FISH OPTIONAL
Plants are the stars of these aquariums
Many people have houseplants, but even gardeners rarely think of using an aquarium — with fish — as a way to extend the garden season.
For me, looking through the lush pages of the book “Sunken Gardens: A Step-by-Step Guide to Planting Freshwater Aquariums” (Timber Press $24.95) was a revelation of sorts. Author Karen A. Randall shows us a new way to look at an old hobby and a way to expand gardening to a year-round pursuit that is quite different from keeping potted plants indoors.
Forget the plastic plants and bubbling treasure chest; these tanks are off-the-chain gorgeous. As in most hobbies, finding a group of like-minded individuals can help take a novice to the next level. The good news is that there is an active local group that excels in underwater horticulture. Tim Gross of West Mifflin, a founding member of the Pittsburgh Area Planted Aquarium Society (www.homeofpapas. says the group meets on the first Sunday of the month, usually at Oddball Pets in Baldwin Borough, and newcomers are welcome. He came to the hobby through his interest in aquariums, as most others do.
“I’ve been a hobbyist since I was 12,” says Mr. Gross. “I’ve always kept [live] plants in my aquarium. I joined the Greater Pittsburgh Aquarium Society in 2004, and got more serious then, when there were some people in that club that had plants.”
Although not all of the people in Aquarium Society planted their tanks, many did. So the Pittsburgh Area Planted Aquarium Society organized as an offshoot of the club. Mr. Gross helped to found the group.
“We kind of felt the need for a club that specifically catered to [planted aquariums],” he says. Many of the club’s members belong to both organizations.
Planted tanks weren’t taken seriously in this country until 10 or 15 years ago, Mr. Gross says.
There are two types of aquascaping: Dutch style, which has been around since the 1930s and closely mimics an English garden, and Japanese style, which is more natural.
“It usually makes use of the many different elements of Asian style gardening to try and achieve a very harmonious and natural look, and will typically include hardscape such as wood and rock.”
Takashi Amano, a Japanese hobbyist, was the first to take these concepts and use them underwater in an aquarium, he says.
These days plants are easily obtained at many local pet stores, Oddball included. Setting up tanks to grow plants is different than those used only for fish, and Ms. Randall’s book provides step-by-step instruction.
While this pursuit can be labor-intensive, and expensive, there are ways to get your feet wet that don’t require a lot of money or time.
As in the garden, aquatic plants have a wide range of light requirements. Novices might want to start out with lowlight plants, says Mr. Gross.
“My wife has a little low light tank that is doing quite well.... She does a water change once a month.
He noted that there are new easy-to-grow low-light plants available that weren’t around years ago.
Mr. Gross also says Ms. Randall’s book is a good introduction to the pursuit. In the book, the author says the hobby has grown by leaps and bounds over the last 30 years.
“We started to have access to some better lighting, and a few people here in the U.S. started using supplemental carbon dioxide. Kaspar Horst and Horst Kipper in Germany were the first to champion the cause of the planted aquarium commercially,” she writes.
In 1985, the American Aquatic Gardeners Association began. It later grew into the international group, the Aquatic Gardeners Association.
No matter how you are introduced to the pursuit, it can become addicting.
“The internet, and particularly Facebook, has many wonderful sources of information,” says Ms. Randall, “But there is also a lot of MIS-information out there, and it is very hard for a novice to separate the wheat from the chaff.
“The whole reason for my book was to give people a source of the basic information they need to be successful with a planted tank.”