Advice on floating plants

[VSA]

So I have a tank with Pygmy corys and ottos and they really don’t seem to like too much light. My thoughts are to to create a circle in the middle using airline and then have floaters all the way around.

I’m a bit worried about my filter. It’s is a low flow filter (pic below). I’m worried it my struggle to agitate the surface with floaters in and also the floaters may clog it. Does anyone have a similar set up with floating plants?

 

[RayClem]

There are many types of floating plants. Because the plants are at the surface where they get plenty of light and plenty of carbon dioxide, they tend to grow rapidly and can completely cover the surface. You can either use a ring to coral the plants or a ring to keep plant out of an area.

If you do have floating plants, I would suggest that you use a sponge prefilter on the filter intake tube. Otherwise, plants can get block the filter intake. The blockage will still occur and you will have to clean the sponge periodically, but without the sponge, it can occur frequently.

 

[kansas]

I coral my floating plants - frogbit and duckweed - using airline tube. I block the ends of the tube with safe silicone so it floats.

Maybe you could keep them away from the filter that way.

Avoid duckweed if you can. It soaks up a lot of nutrients but is a pain to deal with.

 

[VSA]

Thanks for the help.

I’m going to just use the airline tube to create a giant circle and that should keep the plants away from the filter. Then I’m going to have a smaller circle to feed through.

I’m looking at salvinia as I don’t want long roots.

 

[Cherryshrimp420]

Air stone would be better for surface agitation. It will naturally create a hole among the floaters