth, while the high-tech tanks can literally fill to the brim with greenery.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

beyond some level additional plants will just grow slower. so it's not nearly a critical as light, fertz and so on.


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

It's mostly been said. Plant growth is limited by the nutrients and light they can get, so with lots of plants they might grow slowly (CO2, ferts and water changes will affect that too) or crowd each other out. Fish do need swimming room, some fish more than others. Some plants get really big so they will not be suitable for a small tank. Other than that more plants the better!


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

[email protected] said:


> I had a unique incident in my earlier planted days when I became enamored with guppy grass and let it overrun one corner of my tank. I had a koi angelfish (Tito) in there that one night got tangled up in the guppy grass and it ended up killing him cause he got turned upside down.


It's possible for a healthy fish to get stuck but as long as he had plenty of room to swim in the rest of the tank I think it's more likely the fish was ailing or weak. Fish that are being bullied are prone to getting stuck too.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

snail said:


> It's possible for a healthy fish to get stuck but as long as he had plenty of room to swim in the rest of the tank I think it's more likely the fish was ailing or weak. Fish that are being bullied are prone to getting stuck too.


+1

Sick fish will "cram" themselves in just about any crevice for protection. Healthy fish will just swim out.

my .02


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