floating plants?

trojannemo

hey guys. i have several fish that based on online information would appreciate floating plants, as well as others who dont like the brightness of my lights. so i think both of them would benefit from some nice surface floating plants no?

what are some recommended AND easily-available (at LFS) floating plants i could get?
thanks!

Jay

I would keep in mind that floating plants block out light to the plants planted in the substrate. Having said that...there are tons of plants that love to float.

Anacharis,, duck weed, water sprite, Hydrophila Difformis, frogbit, Lilly leaves etc. etc.

Jay

trojannemo

if the plants are truly free floating (i.e. moving around the surface as pushed by filter currents) wouldn't the plants get enough light? i dont want to completely cover the surface, i was just trying to provide some shade for my fish that don't like bright likes, like my male royal black emperor tetra (female seems fine for some reason) and my clown loach. i've also been told that dwarf gouramis like them.

or should i just abandon the idea?

right now i got ~3WPG on a timer to run 7 hours a day. lately i've also been opening my window shades to let the plants get some sunlight (never hits the tank directly though)

does that sound like enough light that with some shade from floating plants the ground plants wont struggle or not enough?

the whole floating plants was an idea, and thats why i ask before doing things!

Jay

IME floating plants tend to grow very quickly. Like anything else in this hobby you would have to monitor growth, prune, observe your other plants etc.

Ambient light is not usually sufficient for photosynthesis.

Fool around with it, experiment , but my bet is you will find it more hassle than it is worth, unless your planted species are very low light.

Jay

branfrog

great to see Jay is still on these boards! He-da-man when it comes to plants!!!

I had an inadvertent floating plant in the form of a water sprite! It did great and grew well and fast and multiplied often! In terms of moving with the surface current you will find that (especially in larger floating plants) the plants themselves and eventually find a nice still corner of the tank or eddy and remain in that spot.

If it is a fast grower and it isn't pruned, it will eventually form a canopy at the surface and will block the water surface agitation. I noticed during feeding I had to manually swish around the water to get the fish flakes through. It was fun for a while, but I didn't like the look of a dark tank, the fish were happy, but I couldn't see them nor my African Dwarf Frog. I removed all the watersprites from my tank now happy to bring light to my chain swords, anubias and tetras!!

hooha

easily available and more easily maintainable floating plants would be frogbit and water sprite. If you can find it Red root floater (Phylianthus fluitans) is a great floater than can be manageable.

If you decide to go with floaters, 'prune' (i.e. remove and discard/sell) them frequently or else your rooted plants will suffer. I would advise against duckweed as it can be a pain to manage (esp. with 3wpg of light) and is invasive, as well as difficult to remove completely from your tank once it's established.