Anacharis vs. Traditional?

[cupofjoel]

Okay, so in my 75 gallon tank, I have 90% of my surface covered in Salvinia natans, a traditional type of floating plant. The issue is that I have to constantly flip over the leaves that are underwater after a water change or after maintenance is done on my other plants. This has really become an annoyance to the point where I am posting this to see if you all think covering my tank with Anacharis would be better since they can be floated. Thoughts?

 

[mbsqw1d]

I personally don't rate anacharis as a floating plant. They grow well floating, but they are messy looking. When the lights go out they tend to wilt. I've been using it as a floating plant until I can get my hands on either some frogbit or water sprite

 

[mbsqw1d]

Shown here, this is rooted on the right and growing across to the left, see how the tips arent really floating, even when I've added some airline tubing to assist with buoyancy. It could be due to the flow from my filter so if you have very little flow you might be able to control it better than I have

 

[cupofjoel]

I personally don't rate anacharis as a floating plant. They grow well floating, but they are messy looking. When the lights go out they tend to wilt. I've been using it as a floating plant until I can get my hands on either some frogbit or water sprite

I have no experience with anacharis but have heard great things about it. My water flow is low - moderate. I don't mind it looking too messy as long as they are hardy and make my water parameters healthy for my fish.

 

[mbsqw1d]

This does the anacharis a disservice as its a tangled mess, but most of this on the pic isnt rooted.. i personally dont like the look of the (white) shoots that it sends out. I prefer the look of the wispy roots that frogbit has (look at @seangee 's tanks, he's currently swapping out the frogbit for water sprite in one)

 

[mbsqw1d]

I have no experience with anacharis but have heard great things about it. My water flow is low - moderate. I don't mind it looking too messy as long as they are hardy and make my water parameters healthy for my fish.

It does grow like mad for me, I believe it does better on the colder side (under 78F) and with some hardness, 7gdh +

And yes, its meant to gobble up those nitrates.

If floating plants is your main concern I would pick something else, if a hardy plant that'll help clear nitrates is your priority then yeh, anacharis is great, and you'll have bucket loads in no time

 

[cupofjoel]

It does grow like mad for me, I believe it does better on the colder side (under 78F) and with some hardness, 7gdh +

And yes, its meant to gobble up those nitrates.

If floating plants is your main concern I would pick something else, if a hardy plant that'll help clear nitrates is your priority then yeh, anacharis is great, and you'll have bucket loads in no time

Wow, thank you for the info. Here are my main concerns:

1) I want to deal with the nitrates
2) I want to give cover to make fish feel safe/comfortable
3) I want to give cover to prevent algae on my low tech plants and substrate/rocks/wood
4) I don't want to keep maintaining floating plants that need their leaves turned over or else they rot. (This is a big one for me since it's a time killer and gets really annoying.)

Thoughts?

 

[cupofjoel]

View attachment 110623
This does the anacharis a disservice as its a tangled mess, but most of this on the pic isnt rooted.. i personally dont like the look of the (white) shoots that it sends out. I prefer the look of the wispy roots that frogbit has (look at @seangee 's tanks, he's currently swapping out the frogbit for water sprite in one)

It's a little messy, but I don't mind that look. I bet your fish feel super safe and comfortable!

 

[mbsqw1d]

I'm new to floating plants myself tbh so I'm not familiar with the maintenance side.. I think @seangee could give some quality advise here.
Anacharis I've always used when starting up a new tank and then got rid just because I don't like the look of it lol it certainly ticks all your boxes though.
If you're UK based I've got surplus if you want I can post you some

 

[cupofjoel]

I'm new to floating plants myself tbh so I'm not familiar with the maintenance side.. I think @seangee could give some quality advise here.
Anacharis I've always used when starting up a new tank and then got rid just because I don't like the look of it lol it certainly ticks all your boxes though.
If you're UK based I've got surplus if you want I can post you some

That's very generous and kind of you, but unfortunately, I'm in the States. I can easily order several stems and see how I like them in my tank. Part of this hobby is trying new things and seeing it works for you!

 

[Retired Viking]

This is my tetra tank when I had anacharis in it. I had it both flaoting and planted and made a anacharis arch and forest. My ember tetras really liked the forest and spent all day swimming around in it. I now had salvinia because I had a melt problem with my anacharis while I was using RO water to reduce the hardness of my water for my soft water tetra. I really like anacharis, mine grew over 3 feet.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

This is what the two look like side by side - Floating and Non-floating:

Floating:

(Looks really messy. Also doesn’t provide much room for fish to swim)

Non-floating:

(Looks a lot more natural. Creates more swimming room)

1) I want to deal with the nitrates
2) I want to give cover to make fish feel safe/comfortable
3) I want to give cover to prevent algae on my low tech plants and substrate/rocks/wood
4) I don't want to keep maintaining floating plants that need their leaves turned over or else they rot.

1) Yes, they will suck up Nitrates
2) I suggest getting an actual floating plant. (Salvinia is a good one)
3) Anacharis certainly does a good job of that. I don’t have any algae in my 10g, 20g, or 29g because the Anacharis takes up a lot of nutrients.
4) Can’t help you there...

 

[seangee]

I'm new to floating plants myself tbh so I'm not familiar with the maintenance side.. I think @seangee could give some quality advise here.

Just chuck it in the top and ignore it
You need to add micronutrients such as Seachem flourish comprehensive or it may die off after a few months.
My own personal theory is that you do not want too much filtration. They aren't known as ammonia sinks for nothing. That implies they need lots of ammonia to grow. I find it amusing when people sprout nonsense like "there's no such thing as too much filtration". If your bio filter sucks all the ammonia out of the water what will the floating plants feed on? Conversely if you have healthy floating plants you don't need to worry about underfiltration or ammonia spikes.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Just chuck it in the top and ignore it

 

[cupofjoel]

Just chuck it in the top and ignore it
You need to add micronutrients such as Seachem flourish comprehensive or it may die off after a few months.
My own personal theory is that you do not want too much filtration. They aren't known as ammonia sinks for nothing. That implies they need lots of ammonia to grow. I find it amusing when people sprout nonsense like "there's no such thing as too much filtration". If your bio filter sucks all the ammonia out of the water what will the floating plants feed on? Conversely if you have healthy floating plants you don't need to worry about underfiltration or ammonia spikes.

Do we always need to dose ferts? I always thought fish provided that since fish poop gives what plants need, nitrogen.