Floating plants/lighting

[Colin_T]

Water splashing on plant leaves continuously will cause Water Lilies, Lotus, Water Lettuce and some other plants to rot, but Water Sprite is normally fine.

 

[AquaBarb]

Water splashing on plant leaves continuously will cause Water Lilies, Lotus, Water Lettuce and some other plants to rot, but Water Sprite is normally fine.

Right ok Couple of options to try then i think, could alter spray jets to shoot water out at a different angle or i could revert back to an output nozzle.

That or just try water sprite in big tank again and the top brand frogbit in my small tank.

 

[Byron]

Gents,

Just thought, because i didnt have any sedate fish i added a spray bar in my big tank. This was to help water disturbance/circulation etc.

Would this be a problem for floating plants? Not saying this is causing them to wilt away beacause the same happens in my small tank without a spray bar. Just wondered if this could be another issue?

Not likely. If the water from the spray bar is being sprayed through the air onto the surface that might keep floating plants too wet, but I doubt that is what is occurring here. The spray bar should be along an end wall, with the row of holes directed into the end wall. You can fiddle with the positioning to get some nice surface disturbance right along the spray bar, and the current then goes down that wall and across the tank and it will be gentle enough for fish and plants.

 

[AquaBarb]

Hi Guy's,
Little update on my floating plant situation. Ive re-adjusted my spray bars flow to aim in to the back wall of my tank and down, purchased a top brand frogbit and tried Seachem's Flourish Comprehensive supplement over the last few weeks and fingers crossed it seems to be working so far.

Early days yet but the frogbits already doubled in quantity and the new fert seems to of revived the remaining duckweed i had left.

Hoping it now will work on some water sprite in the smaller tank.

Thank you for all your suggestions

 

[seangee]

Those look good, I would clear out as much duckweed as you can

 

[AquaBarb]

Those look good, I would clear out as much duckweed as you can

Not got alot of the duckweed. its in the tank for my rainbows to munch on so they keep it down.

Id love the frogbit to cover most the top surface but worry it will have an affect on my substrate plants. How do your substrate plants do with you having most your surface covered?

 

[seangee]

Id love the frogbit to cover most the top surface but worry it will have an affect on my substrate plants. How do your substrate plants do with you having most your surface covered?

The low light plants are great, in my tanks that means anubias and amazon swords. More demanding plants not so well. I have solved this in my community tank by restricting it. I use the brace bar on top of the tank but in the past I have used a loop made of airline tube. As you can see here https://www.fishforums.net/threads/back-to-black.454283/page-3#post-3841892 this gives me the best of both worlds and my vals and lotus are coming back nicely.

I have pretty much given up on vals in the nano, even though I do keep the frogbit thinner and trim the roots more often. The other tank only has anubias and amazon swords.

 

[AquaBarb]

The low light plants are great, in my tanks that means anubias and amazon swords. More demanding plants not so well. I have solved this in my community tank by restricting it. I use the brace bar on top of the tank but in the past I have used a loop made of airline tube. As you can see here https://www.fishforums.net/threads/back-to-black.454283/page-3#post-3841892 this gives me the best of both worlds and my vals and lotus are coming back nicely.

I have pretty much given up on vals in the nano, even though I do keep the frogbit thinner and trim the roots more often. The other tank only has anubias and amazon swords.

Cool tank seangee .

I saw a video earlier of someone using tubing to keep the frogbit at the edges of his tank. Might have to do some playing around to see if i can do something similar. I have amazon swords but i have stem plants what will struggle with covered light.

How are the lotus plants to keep? Ive got a couple of these on order

 

[seangee]

Here's an old pic of the same plant before I let the surface cover over

I really did think I had lost it and only found a tiny fragment when I changed the substrate, which immediately split into 2. It needs good light to be healthy and bring out the red - I have white LEDs. It also needs (I think) root tabs. When it died back i had also forgotten to replace the old root tabs so I don't know if light or ferts were the main culprit. Once it starts growing you will regularly get leaves that shoot all the way to the surface, quite literally overnight. These will get very big, pinch them off at the base when you see them and this will encourage the plant to bush out. Apart from almost killing it I think it is pretty easy

For the air tube make a loop the size you want, Then use black cotton and a rubber suction cap to tie it into place. Make sure the cotton is quite long (i.e. the rubber cap is fairly low in the tank). That way when you do water changes the whole lot will drop down and end up back in place once you are done. Works well with frogbit because you can grab any that escape and put them back. Small leafed plants like duckweed and salvinia will escape and end up all over the tank.

Once the frogbit really takes off you will be throwing out handfuls every week or 2, and trimming roots. The tank in the earlier pic I linked was trimmed heavily 2 weeks ago. Normally I would have trimmed again yesterday but my pencilfish and glowlight tetras are spawning again, so I will leave the roots for another couple of weeks. I am not actively trying to breed but happy to let nature lend a hand to boost survival rates. I got 5 surviving pencilfish fry the last time I let the roots go mad.

 

[Linda N]

I could not find anyone in the United States selling the brand of plants that Seangee recommended. I have gotten all of my plants on Amazon with little success in keeping them alive. Can someone recommend a U.S. company that they have had good experience with? I am really interested in frogbit - I love how it looks with the roots hanging down.

 

[AquaBarb]

Here's an old pic of the same plant before I let the surface cover over View attachment 94735
I really did think I had lost it and only found a tiny fragment when I changed the substrate, which immediately split into 2. It needs good light to be healthy and bring out the red - I have white LEDs. It also needs (I think) root tabs. When it died back i had also forgotten to replace the old root tabs so I don't know if light or ferts were the main culprit. Once it starts growing you will regularly get leaves that shoot all the way to the surface, quite literally overnight. These will get very big, pinch them off at the base when you see them and this will encourage the plant to bush out. Apart from almost killing it I think it is pretty easy

For the air tube make a loop the size you want, Then use black cotton and a rubber suction cap to tie it into place. Make sure the cotton is quite long (i.e. the rubber cap is fairly low in the tank). That way when you do water changes the whole lot will drop down and end up back in place once you are done. Works well with frogbit because you can grab any that escape and put them back. Small leafed plants like duckweed and salvinia will escape and end up all over the tank.

Once the frogbit really takes off you will be throwing out handfuls every week or 2, and trimming roots. The tank in the earlier pic I linked was trimmed heavily 2 weeks ago. Normally I would have trimmed again yesterday but my pencilfish and glowlight tetras are spawning again, so I will leave the roots for another couple of weeks. I am not actively trying to breed but happy to let nature lend a hand to boost survival rates. I got 5 surviving pencilfish fry the last time I let the roots go mad.

Thank you for the advise Seangee.

If my lotus grow like that ill be well chuffed. All my plants are green in my tank so the lotus will stand out nicely.

I purchased some small feeding rings to try and keep the duckweed from getting everywhere but your right it escaped. At this point tho i havent got too much and i do like some just floating about.

Ill give the air tubing ago and see if i can place it where my substrate plants wont suffer from its cover