Floating plants in low-light with no c02?

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M

Moloch

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 8, 2010
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Raleigh, NC
I'm thinking of adding some floating plants to my 55g to provide some light cover/shade for my bichirs & pictus cats. What would be a good thing to start with?

So far my only plant experience is some anubias & wisteria (and a few semi-aquatic plants that petsmart tricked me with...) I don't have any c02 systems and my light is just a single 48" t8 bulb.

Are lilly pads an option? Should I just float some anacharis or hornwort? Duckweed? I have a pretty good amount of surface movement between my rena xp3 & ac50 powerhead. Its not whirlpool turbulent, but its definitely not on the stagnant side either. Dunno if this matters or not.

Also...will anacharis or anything like that do ok planted in the sand considering my lack of c02 ferts & lighting? Any plants that will 'thrive' in those conditions?


(I'm currently looking through the stickies, just figured I'd go ahead and post the question to see if there's any input out there :))
 
Hornwort and anacharis will do fine if they make it through the acclimation process. Duckweed will live anywhere but is obnoxious- it's like living, reproducing beach sand- it gets everywhere and is a pain to remove. Most other floating plants need medium light at least.
 
Crypts might survive and grow in your set up. It's not a floating plant though. COuld try some amazon frogbit. Also Noto's suggestions are good too.
 
I have water lettuce in my low tech, low light non co2 tanks. Its larger then duck weed so easier to keep out of the filter and does not shed tiny needles all over.
 
I just thought I'd point out that true floating and floating-leaved plants get their CO2 from the atmosphere, so CO2 injection makes no difference to them. The more you know!
 
Cool I'll have to look into these. I'm hoping that whatever I go with I might be able to get some clippings from someone local & let them spread in my tank. I might try planting some crypts and floating a bit of anacharis, I think that all would look pretty good in my tank, we'll see.

Thanks for the input it should get me started :)
 
I tried frogbit in my discus tank and they would'nt grow well because of the surface movement. they like still water. silvinia is larger than duckweed and grows fast in any lighting but the same problem as duckweed. put your arm in the tank and it's covered with the stuff. got rid of all of it and found the perfect floating plant. Brazilian pennyworth. It can be planted or floated. it looks like stem plants when you get it but in a few weeks it changes into long string like plants. I use one 54 watt T8 for 6 hours, no CO2 and just 2 caps of Flourish per week. I have an open top so that might make a difference. I have pics of my tank so you can see how they look.
 
You can tie moss to some corks and grow it out. That is what I have started in my Bichirs tank and it seems to being comming along pretty well. They will move around a bit but provide good cover.
 
I don't like most floating plants, esp duckweed ... but I've had some luck with allowing anubias to float freely ... might not be to everyone taste, but I like the way it looks ...

I also tried using on of those floating "betta logs" with plants in it ... at first it didn't look good, but as the plants grew, it filled out nicely ...
 
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