# Floating Plant Recommendations...



## Quizcat (Dec 21, 2014)

I've become interested in floating plants that are good at consuming Ammonia and Nitrates...I have a 29 gallon fresh water 18" tall cube tank with an HOB Aquaclear filter. I have 3 German Blue Rams, 5 Glow Fish, and 4 Corydoras.

I've considered several varieties such as frogbit, dwarf water lettuce, hornwort, just to name a few. I've ruled out Duckweed, just because of the maintenance issues. 

My tank has a glass cover, and the cover sits about a 1/2" below my Current LED light, which is flat, and the LED light fixture also sits in close proximity to the surface of the water, where the floating plants might be floating around. The light fixture is positioned probably about 1.5" - 2" from the water's surface. 

I have a few Anubias plants in the tank, which I've super glued to some resin decorations. So, I'm concerned that whatever floating plant I select, I'll need to keep it closely maintained so that it doesn't completely block out all the light, even though Anubias doesn't require much light. 

I'm looking for a floating variety that soaks up Nitrates and Ammonia well, clears the glass top when it's in the down position, doesn't require an excessive amount of maintenance, something that doesn't migrate down and become too entangled with the decorations or try to root in the substrate, and something that can absorb light positioned close to the floating plant without being adversely effected. 

Any suggestions and why?


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

I've got duckweed, and takes all of about five minutes to net out a large portion of it when I do weekly water changes.
All started with a tiny bit of the duck weed that came with some shrimp I ordered.


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## Econde (Oct 13, 2015)

roadmaster said:


> I've got duckweed, and takes all of about five minutes to net out a large portion of it when I do weekly water changes.
> All started with a tiny bit of the duck weed that came with some shrimp I ordered.


I hear ya. I ordered some Red root floaters, there was probably 5-8 pieces of duckweed on there. I was able to take most of them out from my community tank, but I left them alone in my betta tank and vase. It's not too bad really.


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Econde said:


> I hear ya. I ordered some Red root floaters, there was probably 5-8 pieces of duckweed on there. I was able to take most of them out from my community tank, but I left them alone in my betta tank and vase. It's not too bad really.


 Yes,I use fairly big net and just do figure eight's with it over the surface once a week.
I got it everywhere.:grin2:


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## Econde (Oct 13, 2015)

Quizcat said:


> I've become interested in floating plants that are good at consuming Ammonia and Nitrates...I have a 29 gallon fresh water 18" tall cube tank with an HOB Aquaclear filter. I have 3 German Blue Rams, 5 Glow Fish, and 4 Corydoras.
> 
> I've considered several varieties such as frogbit, dwarf water lettuce, hornwort, just to name a few. I've ruled out Duckweed, just because of the maintenance issues.
> 
> ...


I think any type of floaters would help you out on what you need. I'm biased towards red root floaters. Any you choose will help suck up excess nutrients from the water column. Good luck! 

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## natemcnutty (May 26, 2016)

To keep the roots shorter, silvia minima is a great choice. It also has thinner leaves that don't block out quite as much light. It does grow a bit quicker than others, but I'd imagine that is driven by amount of nutrients it is soaking up.

I also like dwarf water lettuce which doesn't get too terribly long of roots. They grow a lot slower as well, and you could always just break off any longer roots you don't like.

I have a lot of silvia minima, Amazon frogbit, and some dwarf water lettuce, and I often ship packages of all three for $5 - just enough to cover shipping and packaging materials costs. Let me know if any or all of those interest you, and I can get you taken care of


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## GrampsGrunge (Jun 18, 2012)

I can't for the life of me, grow duckweed in our water here. It hangs around and slowly turns yellow and fades away. 

But I can grow Pinnate Water Sprite floating, and I sure wish that Oakleaf Water Sprite( Ceratopteris Cornuta ) was more available, as it's a much better as a floating water fern. Locally there's a native Hornwort here that does well in our water, but it's home to some nasty little Annelid diatom worms that have spines that hurt my fish.

I also can grow one of my varieties of Java Fern as a floating plant, but they tend to 'ball up' with the leaves all curled around themselves.


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## theatermusic87 (Jun 22, 2014)

I'm not sure how well frogbitand or water price would fair with a lid, they like to stay dry on the leaves and that much humidity might be an issue. Don't believe the people saying duckweed is fine, it will drive you nuts. It gets everywhere and on everything and during water changes it gets stick in decorations and plants and makes your tank look like a snow globe.i would recommend Silvana or red root floater since they're the best fit with what you're looking for

As to light penetrating, you should be fine with Anubias even if the surface gets packed with floaters. The light filtering through is enough to get decent growth


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## ustabefast (Jan 24, 2017)

I use Pearlweed as a floater. It's very versatile as I trim it and use as groundcover in my Medium light tank and then just float the trimmings in my 10 gallon and 20 gallon tanks.
The individual plants will clump together and form a nice mass and should not block out too much light for your Anubias.


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## someoldguy (Feb 26, 2014)

Frogbit . Works fine for me using lids . Can't stand duckweed , spreads like wildfire , tough to get rid of , especially if you've got multiple tanks .


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## Fishbeard (Aug 20, 2016)

I've been looking into floating plants for my 20g high as well, and through some research I stumbled on using Brazilian Pennywort as a floating plant... does anyone have experience with that?


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## sohankpatel (Jul 10, 2015)

Red root floaters, big leaves, grows at a manageable rate, and the roots are fairly short. They also do a good job keeping nitrates down.


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## Aquamom (Oct 1, 2010)

Anacharis and/or Elodea are good floaters, along with hornwort, which is what I have in my tanks. Duckweed became a real pest in my 20, blocking out the light. I finally got rid of all of it, and won't be introducing it again. Conversely, it's fine in my outdoor pond. Red root floaters I've never been able to find, but would like to try those. Do they thrive in a cooler water tank? How much light will they tolerate?


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## Big Blue Frog (Jul 9, 2016)

Red root floaters are a favorite of mine.I grow them outside up here in Maine during the summer. In full sun, they are all red but fade when I take them indoors in the fall.More light inside equals more red and vise versa.I could send you some in warmer whether.


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## Quizcat (Dec 21, 2014)

*Nitrate Absorption Rates?*

Since the floaters multiply rapidly, which could also be a detractor with respect to most floating varieties, they're going to process more in Nitrates on the whole, based solely on their ability to multiply and rapidly out pace other types of plants in the tank. 

If the fast proliferation of floaters multiplying versus a slow growing plant like Anubias, then it's logical to conclude that you're going to end up with a higher rate of Nitrates being processed by the whole when comparing Anubias, which grows more slowly, and is customarily planted in a lesser volume than what floaters can achieve in a very short time at their peak. 

Anybody know the actual rates at which Anubias can process Nitrates by weight over time, versus the volume of Nitrates floaters are capable of processing by weight over time? 

I'm just curious if you can start out planting something like Anubias in an equal weight by volume to what would eventually accrue in a very short time from floaters, which would eventually be covering the top of the tank. Would you end up with an equally impressive Nitrate processing capability from Anubias, if you just planted more of it, equal to what would accrue from the floaters at their peak by weight. 

On the other hand, if the floaters process at a faster rate by equal volume, then floaters are the obvious preference to planting more of other kinds of less invasive, slower growing, and lower maintenance plants.


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## DavidZ (Nov 17, 2009)

What does silvia minima look like?


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## Quizcat (Dec 21, 2014)

I used to have some Pennywort that was actually planted in the substrate, and it did well, with very little maintenance. But, it's kind of all over the place, the stems floating into a pretty wide footprint when planted, and I think that were it just on top, the stems would migrate down quite a bit into the tank's water column...but, I liked it. It struck me as kind of a dainty plant, not like some of the floaters that have the thick root systems, etc...Were I to guess, I'm not sure it would process a lot of Nitrates in comparison to some other varieties, but as I mentioned before, I'm not sure what the rates of Nitrate consumption are for these different varieties of plants based on their weight. It would be nice to know how we can judge a plant's efficiency at processing Nitrates based on volume. Volumetrically (is that word?) you'd probably need a ton of Pennywort compared to some varieties of the thick rooted floaters, but that's just a guess. We need to have a botanist on here... 



Fishbeard said:


> I've been looking into floating plants for my 20g high as well, and through some research I stumbled on using Brazilian Pennywort as a floating plant... does anyone have experience with that?


It has a smaller diameter leaf, and a dwarf water lettuce kind of root system. It appeared to me to have a shorter root system than frogbit. But, maybe in the photo I saw of it from the side in a tank, the owner had trimmed the roots. 

I think you're on the right track in considering silvinia minima, aka water spangles...Google Water Spangles, or Silvinia Minima, and you'll see all kinds of photos. I think there was a typo before from one of the contributors, and I couldn't find it online either, but it was merely a typo in his post that through me off.

I seemed to have read or seen somewhere that it has a tendency to get caught in HOB filters, and that it's relatively fragile when shipped to cold climates. I live in a cold winter climate. Maybe something to consider ordering this spring though. It does have the most promise compared to most of the floater varieties I've seen, at least with respect to the look I'm interested in. 

I like the look of the leaf of the water spangles (silvinia minima), and if the root system is slightly shorter than frog bit, and it's not as prolific as duck weed, then that's what I think I want. 


Bump:


DavidZ said:


> What does silvia minima look like?


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## Econde (Oct 13, 2015)

DavidZ said:


> What does silvia minima look like?


Image from google, not mine.:smile2:


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## maxhrbal (Mar 19, 2016)

I also don't use duckweed anymore...LOL. I love water lettuce. Sucks up nutrients etc and grows like a weed. Better than submerged floaters(more access to co2) 


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## timnc1 (Feb 9, 2017)

natemcnutty said:


> To keep the roots shorter, silvia minima is a great choice. It also has thinner leaves that don't block out quite as much light. It does grow a bit quicker than others, but I'd imagine that is driven by amount of nutrients it is soaking up.
> 
> I also like dwarf water lettuce which doesn't get too terribly long of roots. They grow a lot slower as well, and you could always just break off any longer roots you don't like.
> 
> I have a lot of silvia minima, Amazon frogbit, and some dwarf water lettuce, and I often ship packages of all three for $5 - just enough to cover shipping and packaging materials costs. Let me know if any or all of those interest you, and I can get you taken care of


I am in SC, would be interested in some silvia minima and frogbit.... 

Thanks
Tim


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## Quizcat (Dec 21, 2014)

*Would Like Some Too!*

Hello Natemcnutty,

I would also be interested in some silvinia minima, and some dwarf water lettuce. It is supposed to be in the mid 50's beginning tomorrow and all of next week, so it might be a good time to ship it right about now. Let me know how to go about paying your for it, shipping address, etc...Thanks!




natemcnutty said:


> To keep the roots shorter, silvia minima is a great choice. It also has thinner leaves that don't block out quite as much light. It does grow a bit quicker than others, but I'd imagine that is driven by amount of nutrients it is soaking up.
> 
> I also like dwarf water lettuce which doesn't get too terribly long of roots. They grow a lot slower as well, and you could always just break off any longer roots you don't like.
> 
> I have a lot of silvia minima, Amazon frogbit, and some dwarf water lettuce, and I often ship packages of all three for $5 - just enough to cover shipping and packaging materials costs. Let me know if any or all of those interest you, and I can get you taken care of


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## Paige C (Jul 28, 2021)

natemcnutty said:


> To keep the roots shorter, silvia minima is a great choice. It also has thinner leaves that don't block out quite as much light. It does grow a bit quicker than others, but I'd imagine that is driven by amount of nutrients it is soaking up.
> 
> I also like dwarf water lettuce which doesn't get too terribly long of roots. They grow a lot slower as well, and you could always just break off any longer roots you don't like.
> 
> I have a lot of silvia minima, Amazon frogbit, and some dwarf water lettuce, and I often ship packages of all three for $5 - just enough to cover shipping and packaging materials costs. Let me know if any or all of those interest you, and I can get you taken care of


Do you still have these plants that you ship/sell? I’m interested in adding some more floaters in my 40 gallon breeder. Thanks


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## redmary51 (Mar 17, 2011)

Big Blue Frog said:


> Red root floaters are a favorite of mine.I grow them outside up here in Maine during the summer. In full sun, they are all red but fade when I take them indoors in the fall.More light inside equals more red and vise versa.I could send you some in warmer whether.


You sound like someone very familiar with red root floater. Hope you can advise me. I recently purchased a small amount for my 29 gal, low tech tank with a glass lid and a Nicrew SkyLED Plus light at 40%. At first they seemed to do really well, new leaves beginning to grow, etc. Now, the roots are still red, but the leaves don't look healthy at all. They have brown spots and/or holes. I have them trapped in a calm area with light directly above them. I fertilize with Flourish twice a week, add potassium every third day and Excel every-other-day. The only test kit I have is the API Freshwater Master Kit. Water seems to be good. I do about a 1/3 water change weekly when the nitrates get between 5 and 10 ppm. The colors are hard to distinguish.

My other plants - anubias nana petite, java fern, Ozelot fern, wysteria, crypts, cardinal plant, jungle val, bacopa or something that looks like it - are doing good. I bought a plant package and they sent me a bunch of stem plants, so not sure what they are.

Any help with these little cuties will be appreciated.


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