Plants for aquariums
Feeding
If you are keeping any plants in your aquarium you should feed them as they quickly use what they need from the water. You can buy aquarium plant food in must pet stores and they can come in liquid or solid that is buried under the gravel. You can also use dried rabbit feces and push a couple of pellets in the ground near each plant!!
Lysimachia nummularia (Aurea)
This plant grows both on land and in aquariums. On land it spreads out as ground cover with a yellow flower while in water it grows upright and tall. This is a very beautiful plant with its leaves small and rounded in its shape opposite each other on each stem. It is very easy to keep in aquariums as it is very undemanding. It seems to do well in most if not all light conditions and water chemistry doesn’t seem to play a part at all. This plant comes in a green and an almost yellow/ light green colour. It makes a great addition to any aquarium and grows tall enough to grow in the back to cover the glass or a filter!
Lemma Spp (Duck Weed)
This is in my opinion a nice plant for any aquarium although a lot of people don't like it. It is a fast spreading plant and is often introduced to a tank accidentally with another plant. It grows very well with a lot of light but if it's not kept it can quickly take over and block filters! It is a great plant to use for bubble nests as it floats on the waters surface. This plant can grow tall but I find that because the stems are so weak the fish eat them across so they stay pretty low down if that happens.
Vallisneria gigantea (Giant Vallisneria)
This plant is ideal for a tall aquarium as the leaves can grow up to 40 inches long! When the plant reaches the surface the leaves then float along the surface and not out of the water. As a result this plant can be used for fish to build bubble nests in. This plant grows in cycles: 3-4 months of good growth and then starts to dye off but then grows again... etc.. They like a fine substrate to grow in like sand or fine gravel. These plants thrive if there is iron present in the water's lower levels and in the gravel.
Microsorum Pteropus (Java Fern)
This plant is easy to grow in any aquarium. Its tough roots will attach this plant to rocks and bog wood but it can also be grown in the substrate. Lighting is not critical for this plant and nor is the water conditions. This is a very decorative plant with long leaves which in time sprout new plants at their tip. When the leave rots the new plant floats away and it could grow on any surface in your aquarium!
Algae
Algae grow in all aquariums and on every surface in them! You can get fish to eat algae and you can also get "medication" that kills it in your tank. You can get cleaning stuff to take it off of you aquarium glass too. recently i found out that hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) can be used to kill hair algae. Bottles can be bought in most chemists at a 3% volume and this is added to the tank at 1-1.5 ml per 30ltr. You can add it using a syringe and spraying it onto the algae or jus put it in the tank. After a couple of days the algae breaks down and the fish will eat it off of most surfaces and the peroxide also helps stop it spreading again! It should not harm your fish or plants unless you overdose the tank so be very careful!!!