Aquarium design with background plants
The commonly used plants for the background grow tall, upwards there are virtually no limits depending on the aquarium height. Very long growing pure aquatic plants like Vallisneria or Myriophyllum can be allowed to float nicely along the water surface in the current. Swamp plants such as Rotala, Ludwigia or Cabomba, which in nature grow not only under water but also above it, can be allowed to grow above the water surface. This has a very natural effect, especially in open pools. Some stem plants can even flower above the water surface. Often the above water parts of the plant also take on the emerse form, which can sometimes make a nice contrast to the leaves growing under water. If you let the plants flood, you must of course make sure that they do not shade the foreground and middle ground too much - or you should then fill these areas with plants that grow well even with a little less light, such as cryptocorynes, ferns and mosses.
If you want to keep the water surface clear, the background plants must either be cut off at the appropriate height, which is easily possible with Vallisneria, for example. In the case of stem plants, simply cut off the upper parts of the plant, which have often grown more beautifully due to their closer proximity to the light, and tuck them into the substrate. Especially older plant parts in the lower part of the background sometimes don't look very nice after some time, because the plants drop their leaves due to the often occurring lack of light in this area. You can simply remove them, the newly set cuttings quickly sprout roots and then also soon start to grow. If you do not want to cut and replant at regular intervals, you can simply conceal this area with appropriate decoration and planting in the middle ground and then concentrate entirely on caring for the sections of stem plants further up.
In the background, it has proven useful to resort to a rather calm planting with few species and less contrasts, especially if you have chosen a lively mixture of different colors and different leaf shapes for the foreground and the middle ground. In this way, these contrasts can develop optimally, as if in front of a calm canvas. Of course, interesting eye-catchers can also be set in the background.
Perspective design
If you reverse the matter and, for example, place plants that remain smaller on lateral substrate mounds or stone structures in the background, while placing rather taller plants relatively centrally in the middle ground, you can also achieve a strong perspective effect in this way - the short plants in the back look like a forest on hills in the far distance, the taller plants in the middle ground like a forest in closer proximity.
Background planting in the nano aquarium
The background can also be beautifully planted in the nano aquarium. For this, you should fall back on rather slender growing plants, which are used in the middle ground of larger aquariums and do not exceed a height of about 20 to 30 cm.
For the appropriate all-round supply of your aquarium plants in the background with all important nutrients, we recommend our NatureHolic plant fertilizers. Especially for fast-growing background plants, a good supply of macronutrients and micronutrients is important.