55 Gallon Tank Best Floating Plant?

I have taken a liking to honey gouramis recently. I have 2 females and 1 male in quarantine right now and in a few days I'll be adding them to my main tank. I know they like floating plants, especially for breeding and cover, but I currently don't have any. The frogbit I was trying to add along with them ended up turning black and withering away even in proper conditions with light and using nitrate water from my main tank for nutrients.
I was thinking of trying floating plants again for the gouramis, but I would probably like to stay away from frogbit this time. I was thinking of water lettuce since I wanted something with fairly large leaves for shading and roots for my smaller fish to take shelter in. I would also like it to be an easy plant, similar to java ferns in terms of care level. Any ideas?

 

Do you have a lid on your tank?

 

Do you have a lid on your tank?

yes

 

yes

I may be possibly wrong but I think you cant run a lid with floating plants, I have noticed at my l.f.s that the tanks with floating plants in them are lidless.
Like I said I may be wrong but I also cannot recall seeing floating plants in a tank with lids on here either.

 

I stated that an issue that people had with amazon frogbit was lids causing humidity and water on the leaves. However people said I was wrong, and that does make sense as well the amazon is humid. However I came to that conclusion after reading other threads so... If you try floating plants again I would maybe be more careful with the lid? Like you could have a lid on without issues but maybe don't let it get too humid everyday and try not to get water on the leaves to see if it helps?
Edit: Didn't say you can't have floating plants with a lid... I have giant duckweed with a lid myself.

 

Yeah, they do tend to rot-need air flow on the top of the leaves, really. Have you tried water wisteria? Not a true floater but big leaves. If it were me, I would get some, remove the lower leaves and allow it to grow close to the surface. You'd just have to keep pruning out undesireable growth the get the umbrella effect.

 

I have floating plants with a lid. It has worked for me. They are actually water hyacinths (water lettuce). I just threw them in there to keep them alive through the winter from my pond and they ended up doing ok. They get big in a pond but have stayed a decent size in my 16. I do have gaps in my lid for the filter and such so maybe that gives enough airflow?

 

You can certainly have floating plants with a lid on the tank. Just make sure the water level isnt so high that the plants are able to touch the lid. You'll want at least a half inch gap between floating plants and lid.

My recommendation for a super easy floating plant is dwarf salvinia. I've been able to grow this in all of my tanks except those with high surface flow that's just beat them to death. If anything, in some of my tanks the salvinia is a little too good at providing surface cover. In this tank I pull out and toss a cup or so of salvinia every week. The rats think the fresh greens are a great snack.