Plant suggestions

[AJ356]

Any suggestions for plants that will grow/do well if floating but are not traditional floating plants.

Especially ones suited to about 74 or 75 F, pH of about 7.8 and a general hardness of about 16 degrees which is about 285 ppm.

The fish load would either be quite high or low, as I have multiple tanks

I have about 15-20 ppm Nitrate from the tap, so the only plant fertiliser I want to use is something like TNC lite that doesn't add nitrogen.

I don't have any flash lighting. Cheap (ish) LED Amazon job. Not a big brand or anything.

My tanks have a fairly high flow rate near the filter, but I have plastic condensation trays I can cut and act as a partial divider in the tank to reduce water surface movement in part of the tank if needed.

 

[MattW]

I use certain stems as floating plants. I've found Limnophila sessiliflora, Hornwort, Elodea, Guppy grass, Rotala, and Pogostemon octopus do well in my tanks. Avg temp is around 22-24C. If fish load is high, I would go for Limnophila sessiliflora. It's the fastest-growing stem I've used so far. It will require cutting every now and then, as it can easily take over a tank if left alone.

This was my old tank. I had a wall of it along the back of the tank, and after a few weeks of not trimming, it crept towards the front with some stems even touching the front glass.

 

[AJ356]

I use certain stems as floating plants. I've found Limnophila sessiliflora, Hornwort, Elodea, Guppy grass, Rotala, and Pogostemon octopus do well in my tanks. Avg temp is around 22-24C. If fish load is high, I would go for Limnophila sessiliflora. It's the fastest-growing stem I've used so far. It will require cutting every now and then, as it can easily take over a tank if left alone.

View attachment 373190
This was my old tank. I had a wall of it along the back of the tank, and after a few weeks of not trimming, it crept towards the front with some stems even touching the front glass.

Perfect, thank you! I am especially interested in the Limnophila sessiliflora, and will probably order some asap

 

[Abaddon]

Are you looking specifically for plants that will spread out across the surface, or anything that can survive in the water column without being planted (like marimo balls, Java fern, mosses etc.)? Personally, I recommend water sprite & water wisteria (they will do especially well if you allow the leaves to grow above the surface - unless you have CO2), as well as ludwigia and pearl weed. Water sprite in particular will put down dense, long roots reminiscent of water lettuce or frogbit (only brown).

 

[Colin_T]

Ambulia (Limnophila sessiliflora), Hygrophila polysperma, Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta). The water sprite is normally a floating plant but can also be grown in the substrate. The Ambulia and Hygrophila will both grow tall (several feet in length) and can grow across the surface while still growing in the substrate, or it will grow on the surface when it isn't growing in the substrate. Ludwigia species are similar to the Hygrophilas in growth pattern.

 

[AJ356]

Are you looking specifically for plants that will spread out across the surface, or anything that can survive in the water column without being planted (like marimo balls, Java fern, mosses etc.)? Personally, I recommend water sprite & water wisteria (they will do especially well if you allow the leaves to grow above the surface - unless you have CO2), as well as ludwigia and pearl weed. Water sprite in particular will put down dense, long roots reminiscent of water lettuce or frogbit (only brown).

Thank you. Basically, anything that can do well in the water column without being planted/rooted. Reason being, I don't have any "display" tanks. With all my tanks, I need to be able to get in there and remove all the decor about once a month, or maybe two months, as I move fish around or rehome fry. I've also got breeding pairs of cichlids in tanks of their own, and similarly, I need to go into those tanks and move all decor out, to catch fry every few months. Plants that rely on being rooted in the substrate would not be too practical for me, right now. For a similar reason, I often find floating plants too delicate.

I am also after some nitrate reduction, I have 15-20 ppm from the tap. Ideally, I'd have a lot of growing stem plants floating around near the top of the surface, as I also don't like my tanks too bright with lighting! If i get some decent growth with stem plants near the top, I can have the more intense lighting, but it won't make the whole tank too intense with the lighting I hope.

The issue is water flow. I wouldn't like these stem plants to be moving around like they are in a washing machine. I am experimenting with using small sections of plastic condensation trays to section off about 50 or 70% of the surface area with minimal or no surface flow (with my filter outlet at the other end, the other side of the sectioned off part). I just need to be mindful of gas exchange in terms of oxygen. I'm thinking, if I get a lot of stem plants doing really well, and I don't have loads of surface agitation, I'll add a good sized air stone overnight to help address any o2 and Co2 issues for the fish.

Make sense? This is plan anyway!

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I have never had a single plant complain about my cheap, Amazon LED lights!

Good recommendations here. I often use water sprite as a nutrient sponge in new tanks; it gradually dies off as the rooted plants take over. (Or more often, I just get sick of trimming it every week and give it away!) Bacopa does well as a floater, looks nice, and won't generally go for world domination like a lot of floaters.

If you're into water column feeders that are easy to clean around, anubias will get huge if you put it on the surface, where it can grow out of the water, and give it some time. Attach it to floating decor or a piece of driftwood that almost reaches the surface, and watch what happens. Java Fern is a workhorse, too, although the further I get into the hobby, the less I like the look of it.