Removingt is easy for larger plants. Simply lift it out. The only plant the is known to be difficult to remove is duckweed. The plant is very small to begin with a new plant can be too small to see. So if you miss one leaf it will quickly grow back.
To remove it in may tank I had to remove every bit I could see once a day for months. I currently have
salvinia minima and red root floaters in my tank.
Actually there was a post on this site a couple of years ago about duck weed dying off. The one thing the will prevent a floating plant from doing well is a lack of nutrients in the water. If you have very soft water and few fish. Without nutrients from fish waist or what is naturally in your tap water plants will not grow and can die off. So in some cases you need to use a fertilizer to grow plants. Several things to remember about floating plant:
- They get he CO2 they need directly form the air. So CO@ is not needed.
- They trypically grow in pond or lakes in direct sum light with in general is typically much brighter they any indoor light. So your tank lights will not burn or damage the plant. And also they are also tolerant to low light levels.
- Floating plant are most commonly found wet areas that get a lot of rain. Also wind can create waves and spray that put drops of water on the top of the leaf. So all heathy floating plants will not rot or die do to water on top of the leaf.
- Many can survive total submersion in the tank with no contact with the air for weeks or even months. So high current across the top of the tank will not harm the plant.IN fact Duckweed,
- salvinia and
- red root floaters have actually grown in my tank while totally submerged with no air contact.
So if you consider all of the above the only thing that kills or makes floating plants difficult to grow is lack of Nitrogen, potassium, calcium, mangnesium, phosphate, sulfur, chlorine, iron, manganese, boron, Zinc, copper, molybdenum, and nickel. These are called essential nutrients .If just one is missing any plant will not grow or reproduce and will eventually die. Alll must be present for growth. And unfortuanlyately using any fertilizer is not a guarente that all nutrients will be present.
