Many believe that if you have an aquarium, you have to put fish in it. But a plant filled aquarium can be a lovely addition to a home, even if it has no fish. Some aquarium owners will choose to buy artificial plants because they've had bad luck trying to keep real plants alive. But keeping your plants alive and healthy is not really that difficult if you know what they like and need. Here are some of the main reasons that aquarium plants end up dying or not thriving well.

Not enough light. Light is very important to a plant. You can give aquarium plants all the fertilizer or food it can handle and water it religiously, but if you don't give it enough light, it won't survive for long. Most tanks these days either come with a light attached to the tank top or they come with pre-drilled holes that will allow you to install a light relatively easily. If not, most acrylic tanks will allow you to drill your own holes and set up your own lighting. Of course, another perfectly good alternative is simply to place your aquarium on the south side of your apartment or house, near a window where it will be sure to get plenty of light.

Not paying attention to your plant's roots. If the plant is a new one, the brown leaves may be nothing more than the plant adjusting to it's new home. Most plants experience some sort of shock when transplanted from one place to another. It's nothing unusual. Just give it a bit of time to adjust and it should do fine. However, if your plant has been doing well for a while and all of a sudden the leaves begin to turn brown and fall off, it may be a simple matter of the roots having come loose. Roots often come loose in aquariums, especially if you have rowdy fish that love to dig. In this case, simply replant or reposition the plant making sure that the roots are well covered and secure.

Too many plants for the space. Plants are alive and need room to grow. In the closed confines of an aquarium, it's easy to have a crowded aquarium. You have too many plants fighting for too few resources. Give your plants plenty of room to grow by providing it with a large enough aquarium to accommodate it's future growth spurts. If it starts to get a bit unwieldy, it also helps to trim it every once in a while to control it's growth.

Choosing the wrong plant for your environment. Plants, like most people, do best in their native environments. When they're transplanted, they can sometimes have trouble adjusting to the new surroundings. You may have fallen in love with the most perfect, beautiful tropical plant to your eyes. But, if you live in the northern part of Alaska, chances are your plant is not going to survive. Many times the cause of a dying plant can be traced directly back to it not being right for the environment it has been moved to.

Many times the fault lies with the purchasing. Not all animal stores or fish stores are set up to deal with plants. To most of them, plants are just a sideline. One red flag is the number of plants that the store has for sale. If they have just a few types of plants and a rather small stock, odds are that they aren't very knowledgeable about the types of plants that you may need. If many of the plants that a store has are yellowing or brown, or if the plants seem to be loosely planted and not well cared for, it's probably best to look elsewhere. The last thing that you want to do is to introduce a diseased plant into your aquarium.