Freshwater Aquarium Plants - The Central Hub

Whether you’ve already got a fresh water aquarium with artificial decor and are now considering adding some live plants or if you are completely new to the hobby and are looking to go the planted tank route, this page serves as a hub to a lot of helpful information. My very first aquarium was a planted tank and I don’t think I would ever want one of my aquariums to be devoid of plant life for a number of reasons, which I will not get into right now. I have an entire article on the topic instead.

When it comes to live plants you should know that each of them comes with their own set of requirements right from water parameters (acidic or basic - pH based), light, nutrients and more. I did not think about this when I first started and I bought carpeting plants that preferred acidic (low pH) water while mine was basic (high pH). The plants did not die, but they did not thrive either. When I returned from a two week vacation algae got them, and they were not recoverable. My new carpet however has no issues of this sort. Vacations still bring about some algae, but they recover quickly once things get back to routine. I kind of ranted here, but it is just a shout out so you know what to look out for. I have a complete guide on this if you want to know more.

Below you will find links to specific plant profiles and within each of the plant profiles further guides and information on the particular plant. But in addition to plant profiles, I also have some generic guides such as the best carpeting plants for low light aquariums, etc. I hope you have as much fun reading and learning about freshwater aquarium plants as I have had writing and researching them.