Find the best fish stores specializing in aquatic plants, planted tank supplies, and aquascaping across the United States. Browse 725 stores in 44 states with ratings, hours, and directions.
A planted aquarium is an ecosystem, not a decoration. The plants filter nitrate, oxygenate the water column, shelter fry, and give your fish the kind of natural environment that visibly reduces stress and brings out color you did not know they had. But building a serious planted tank requires more than grabbing a few bunches of Elodea from a chain store. Dedicated aquarium plant shops and aquascaping stores carry tissue-cultured plants free of snails and algae, high-quality substrates like ADA Amazonia and Tropica Soil, and the CO2 equipment and fertilizers that turn a few sad stems into a dense underwater garden.
Most fish stores carry plants as an afterthought: a few pots of Anubias, some Java fern rubber-banded to driftwood, and a tank of floating hornwort. A real aquarium plant store is a different world. You will find species organized by light and CO2 requirements: low-tech foreground plants like Cryptocoryne parva and Marsilea hirsuta, mid-ground stems like Rotala rotundifolia and Ludwigia repens, and demanding carpeting plants like Hemianthus callitrichoides (HC Cuba) and Monte Carlo that need high light and CO2 injection to thrive. Many of these shops sell tissue-cultured plants from Tropica or laboratory-grown cups that arrive pest-free, with no hitchhiker snails, no algae, and no pesticides that kill your shrimp. Staff at these stores keep planted tanks themselves and can walk you through a realistic setup: what light fixture pairs with what substrate, whether you need CO2 for the plants you want, and which liquid fertilizer schedule actually works.
The substrate you choose determines what you can grow. Inert gravel works fine for Anubias and Java fern attached to hardscape, but any rooted plant with serious nutrient demands (Amazon swords, Cryptocorynes, stem plants) needs an active substrate that provides iron, potassium, and micronutrients at the root zone. ADA Amazonia is the gold standard but buffers pH down to around 6.0 for the first few weeks, which means cycling the tank before adding livestock. Fluval Stratum and Tropica Soil are solid alternatives with less dramatic pH effects. For fertilization, most planted tank keepers dose a liquid all-in-one like Thrive, APT Complete, or NilocG's ThriveS for shrimp-safe tanks, supplemented with root tabs under heavy feeders. CO2 injection is where costs jump. A proper regulator, solenoid, and 5-pound CO2 cylinder runs around $150 to $200 upfront, but the growth difference between injected and non-injected tanks is staggering. A good plant shop will demo working CO2 setups and help you calculate your bubble count for your tank volume.
Aquascaping stores do not just sell you plants. They teach you the process. A well-run shop stocks Seiryu stone, dragon stone, and spider wood alongside their plant inventory because hardscape is the skeleton of any planted layout. Staff can help you plan a composition using basic design principles: the golden ratio for focal points, creating depth with sloping substrate from back to front, and using contrasting textures between stone and wood. On planting day, the key technique is planting into a drained or very shallow tank, known as the dry start method for carpeting plants, or filling slowly after planting stems with long tweezers into the substrate. The first 8 weeks are critical. Ammonia from new active substrate fuels diatom blooms and green dust algae. The solution is not to panic but to maintain a consistent photoperiod of 6 to 8 hours, dose fertilizers on schedule, run CO2 during the light period, and do 50% water changes twice a week until the plants establish and outcompete the algae for nutrients.