Help me fix up my aquarium

I got narrow vallis and I am thinking about getting some floating plants in a bit but didn’t want to add too much at one time wondering if anyone had floating plant suggestions?

Fishareconfusing101 said:

I got narrow vallis and I am thinking about getting some floating plants in a bit but didn’t want to add too much at one time wondering if anyone had floating plant suggestions?

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You can chuck as many plants in at once as you like, they only do good things for a tank!

My main suggestion with floating plants is to avoid duckweed at all costs. It's a horrible nightmare curse of a plant I wouldn't wish on my worst fish keeping enemy (if I had one).

Any of the other larger leafed ones are great! Most common are amazon frogbit, water lettuce, salvinia, and red root floaters, any are great. I've listed those in the order of how easy I found them to continue to propagate and manage, but personal experience varies, and your water parameters and surface disturbance etc all make a difference.

But most of these are pretty easy and readily available, check out which you like, and you can basically chuck them in and let them do their thing. If they grow well and reproduce rapidly it's a good thing, means they're sucking up the ammonia from the fish rapidly and removing it from your water. If they get too much and attempt to cover the entire surface of the tank, just remove a load. Need to leave at least some surface area of the tank clear to allow gas exchange. But that's all you need to know to grow them, really!

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

My main suggestion with floating plants is to avoid duckweed at all costs. It's a horrible nightmare curse of a plant I wouldn't wish on my worst fish keeping enemy (if I had one).

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Duckweed and pest snails are the two things where "I'll just keep an eye on the population" would never work and will only lead to more suffering

Happy with my water spangles. (Ignore Vera and Pinky).

Frogbit. Water lettuce and Hornwort are for me top contenders for gouramies.

Hornwort is pretty fast and can become a bit of a hassle. Cut lower and it will double the stems every time. Cut more. get more stems growing slower. Left alone they will build up at the top of the tank and start to block your gouramies access to air.

But they will still love it even at this point.

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

My main suggestion with floating plants is to avoid duckweed at all costs. It's a horrible nightmare curse of a plant I wouldn't wish on my worst fish keeping enemy (if I had one).

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I never tried to introduce duckweed but it came with another plant I purchased I think so yeah, it grows like crazy now. You can get it to where other floaters take over better then the duckweed. I've not had any luck with red root floaters. They've hung around for a while but eventually all disappeared. Not sure if that's because or other floaters drowning them out but maybe.

Whiskyfish said:

Happy with my water spangles. (Ignore Vera and Pinky).

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I love the water spangles!

Ram419 said:

I never tried to introduce duckweed but it came with another plant I purchased I think so yeah, it grows like crazy now.

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See? See? This is another reason why I hate it! Once it's mixed in among your real plant (I.E: NOT WEEDS) floaters, it hides, and you'll never be rid of it.

I once managed to eradicate duckweed from all four of my tanks, for a solid eight months or so. Then it reappeared. With nothing new being added!!

That's why I'm convinced it can rehydrate from a dried out leaf stuck to a net or something. Or I may just be duckweed-paranoid because of my duckweed related traumas.

Ram419 said:

You can get it to where other floaters take over better then the duckweed. I've not had any luck with red root floaters. They've hung around for a while but eventually all disappeared. Not sure if that's because or other floaters drowning them out but maybe.

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I've tried four times now with red root floaters. Four times! I failed each time. Gutted, because they're beautiful and I really want them, but despite other floaters not usually being a problem, red root floaters always fail for me.

But @Essjay has the opposite issue with them and has to throw away handfuls every week. She's in soft water, mine is hard, might make a difference? I dunno, but I'm deeply envious

I might want them even more precisely because I can't keep them alive!

I'm hankering for water spangles now. The plants and tank in @Whiskyfish 's photo is making me want those now, I haven't tried them!

@Whiskyfish may I ask about the plant in the plastic cup that you're growing emersed?

Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta) is the best floating plant. It grows in most aquariums, is easy to control, and can be planted in the substrate if you get too much on the surface.

Glad to know about duckweed definitely wouldn’t want that mess! Also I have quite hard water if that makes a difference in anything.

hard water doesn't make any difference to most aquatic plants, but Vallis loves hard water.