Floating Plants?

[LondonguyJ]

I'm looking to add a floating plant to my aquarium as from what I have read it's recommended for my honey gouramies. Ideally I'd like one that is sturdy and is slow growing.

All and any info appreciated

J

 

[mattlee]

amazon frogbit is a nice floater.... grows long trailing roots too that look cool

 

[LondonguyJ]

Cheers mattlee I'll look into that

 

[PDSimon]

I tried to grow amazon frogbit and it just died... I'd also like to know a low light floating plant but don't care how fast it grows

 

[LondonguyJ]

Hmm

My light cycle is 7 hours a day

8:00am-10:30am
2:00pm-3:30pm
6:00pm-9:00pm

And then my moonlight from 8:59pm-1:30am but seeing as they don't add to any growth (had them on for 3 weeks straight without any algae whatsoever) I don't include them in my "light" cycle.

In short I'm not sure if you'd class 7 hours as a low light or highlight aquarium. [/font]

 

[mbsqw1d]

elodea densa... (might not be a slow grower though)

 

[PDSimon]

Mines low tech too, 6 hours of lighting... everything else grows fine just not amazon frogbit!

elodea densa isn't a floating plant?

 

[BethK]

frog bite/greater duckweed is good, doesn't need c02 injects. could try Pennywart, Azolla and the floating heart.

I know lights are for plants but we have to remember that fish need 'dark' times to rest, equal balance with lights out

 

[LondonguyJ]

Mines low tech too, 6 hours of lighting... everything else grows fine just not amazon frogbit!

elodea densa isn't a floating plant?

Yeah I just had that confirmed via google though does look quite cool.

6 hours? can I ask what size your aquarium is. I found a link to an article on the Uk aquatic plant forum where a professional scaper explained that your plants and fish in the wild have 12hours of strong sunlight (obviously ) and that the only reason he uses less is because of algae concerns. But if you get the balance right...

My shrimp and 3 gold honeys are even more active when the moonlights are on so I'm going to try and simulate the natural shade with some floating plants to see how that affects them.

 

[PDSimon]

I have a journal in the blog section if you're interested, its just approx. 100L tank.

Most people agree on here than more than 8 is too much. The problem with having the lights on for so long is that the plants will require more nutrients and more c02 which low tech tanks just don't supply. There was a thread just the other day where someone had the lights on for too long, the plants grow faster but the nutrients and c02 needed are much more than would be clever with a low tech tank. Therefore the plants die..

Maybe there are high tech tanks that go for 12 hours but I am not familiar with those.

duckweed is probably a good idea, you could try frogbit but I think it'll just die..

 

[JoshuaA]

I tried to grow amazon frogbit and it just died... I'd also like to know a low light floating plant but don't care how fast it grows

Hey if you want any in the future Simon I can give you a few floaters, It flourishes in my tank. I started off with a piece of frobit with two leaves, one with a massive hole and the other not fully opened, it had no roots as well I put it in the tank the only root fell off haha! In the space of 3 weeks (using Flourish and Excel) I now have about 7 different plants, 5 in mine and I gave 2 to my GF. Once I've got a few more I'll happily give you some if you want. Probably takes up 1/4 of my tank surface and sits over my Amazon swords, the swords seem to be doing much better if the light being a little less intense.

Some of the roots go as long as 15cm but most are around 7/8cm.

 

[PDSimon]

Really? Mine has just all died - I had a fair bit of established frogbit too.. Some of it grown roots to about 8 cm like you say but this week has just fallen apart and made a big mushy mess! Weird.

Cheers for the offer though

 

[BethK]

si. what treatments you put in your water? i heard of someone else having issues with frogbite. she changed the plant food she was using and it sorted the issue out, weird huh

 

[PDSimon]

TPN+ and easycarbo. It might be the easycarbo but I think josh doses very similar stuff to me and has no problems

 

[JoshuaA]

I dose Flourish Excel daily, Flourish micro every 3 days and my lamp is on for 7 hours. I have around 1.4w/UK G.

It took some time to establish because I had such a broken piece of frogbit to start with but once it started going every few days it would start growing a new branch at the extended reach and then would break off forming a new plant and then every few days after that it would form another one. Really only took 3 weeks to get 7 full sized floaters out of it. I don't know how to get it to flower though!

I I don't have any surface agitation annoying it though and I've allowed the roots to tangle up in the amazon swords to keep them anchored in some sense. I use a basic floating weed to break up the surface agitation and act like a wave breaker by forming a ring around it.

In fact now I think about it, my plants have exploded in growth recently since I was on holiday. One of the swords has tripled in leafage, the bulbs have grown to half the height of the tank and doubled in leafage. The Crypt popped out a brand new leaf out of no where and had grown that to full size in 2 days. I wish my house plants were this good! The other plants I don't know their really names too...

However I have noticed my Java moss has been melting since adding the plant ferts, however it seems to have started to recover and grow back again.

I also managed to find a coconut in my local super market! Time to make some hide outs!