George,

There is practically, ethically, visually and naturally no comparison
between real plants and fake plants. Fake plants are an alternative in cases
when you have fish like Silver Dollars or other herbivores including African
cichlids that will not let a plant survive in the tank. Also another
alternative for unsuccessful plant growth in the tank for which there are
many workarounds.
Plastic plants do no grow thus not being very dynamic in looks, they do not
consume fish waste and so do not help in water quality in any way, they tend
to get dirty algae on them which adds on to the negative looks.
Live plants are obviously difficult to keep then plastic plants, but not
really as difficult as projected. If you go for the correct combination of
plants as per you lighting, things should be very smooth, but yes, they may
need addition of extra fertilizers as fish waste does not provide them with
all the required nutrients. Do not get put off by stuff like CO2 reactors
and 4 Watts per gallon of lighting as these are only for specialist plant
tanks. I have had very good success in a low light setup with no CO2 and so
can everyone and any one.

Nim

>-----Original Message-----
>From: george [mailto:howie2179@...]
>Sent: 10 February 2004 21:00
>To: tropicalaquaria@...
>Subject: [Tropical Aquaria] hiya again plants?(real or fake)
>
>hi i was just wordering everyone's veiw on which plants should be
>used i have various fake plants in my tank but was wondering if real
>were best cheers
>
>
>
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