Floating Plant Suggestions?

[Water Wiggler]

In the right conditions, hornwort should be fine. Else, like a Christmas tree in March. Anacharis will melt with Excel or Glutaraldehyde. Otherwise, an undemanding plant.
Fake duckweed? Like green confetti.


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Thanks! I guess I should've listened to this advice from the start! Ha, ha! I would really like red root floaters, but this is a nice compromise. It will provide everything I need in a floating plant...and it's real and most likely sold at Petsmart. It will float happily in my surface agitated tank. I feel confident that I can keep this alive. As for the hornwort, I'm pretty sure it will shed its needles if I look at it the wrong way. Ha, ha! Thanks so much for your help!

P.S. The fake duckweed even has little fake roots! Ha, ha!

 

[Water Wiggler]

I may try water wisteria instead. It seems like it's just as easy to care for...and it's much nicer looking. What do you think?

 

[jetajockey]

It's a nice plant, I have a ton of it in my tanks as well as outside. Any plant you get is going to use fertilizers, the faster growing the plant is, the more it uses. A lot of times whatever is being produced by the fish in the tank is enough, it just depends.

 

[Water Wiggler]

I am going to try to get away with no fertilizers. Wisteria and anacharis seem perfect for beginners. I'm researching pennywort, too. It seems to have a lot of what I'm looking for in a floating plant without the sensitivity to water agitation and tank hoods. I may be wrong about that. Still researching.

For now, what I get will be eating ammonia and nitrates. In another week, I'm hoping to have my celestial pearl danios! The plants will then have their poop! Do you know if wisteria and anacharis do okay in a tank with a hood? Pennywort? I forgot to check on that.

 

[jetajockey]

I don't think having a hood plays a part as long as the plants are submerged.

 

[Water Wiggler]

I don't think having a hood plays a part as long as the plants are submerged.

Thanks! I think I'm going to stick with the wisteria. It seems that the pennywort is too much like the floating plants that don't like surface agitation.

 

[Fishfur]

What I learned from my first planted tank, which had a standard old fashioned single tube hood on it, was that plants only grew under the tube. Because the water did circulate, thanks to the filter, any plant that did not spend the majority of it's time under the tube did not live long. My first frogbits died, thanks to being shunted away from the light. It's not the turbulence that's the problem, it's being pushed away from the only light source for too long.

Now, my solution to that was to lose the hood entirely. I put 3 round clamp lamps over it, each with a 23W spiral 6500 K bulb. Frogbit grew under those, and so did most of the low care stems. No carpet types would grow with it, hardly a surprise.

There is one wonderful plant that is dead easy to grow and very, very versatile, but getting it might be tough. Guppy grass, Najas guadalupensis, is a subsurface floater. It will root into substrate, or sponge, or onto wood or rock. It has a lovely, somewhat ferny look to it, but doesn't shed like hornwort. It will float at any level and if allowed, fill an entire tank something like moss will.

It's outstanding for fry, shrimp, shy fishes. It won't provide shade, like a surface floater will, but it will break up sight lines and for CPD, that's the main thing. The males fight if they can see each other all the time, so having plenty of broken sight lines is best. Rocks and wood work as well as plants for this purpose. You can even bury a stem of guppy grass and it will send up new stems from every node. Very versatile. It does not ship very well, so it's often only available from a hobbyist you can reach in person.

Another floater that's nice is water sprite. It's low light, not demanding, and sprouts little plants from almost every leaf notch, as well as putting out runners. It is often sold potted, and grown that way is very fine and ferny looking, but if you let it float, it will grow floater leaves instead. Wide & flat with wavy edges, and large. Dense roots hanging down, can be trimmed back if too dense. Very easy to control when it gets large too, and a constant supply of young ones to grow on.

Best to let whole rooted stems float until they grow the new leaves, breaking them into pieces seems to kill them as often as not, but you can crack the stem on one side to speed things up. If you can get one that's grown floating, all the better.

 

[Water Wiggler]

Thank you so much for your detailed message! I will keep all of these suggestions in mind for the future. Alas, there is no way I can have an open tank, right now. I have two cats.

I decided to go with anacharis. In my opinion, it's not the best looking floating plant, but it seems best for my needs. I'm still very new at planted tanks. The majority of my plants in my 10 gallon are silk. My first attempt at planting was attaching java moss to cholla wood for my future shrimp. I feel very accomplished since the java moss is still alive. Ha, ha! It doesn't appear to be growing much, but it's alive!

If I can get through the initial transplant shock of the anacharis without being miserable because I assume I killed the plant, I think I'll be okay! The only thing that might kill it is my heater, which is set automatically to 78F. We shall see! It will give my CPDs a lot of top cover. I hope they like it! I hope the future shrimp like it, too!

 

[trennamw]

I really like brazilian pennywort. I can't figure out how to empty my attachments or I'd show you a pic.

But what I did was trim a bunch of stems down and hook them around the heater cord where they "v". Then hooked them around each other. Then instead of looking stringy and weedy they looked dense and cohesive. My betta loves them.


Sent from my iPhone with three hands tied behind my back.

 

[Fishfur]

Pennywort is really nice when it's healthy and growing. It will grow out of the water, btw, if you allow this. It can grow a remarkable amount outside a tank, either up a string or hang over the tank and grow like a hanging plant.

I like the way it sort of looks like steps as each new leaf grows out. Handy trick to keep it where you want it, hooking it on heater and it certainly will float. You might have to trim off the growing point now and then as it will try to put the new growth up and out of water when it's floating.

 

[Water Wiggler]

I really like brazilian pennywort. I can't figure out how to empty my attachments or I'd show you a pic.

But what I did was trim a bunch of stems down and hook them around the heater cord where they "v". Then hooked them around each other. Then instead of looking stringy and weedy they looked dense and cohesive. My betta loves them.


Sent from my iPhone with three hands tied behind my back.

It sounds like a nice plant! I may consider it for my 5 gallon betta tank. Is your tank covered? Ever since the frogbit I tried melted, I've been a little leery of trying anything except for the most hardy plants for beginners. I've got a cat that regularly visits my betta, so an uncovered tank is not an option.

 

[Water Wiggler]

Pennywort is really nice when it's healthy and growing. It will grow out of the water, btw, if you allow this. It can grow a remarkable amount outside a tank, either up a string or hang over the tank and grow like a hanging plant.

I like the way it sort of looks like steps as each new leaf grows out. Handy trick to keep it where you want it, hooking it on heater and it certainly will float. You might have to trim off the growing point now and then as it will try to put the new growth up and out of water when it's floating.

It sounds lovely, but if it grows out of the water, I bet the humidity will get to it like it did my frogbit. I have to have a covered tank because of my curious cats. Pennywort also seems as delicate as the frobit. I bet it wouldn't like the surface turbulance that my bubble breathing dragon creates. Sigh. There's so much compromise in this hobby...bubble breathing dragon or pretty floating plants because ya can't have both!

 

[Fishfur]

Actually, frogbit grows extremely well in a covered tank. I have loads of it growing in my frog's tank, which is entirely glass covered. There is about two inches below the glass that's air. They don't melt from humidity, but they do melt from lack of light. They need bright light, I have a 23W spiral 6500 K bulb about eight inches above the glass and they grow very, very well. If I had the lamp closer, they'd grow even better, they'll get dark browny red streaks on the leaves which means they are super happy with their light.

If you have a older type of hood, especially a black plastic one, that only has one tube in it which is usually at the back or front of the hood, so that when the water circulates, floating plants are carried around and get stuck in corners or spend half their time under the unlighted portion of the hood, then, yeah, frogbit just fades away. It needs the light available all day.

They also need feeding, having fish should be enough but in my betta tank I add a drop of Flourish fert about twice a week.

Pennywort won't melt from humidity either, it likes it fine. It can also cope with less than high humidity but I'm not sure if it will grow in really dry air.

 

[Water Wiggler]

Actually, frogbit grows extremely well in a covered tank. I have loads of it growing in my frog's tank, which is entirely glass covered. There is about two inches below the glass that's air. They don't melt from humidity, but they do melt from lack of light. They need bright light, I have a 23W spiral 6500 K bulb about eight inches above the glass and they grow very, very well. If I had the lamp closer, they'd grow even better, they'll get dark browny red streaks on the leaves which means they are super happy with their light.

They also need feeding, having fish should be enough but in my betta tank I add a drop of Flourish fert about twice a week.

Pennywort won't melt from humidity either, it likes it fine. It can also cope with less than high humidity but I'm not sure if it will grow in really dry air.

Ah. Ok. Good to know. In my 10 gallon, I have a 15 watt T8 red spectrum light that is supposed to promote plant growth. It's on a timer set to be on for 8 hours. I guess that wasn't enough for the frogbit. Either that, or it wasn't happy about not having fish. I'm cycled, but I'm having a terrible time getting the fish that I want. Maybe that's it.

 

[Fishfur]

Fish don't bother them, unless you have goldfish that eat them ! Fish usually like hiding under them and feeding from those dense root hairs. Does that lamp tell you what the K value is ? Colour temperature or K number ? May have been on the package, should be on the bulb itself. Some bulbs being sold as good for plants don't have a high enough colour temp. Ideal is 65-6700 K. If there's no number, see if the store can find out from the manufacturer, or look up the manufacturer web site and ask them what the colour temp is.

I saw one tube labeled as plant growth, which turned out to be only about 4600 K and that is just not enough light. It may have done for a light garden, where the tubes are held only an inch or so over the plants, but not for water plants.

I had a 5G hex tank with a tube in it that did not work. Couldn't fix it, so I modified it to use two spiral bulbs instead. I put a pair of 6500 K spirals in it, and that thing will grow frogbit so well they almost flowered. I grew some outside one summer and they DID flower.. not that the flowers are much to talk about, but it was neat to see one.

Main thing is enough light. If you have the light and there's enough nutrient in the water, frogbit is nearly bullet proof. They don't even need carbon from the water, like most floaters they get their carbon from air.

 

[Water Wiggler]

Fish don't bother them, unless you have goldfish that eat them ! Fish usually like hiding under them and feeding from those dense root hairs. Does that lamp tell you what the K value is ? Colour temperature or K number ? May have been on the package, should be on the bulb itself. Some bulbs being sold as good for plants don't have a high enough colour temp. Ideal is 65-6700 K. If there's no number, see if the store can find out from the manufacturer, or look up the manufacturer web site and ask them what the colour temp is.

I saw one tube labeled as plant growth, which turned out to be only about 4600 K and that is just not enough light. It may have done for a light garden, where the tubes are held only an inch or so over the plants, but not for water plants.

I had a 5G hex tank with a tube in it that did not work. Couldn't fix it, so I modified it to use two spiral bulbs instead. I put a pair of 6500 K spirals in it, and that thing will grow frogbit so well they almost flowered. I grew some outside one summer and they DID flower.. not that the flowers are much to talk about, but it was neat to see one.

Main thing is enough light. If you have the light and there's enough nutrient in the water, frogbit is nearly bullet proof. They don't even need carbon from the water, like most floaters they get their carbon from air.

Hmmm. I suspect I have a dud of a light. I have a 10 gallon tank. It's an Aqueon Floromax Plant Growth 18"L T8 freshwater 15 watt lamp. Other than a little graph that shows that the spectrum is mostly red, that's all that I see. I have the package right here. There is nothing more on the bulb either. I got it at Petco.

My java moss isn't growing as fast as I thought it would. Maybe it's the light. I think I've been bamboozled! Is there a better light that I can get at Petco/Petsmart that will actually work. I'm nearest those chain pet stores, unfortunately.

We may have the same 5 gallon hex. Does yours have a bio wheel. That's where my new betta fish lives! I have this guy for my 5 gallon: Aqueon® Mini Compact Fluorescent Aquarium Lamp | Lights | PetSmart
I don't use the light often in that tank because I don't want the betta to freak out too much seeing his reflection. The java moss again isn't growing much, but it's green.

 

[Fishfur]

My hex I got used, no filter or anything came with it. I got it cheap because the light didn't work. And it got busted, but I still use the hood it had to light a standard 5.5 G, and it does a fair job, though there are those two cut off corners in front that don't get as much light. So far, doesn't seem to matter too much.

I usually try to get bulbs that are rated at least 6500 K. I don't care if they say they're good for plants or not.. I just want that K rating. It works. I don't have Petco stores, I don't think they're in Ontario, we just have Petsmart. I am not sure what they'd have that would work but if it uses a standard size of aquarium tube, you should be able to get a 6500 K tube that will work in it.

If possible, you might try to get a small shop light or utility lamp with a reflector. I think the smallest shop lights are two feet long and you can certainly get 6500 K T12 tubes for them. I would guess they'll eventually be replaced by T8 tubes. The clamp lamps I've used for tank lighting are not costly, and you'd get all these at a place like Home Depot. The clamp lamps have an 8 inch, or in some cases maybe a 10 inch, round aluminum reflector, and take standard screw base bulbs. Just get Daylight type spiral bulbs, rated at 6500 K, and for a 5G, I've been using a pair of them that are, I think, 13 watts each. You can get an adaptor that allows you to put two screw in bulbs in one socket.. they work with the 8 inch and 10 inch utility fixtures. If you put in two, you'll have quite strong light for a 5G. I use one of these on top of my Betta tanks, 2.5 G, it sits right on the tank rim, with an 11 W daylight bulb in them. Grows anubias, moss and Hygro difformis very well, and some frogbits too. Though the frogbits are temporary, I'm selling them next week. I hang the lights from anything handy and have built holders for them out of electrical conduit, the grey PVC kind. Or you can take off the clamps and just put a wire bail on them to hang from some sort of support. I like making my own gadgets more than buying new ones, though I have to say the newer aquarium lighting is pretty nice looking.

Btw, Bettas shouldn't freak out because the light's on. They don't see their reflections in the glass from inside the tank, it's an optical illusion that we see looking in from the outside. Unless there is a mirror he can see himself in ?

I have my 2.5 tanks side by side with Bettas, and just a piece of plastic mesh between them to make the view less interesting so they don't flare all the time. I pull it out every day or two and let them get some exercise making nasty faces at each other for awhile.

 

[Water Wiggler]

My hex I got used, no filter or anything came with it. I got it cheap because the light didn't work. And it got busted, but I still use the hood it had to light a standard 5.5 G, and it does a fair job, though there are those two cut off corners in front that don't get as much light. So far, doesn't seem to matter too much.

I usually try to get bulbs that are rated at least 6500 K. I don't care if they say they're good for plants or not.. I just want that K rating. It works. I don't have Petco stores, I don't think they're in Ontario, we just have Petsmart. I am not sure what they'd have that would work but if it uses a standard size of aquarium tube, you should be able to get a 6500 K tube that will work in it.

If possible, you might try to get a small shop light or utility lamp with a reflector. I think the smallest shop lights are two feet long and you can certainly get 6500 K T12 tubes for them. I would guess they'll eventually be replaced by T8 tubes. The clamp lamps I've used for tank lighting are not costly, and you'd get all these at a place like Home Depot. The clamp lamps have an 8 inch, or in some cases maybe a 10 inch, round aluminum reflector, and take standard screw base bulbs. Just get Daylight type spiral bulbs, rated at 6500 K, and for a 5G, I've been using a pair of them that are, I think, 13 watts each. You can get an adaptor that allows you to put two screw in bulbs in one socket.. they work with the 8 inch and 10 inch utility fixtures. If you put in two, you'll have quite strong light for a 5G. I use one of these on top of my Betta tanks, 2.5 G, it sits right on the tank rim, with an 11 W daylight bulb in them. Grows anubias, moss and Hygro difformis very well, and some frogbits too. Though the frogbits are temporary, I'm selling them next week. I hang the lights from anything handy and have built holders for them out of electrical conduit, the grey PVC kind. Or you can take off the clamps and just put a wire bail on them to hang from some sort of support. I like making my own gadgets more than buying new ones, though I have to say the newer aquarium lighting is pretty nice looking.

Btw, Bettas shouldn't freak out because the light's on. They don't see their reflections in the glass from inside the tank, it's an optical illusion that we see looking in from the outside. Unless there is a mirror he can see himself in ?

I have my 2.5 tanks side by side with Bettas, and just a piece of plastic mesh between them to make the view less interesting so they don't flare all the time. I pull it out every day or two and let them get some exercise making nasty faces at each other for awhile.

Thank you SOOO much for telling me what to look for in a light! From now on, it's 6500 K or bust! This hobby is such a learning experience!

It's also good to know that a betta shouldn't see his reflection, even in a hex tank. My betta is just fine now. He scoped out his territory the first full day I had him, and he has been fine ever since. He swims around like a happy betta, now. I absolutely love him!!!

 

[monsteridea]

As some have said... I loved Duckweed when I had it in my first planted tank. It does very well with keeping the tank clean. It does, however, grow A LOT. And fast. You will be scooping some out every once in a while... Still need to find some for my little tank. I loved watching the shrimp hang upside on the little roots. ^_^

 

[Fishfur]

I've noticed a number of snails that appear to enjoy sailing around hanging onto duckweed too.. and other floaters. Even my fan shrimp, some of which are quite sizeable now, sometimes choose to filter feed hanging upside down from floating leaves.. duckweed won't hold one of these guys, but frogbit will. Baby shrimp sometimes appear lined up and down the frogbit roots, almost like beads on a chain.

Duckweed works quite well but I sure get sick and tired of scraping it off my hands, arms, tank glass or rim and parts of the filter. I have L. major in my frog tank but only until the frogbit grows enough that I can get rid of the duckweed. I may keep some in a small tank just in case, but I don't ever want it in anything over a 5G again. I'm trying to grow out some Azolla in a 5G, because it's much prettier, while doing the same job as duckweed. It'l turn bright red under sufficient lighting and to me it looks like lichen, due to the feathery texture it has. It's actually a tiny floating fern, which will also root into very wet soils sometimes.