Floating Plant question

[macegirl]

Gee, thanks everyone! I read though everyone's suggestions and I really appreciate all of the advice! Now I'm not sure if I should do any floating plants. I'm going for a low-maintenance tank and I'm not sure if it would be worth it to weed out excess growth on the top every few weeks. Plus, I don't want to kill the plants that are on the bottom. However, those red root floaters look really nice and I'm considering looking into some wisteria or vals to plant in the back right corner.

The heater looks like it could be hidden in the back compartment with careful manipulation if you wanted to free up some space in the tank and hide it.

I've been wanting to do this! The heater is kinda ugly. I just don't want to melt anything back there since the heater is a bit chunky and it's all plastic in the back compartment. I think the only way it would fit is if it was touching the tubing for my pump. Could my heater actually melt that tubing, or should it be okay with the constant water flow?

 

[biscuit]

I have the same tank! I'm floating java moss in that space at the top to fill that up, that's usually an issue with portrait tanks. I would keep the heater out of the back compartment if I were you, just because it might void your warranty/complaint if the pump does break.

 

[CHJ]

Hmm well this photo is in no way representative of the light making it below the surface. In real life without the camera fixing things the tank looks like the light is off.


the reason


That is the surface.
That plant is surviving the duckweed. All that lives below it are low light plants like swords and moss.
That plant will have to get even denser before it begins to look properly cool. At its current density I can set mystery snail egg clutches on it to hatch as it keeps them out of the water but humid and warm.
The corries seem a little irritated they can no longer gulp air.
That plant or one of its relatives is banned down south due to its prolific nature. In one study a 6"x 6" patch of it completely covered a 4 acre lake in like 3 months.
Whatever that specific plant is when the LFS got it in it was NFS and I had to beg and beg and promise to bring plenty back.. as you can see I shall be able to do that easily. I just need to get it dense enough that it looks good.
It seems to actually work well with frogbit as the frogbit shoves its way through and grows on top thus preventing the duckweed from killing the frogbit.

So make sure you know what surface plants you are getting into. Frogbit will do the same (I was bringing a gallon bag every week or two to the LFS before duskweed killed my frogbit).
I have had no luck with water lettuce most likely due to my HOBs shoving it under.
Red root floaters seem well behaved but I kill those too (with no HOB).
Be very wary when it comes to surface density as my frogbit killed most of my threadfins, they could shove their way through it and then ended up on the surface unable to make it back to water.

Duckweed is a scourge only suitable for feeding goldfish and koi. We now have 2 koi to deal with all the duck weed. Once one tank catches Duckweed-19 all the tanks will catch it.

 

[FishGirl115]

I would add wisteria. It'll grow up to the top, but rooted in substrate.

 

[Celestialpearl]

I've been wanting to do this! The heater is kinda ugly. I just don't want to melt anything back there since the heater is a bit chunky and it's all plastic in the back compartment. I think the only way it would fit is if it was touching the tubing for my pump. Could my heater actually melt that tubing, or should it be okay with the constant water flow?

I haven't had an issue with this, but that may be because I cut the tubing and moved my pump all the way to the left. I turned the pump around so the spout and tubing go went straight down to the right (or left depending on angle) of the spacer/brace. This allows the pump to sort of sit under that brace (see my picture where the random cord comes out). It was a waste space to have it positioned the way Marineland had it. This actually freed up space in the bottom for the heater and two small bags of biomedia, plus some off cuts of sponge. The heater is positioned in a way that it does not come into contact with anything and is far enough away from the plastics that it cannot and doesn't effect them. There is enough flow back there to pull heated water away and out through the tank. I did the same thing to a 5 gallon TopFin Retreat and the heater is a MUCH tighter fit in that tank and everything works just fine in it as well.

 

[Justin2526]

Is it bad to keep multiple floaters in the same tank together? Will one overpower the others?

Any opinions/suggestions on what the best floating plant is? I've ruled out frogbit due to root length and am considering red root floaters, giant duckweed, water spangles, and maybe salvinia... I want something that looks cool and has decent sized roots, not tiny but not frogbit so my shrimp can eat and mingle in it.

 

[UnknownUser]

I checked out all sorts of floating plants but they all seemed messy and like a lot of work since they grow like weeds. They also die if the tops of their leaves get wet, and I have a lid on my tank so they always died. I ended up floating my anubias nana and I absolutely love it as a floating plant. Lots of long roots and lots of levels of leaves on the top in which my betta loves to sleep on. And they don’t die from being wet!

 

[Justin2526]

I checked out all sorts of floating plants but they all seemed messy and like a lot of work since they grow like weeds. They also die if the tops of their leaves get wet, and I have a lid on my tank so they always died. I ended up floating my anubias nana and I absolutely love it as a floating plant. Lots of long roots and lots of levels of leaves on the top in which my betta loves to sleep on. And they don’t die from being wet!

Interesting. I'll look into that. I have some regular kind of anubias on my driftwood but haven't looked into nana. How big does it get? Might actually be awesome for shrimp to climb on and around... Although it doesn't multiply like regular floaters does it?

 

[ProudPapa]

I tried several of the conventional floating plants, but now the only ones I have are guppy grass and pearl weed. Those are both great plants for shrimp, by the way.

 

[UnknownUser]

Interesting. I'll look into that. I have some regular kind of anubias on my driftwood but haven't looked into nana. How big does it get? Might actually be awesome for shrimp to climb on and around... Although it doesn't multiply like regular floaters does it?

My oldest anubias nana (probably a year old now) has a rhizome only about 4 inches long. They come with a rhizome about 1 inch long or less. They started with 4 leaves and the biggest now has about 15. It fits nicely into my 5 gal betta tank. You’d need a lot of them or a regular sized anubias for a 10gal + tank if you plan on covering the surface. The reason I love them is because they DON’T multiply unless I cut the rhizome in half. I can pick up the plant and move it as I please, unlike with floating plants that are all individual little teeny things and get messy. They don’t require any trimming or care at all. I use thrive C because I have rotala coins in the tank but anubias don’t even need ferts! They are just so low maintenance.

 

[Justin2526]

My oldest anubias nana (probably a year old now) has a rhizome only about 4 inches long. They come with a rhizome about 1 inch long or less. They started with 4 leaves and the biggest now has about 15. It fits nicely into my 5 gal betta tank. You’d need a lot of them or a regular sized anubias for a 10gal + tank if you plan on covering the surface. The reason I love them is because they DON’T multiply unless I cut the rhizome in half. I can pick up the plant and move it as I please, unlike with floating plants that are all individual little teeny things and get messy. They don’t require any trimming or care at all. I use thrive C because I have rotala coins in the tank but anubias don’t even need ferts! They are just so low maintenance.

Awesome. I think I'll try some floating anubias nana. As for multiplying, is it just a simple cut of the rhizome or is there more to it than that?

 

[UnknownUser]

Awesome. I think I'll try some floating anubias nana. As for multiplying, is it just a simple cut of the rhizome or is there more to it than that?

Well, you need to use a very very sharp blade if you want to cut it. Because if you crush it you can damage it and kill the plant. But yes it’s pretty simple

 

[Pfrozen]

Frogbit can just be trimmed every couple weeks and its fine. You can cut the roots directly. I let mine grow tbh though, some are 16 inches long now. I think it looks great! But if you don't want to bother with that then even regular duckweed will grow roots up to 2 inches in some cases. Salvinia is beautiful imo. I have seen some stunning duckweed/salvinia combos

 

[Justin2526]

Thanks for the info. One last question. If I decide with normal floaters, could I do a combo of different types? Such as red roots, some duckweed, and some water spangles?

 

[Pfrozen]

Thanks for the info. One last question. If I decide with normal floaters, could I do a combo of different types? Such as red roots, some duckweed, and some water spangles?

of course, theres no reason not to

 

[Justin2526]

Frogbit can just be trimmed every couple weeks and its fine. You can cut the roots directly. I let mine grow tbh though, some are 16 inches long now. I think it looks great! But if you don't want to bother with that then even regular duckweed will grow roots up to 2 inches in some cases. Salvinia is beautiful imo. I have seen some stunning duckweed/salvinia combos

Okay, I'll look into that. Would giant duckweed grow roots around that long or maybe even longer?

I like the root look for maybe a shrimp tank, but in this case I'm getting some val for the back and a big sword to cover my heater area a bit and want that to be the background/centerpiece

 

[Pfrozen]

Okay, I'll look into that. Would giant duckweed grow roots around that long or maybe even longer?

I like the root look for maybe a shrimp tank, but in this case I'm getting some val for the back and a big sword to cover my heater area a bit and want that to be the background/centerpiece

any duckweed will probably grow 1 inch roots only, just saying they "can" grow 2 inch roots... you are likely fine with duckweed if you want something low maintenance. but that depends what you consider maintenance haha. i pull duckweed out of my tank every day

 

[BigGib]

Any photos of the floating Anubias?

 

[Justin2526]

any duckweed will probably grow 1 inch roots only, just saying they "can" grow 2 inch roots... you are likely fine with duckweed if you want something low maintenance. but that depends what you consider maintenance haha. i pull duckweed out of my tank every day

Hmmm. Currently leaning toward red roots or duckweed tbh...pulling doesn't seem too bad of a chore...