Real is better then fake??
 

Hello everyone, I have a 75 gallon with all artificial plant which I would like to change. I would like to know what plants I should be looking at and what plants to stay away from for my angels? What kind of substrate do I need, and do live plants require CO2 injections? thanks

I use a mix of fast growing (anacharis, vals) and slower growers (crypts, small potted, amazon swords).

For substrate is use 1" peat moss, 1" play sand, 1" pc select from bottom to top.

and yes live plants are much better.

my .02

The benefits of live plants are many indeed.

There are almost as many methods for planted tanks, from the simplest (which most of us here happen to prefer) up to high-tech. Most plants will grow healthy in any of these, with a very few exceptions.

I always prefer less when it comes to equipment, fiddling, expense. You mention angelfish, so you could go for a very authentic geographic aquascape. I wrote the series "A Basic Approach to the Natural Planted Aquarium" stickied at the head of this section of the forum that might provide some background. And for examples of my own tanks using this method, see below. The first is a flooded Amazon forest aquascape, the second an Amazon riverscape.

Byron.