Floating Plants

[always4lora]

just wondering how you get the floating plants to stay well floating , i got some plant which floats but gets sunk by the filter and then doesnt rise again just stays at the bottom , is there a way to kinda anchor the floating plants to the side? the current in the tank just takes the plants towards the filter then pucshed down to the bottom.

 

[aaronnorth]

what plant is it? Not all plants float (or at least they do not develop themselves to float as it is not their natural way of being planted)

 

[always4lora]

what plant is it? Not all plants float (or at least they do not develop themselves to float as it is not their natural way of being planted)

note sure, cant remember what it was , are there any that are meant to float? i've got bare bottom tank so kinda restricted to what i can have

 

[aaronnorth]

amazon frogbit
salvina natans
riccia fluitans
water lettuce

you can have plants that attach to wood/ stones like:

anubias
java fern
mosses
bolbitis.

 

[Colin_T]

if you don't have any substrate you can put the plants into pots with gravel in.

 

[always4lora]

if you don't have any substrate you can put the plants into pots with gravel in.

Would the plants grow much in pots? sounds like a ncie idea though

 

[Colin_T]

mine do. I use a 1 or 2litre icecream bucket, the bigger container for swordplants, the smaller ones for smaller plants.
I put a thin layer of lawn fertiliser on the bottom of the bucket. Then I put about 10mm of laterite, (red clay) on top of the fertiliser. Then I add a few inches of gravel and put the plant into the gravel.
The plant's roots grow through the gravel into the laterite and then the fertiliser. Each year I re-pot the plant with new fertiliser and laterite.

You don't have to use icecream buckets and can use normal garden pots. However, they have holes in the bottom that allow fertiliser and laterite to fall out of the pot into the tank.
You can silicon bits of driftwood or gravel to the outside of the bucket to make it look more natural.