Plants are the only filter in a natural aquarium, so your highest priority is to keep them healthy and vigorous. When first planted your tank will look a bit sparse, but with faster growing plants they will very soon shoot up to the surface of the water. (Especially fast plants like milfoil, pearl weed and elodea) This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that the bottom part of your plant is not really working, it’s just going up and up, and in the end it will shade out it’s own lower leaves, and end up all spindly and stemy. What we want, especially in a young tank, is sideways growth, and a nice bulky, fluffy plant. Tipping is the best way to promote lower growth and branching, but if you let them grow taller you can cut off enough to start a whole new plant. Most stem plants can be propagated by simply pocking the ends into the substrate, where they will quickly grow roots. Milfoil is one of the best at this, and it just keeps growing.
There are of course some plants you should not tip, one of which is water sprite. It is actually a genuine fern, and while each leaf can look like a whole branch, it is in fact one frond. Just imagine what will happen if you cut a tree fern leaf in half. It’s not gonna to make it branch, is it? No, it’s more likely to make it die, or simply nothing will happen at all. Another outcome is that the frond itself will slowly rot, forming multiple plantlets along it’s stem as it does so. Plantlets are generally just one baby leaf, (Fiddlehead) and a single white root. They can be pulled off and planted, but be careful not to damage them. Still, if you want to increase branching on your mother plant, it’s better to take the whole frond off to stimulate growth from the base. The same goes for all ferns
No other epiphytes should be pruned either, anubias, bolbitis, etc. They are not stem plants and do not benefit from it, except for removing dead leaves.
Fast growing plants require pruning every 1-2 weeks, while slower growing things might only need it ever 3 weeks to a month. The best way to tell when though is to just look and watch, and do a trim whenever it needs it. Stems should be cut when they have reached the surface of the water and begin to bend over at the tips. If you only intend to tip and not take a full 2 inch cutting then you can remove the freshest growth before it reaches the surface.an remove thefreshest growth before it reaches the surface.
Most of the plants I recommend for beginners are fast growing, and they’re pretty good at recovering from a hack if you go to hard, so don’t worry. Stems should be cut when they have reached the surface of the water and begin to bend over at the tips. You should then be able to take about 2 inches off, and replant the prunings. If what I take off it less than two inches I generally just chuck it. You can still plant them, but I don’t bother because I have enough plants anyway, and it’s a bit fiddly. If you don’t want to replant and just want it thicker you can taker just the very tips before they reach the surface and that’s fine too.
Plants can look a bit shabby after being pruned, but with practise it starts to look okay, and as the plant thickens. Your patch will eventually become thick enough the you don’t need any more plants, by which time you can put longer trimmings in a different tank or just discard them.
I would generally use a pair of specialised aquarium scissors for my pruning, as they have long fully metal handles and very sharp blades. Just be careful you don’t take any fins off your overly friendly fish. In the photos shown above I am using kitchen scissors because I’ve just moved house and my pruning kit is all packed, but they really don’t work as well. Sorry if the photos are a bit dodgy, I’ve been trying to use my own images rather than internet stock photos, but my camera and lighting isn’t great.
You can buy a decent kit for under $50 with some prices as low as $20 very easily if you just do a search online, or you can buy scissors separately. Ebay will always provide. I bought mine as having two pares of scissors, one straight and one curved, but the curved pair was not in the kit, which was fairly frustrating. A curved blade will certainly make the job easier.
Really, it’s not that hard, and I find it very fun. Pruning plants is the only maintenance your tank will need once it’s fully established, and isn’t that a lot easier than cleaning filters every week? If you want any help or advice about a specific plant, feel free to contact me with a question!ree to contact me with a question!
