Adding floating plants

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ocminpin

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I want to give floating plants a try in my tanks. What do you suggest? And do they move around and get pushed around by the filter flow?

I have:

-- 29 gal, 3 mollies, 1 platy
-- 20 gal L, lots of older various Molly fry 7 wks-10 wks 1"-1 1/2"
-- 10 gal, newborn-4 wk old Molly fry

The tanks have gravel stones, a stone decoration and a few fake plants. All have HOB filters.
 
What do you suggest? And do they move around and get pushed around by the filter flow?

Without something to attach to, they will move around the tank.

As far as floaters go, Duckweed, red root floater, frogbit, and water lettuce are all good options.
 
It depends on your lighting, but as mentioned above, those are all good. I like azolla and watermeal a lot. Duckweed is a bane to many an aquarist, and RRF/water lettuce is hit and miss for me, I grow it just fine under t5 but it always rots under anything less. (t8 etc)

And something small like duckweed will definitely get pushed around and stuck to everything and clumped up everywhere, it can be a pain depending on your setup.
 
I have in hood lights with incandescent 15 watt clear and blue 25 watt in my 10 gal.
My 20 gal & 29 gal have a 30" fluorescent 20 watt strip
 
+1 for duckweed being a real pain. It showed up in my tanks over the summer and I have to skim it off the top of my higher light tanks to let the light get down to the plants I want.
 
Most fake plants are made of multiple pieces that connect with a ball and socket joint. Pull the plant off the base and put it in the tank.
 
I have these fake plants I found at petco. They float or you can bury the base and they'll rest in the gravel. They provide cover for fish of all sizes. Especially fry.
 

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BigJim said:
+1 for duckweed being a real pain. It showed up in my tanks over the summer and I have to skim it off the top of my higher light tanks to let the light get down to the plants I want.

How does duck weed just show up?
 
Duckweed helps remove nitrates!?!? I didn't know that! Do they?

Duckweed grows and grows and grows until it can't grow any more. It doesn't hit a CO2 barrier since it's floating, so it has to hit one somewhere, which is usually nitrogen. As long as theirs nitrogen, it'll keep going (barring some other nutrient being the limiting factor, P maybe?)
 
richpowell1989 said:
I like amazon frogbit its stunning looking
Yeah. Prettier and less annoying too. When they grow long roots they look so nice. Water lettuce i heard is similar.
 
I have Duckweed, frogbit, and I've also used pennywort as a floating plant. The duckweed is kept well in control by my angelfish who eat it (in fact, they will eat it until it is all gone.)

I'd recommend trying pennywort. It's a stem plant that can be planted in the substrate but can also thrive as a floating plant. It looks nice growing across the top of a tank IMO and is easy to keep trimmed back to a managable size/amount unlike duckweed.
 
I have water lettuce in my tanks. It grows like a beast under my planted tank's lights, but it gets stunted everywhere else. Which is a good thing, because if I let it go for a week, my entire top will be covered (this is in a 55g). It's worth a shot due to it being so easy to get ahold of. Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart carry it in the summer.

Duck weed is awful! I got some because I heard rainbow fish love it as a snack. So, the LFS through in some for free. It clogged my filters in a day and just got everywhere. Took forever to get out completely.

It's a common "pest" plant that can get pulled in with other plants when you buy them. LFS tend to hate it because it clogs up their filtration and takes over the top, not giving light to the other plants.
 
TheCrazyFishLady said:
I have water lettuce in my tanks. It grows like a beast under my planted tank's lights, but it gets stunted everywhere else. Which is a good thing, because if I let it go for a week, my entire top will be covered (this is in a 55g). It's worth a shot due to it being so easy to get ahold of. Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart carry it in the summer.

Duck weed is awful! I got some because I heard rainbow fish love it as a snack. So, the LFS through in some for free. It clogged my filters in a day and just got everywhere. Took forever to get out completely.

It's a common "pest" plant that can get pulled in with other plants when you buy them. LFS tend to hate it because it clogs up their filtration and takes over the top, not giving light to the other plants.

Oh yeah! That's right, it would get pushed underwater by my filter outflow and then get stuck tothe filter intake and clog it. It was crazy annoying! Most of mine disappeared because when the water level drops it sticks to the sides of the aquarium and dries out. Jetajockey gave me a bunch to try out and I much prefer frogbit.
 
gabysapha said:
Yeah. Prettier and less annoying too. When they grow long roots they look so nice. Water lettuce i heard is similar.

I have never kept the water lettuce I heard its harder to keep but it does look good but my favourite is frogbit
 
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