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How much more would it cost me to use live plants compared to fake one's?

That is a very vague question. There's too many variables to even think about guessing. It all depends on the size of your tank, what kind of lighting you have, and will need for the types of plants you want, if you want to go high tech with pressurized co2. It could be as cheap as $30 or as much as $300. Help us out a little by telling us what you have and what you want.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

If you're talking strictly, plant for plant, not including lighting or anything... even THEN it would be hard to compare.

There's so many variables... for fake, there's cloth vs plastic plants, and the sizes. For live plants, you've got the cheaper stem plants (which I can find for about two bucks a bunch at chain stores or even less buying online) or the more expensive rooted plants. I know that simple java fern or anubias nana are generally around eight dollars at my favorite (if more expensive) LFS.

If you're doing ANYthing with equipment for live plants, your expenses go up. However, I run a ten gallon with the normal fluourescent bulb (in 6700K, of course) and grow crypt wendtii with dozens of daughter plants, java moss and java ferns that won't stop producing daughter plants. There's a dwarf lily plant with huge leaves and lily pads and there used to be a reeeeeeeally big take-over-the-tank aponogeton in there. That one died back to a very small plant when I took out the fluorite substrate. Now I operate on plain gravel with root tabs (a small expense) and manage to have a nicely planted tanks.

I personally prefer to have a planted tank... just makes things more natural, and it also makes a more balanced tank.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

dispizeme

That question is basically impossible to answer.
The cost of the live plants can vary from under a $ to what ever you limit is.

Artifical plants again can also vary considerably this depends on the quality and what/how they are made.
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Keith

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Like what Keith said, you can get plants from less than a dollar to over $100 a piece! IMO live plants to me are cheaper than fake plants. But this really is just my Opinion.

I would be getting easy, cheap plants as I really have no money.

It still depends what you have and what the plants cost in your area. The plants at one store I go to cost at least $5 no matter what the plant is. The ones they come across less often cost more. At another store I can get vals or common crypts for $1-$2 each. Online I can often get them alot cheaper but then I have to pay shipping. What the watts are of the light your currently using will be the biggest factor in what plants you can keep and whether you'll have to buy a new light which can get expensive.

By easy, cheap plants I would think you could go with a low-maintenance live plant like java moss or java fern. Or, for easy and cheap in long term you could get a fake plant, since there's no maintenance involved, only the intial cost of its purchase.

Costs for fake plants run anywhere from $2 to $20, for the commonly-found ones that I've seen.

Last edited by CancerMan at 15-Sep-2005 22:44