"Reentrant" wrote in message
...
On 02/01/2012 15:26, Graham. wrote:

I discourage any living organisms in my fish tank except the fish!
Plastic plants, no risk of introducing those little snails that you
can't get rid of, and very little algae.

Assuming this is a freshwater tank....
You need to encourage nitrifying bacteria at the very least - normally in
the pump filter. Otherwise you'll get a build up of toxic ammonia. The
bacteria convert excreted nitrogen compounds to nitrite, then nitrate,
which would (normally) then be used by live plants.

Without live plants the excess nitrate encourages algae. Assassin snails
are very good at controlling plant snails.

Finally (IMHO) plastic plant just looks awful.
Reentrant

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I'm always careful to maintain the green bacteria in the sponge filter of my
underwater aquarium pump (fresh water), but i still get a dark green algea
growing on everything including any live plants i put in.

The plants never seem to last long. The tank is not near a window, but at
the back of the south facing room. I change ten percent of the water every
week. Reentrant any suggestions please, to get plants to live long and
without the algae?