How many of you use floating plants?

T

TomFromStLouis

I am a god to my angels
Feb 26, 2003
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St. Louis MO USA
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I always seem to have some escaped riccia circulating around the top of the tank and have got to admit I am not too fond of the look. It would be awesome as a fry haven, but it just seems to distract the eye from the overall tank composition and shade other plants. Riccia is really beautiful but its high maintenance profile has me close to extracting it.

Anyway, how many of you have some floating plants in your intentional aquascape? Does it move around? Do you have any tips for keeping it in one place (I have a canister filter)? How do you think floaters add or subtract from an aquascape? I do not recall seeing too many contest-quality tanks using floaters. Thoughts?
 
I have floaters in my tank, but not intentionally...I can't say as I care for the look as it takes away from my ability to view top-dwelling fish (which isn't a prob right now, I know).

I will give you this...crystalwort (Riccia fluitans) is a hell of a lot prettier than the Aponogeton spp. bulb that my Cories seem to love to dig up and push into the flow of the filtration system, but I still wouldn't do the floaters and top-dwellers in the same tank with benthic fish...too much drawing the eye away from the bottom where some really beautiful fish hang out as well.

I think you have to go into the carnivorous plant shows to see anything aquatic win prizes...well, those, or pond shows. Unfortunately, most of the floating plants look too much like weeds for proponents of the Dutch and Amano schools.
 
I have cardamine lyrata free floating in my 10 gallon. My glowlights seem to enjoy it...gives them shade as well as a sense of security. Cardamine is a nice looking floater given it has good light and CO2. Otherwise it will shrivel up and shed it's leaves.
 
I have floating plants. I like them. I don't think they detract, in fact I don't think I can see them enough. I have a canopy, my water level is right up and I can't even see the tops, just the roots, but I like that, anyway.

I have an AquaClear filter (so don't know about a canister). My floaties don't move around because I keep them in place with some tubing/suction cups (see pic). The lights in my tanks are centered; I have it contained at the edges so it is not directly under lighting, yet it still grows like crazy. The fish (only small fish, but even the cories) like to peck around in the roots.

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I have floating plants at the end of my tank furthest from the filter. They collected and consoldated there after floating around for a few days. They take up almost a 1' of the 4' tank. Below them is the sparsest area of vegitation in the tank, just various reeds. It looks rather good, and gives the noctunal fish a good place to chill during daylight hours.
 
I have them intentionally but control their amount by removing the unwanted parts in the weekly maintenance. My Tank is 150G so gives me the opportunity to also control where I want them using the current, specially to stop light from coming onto algae infested areas.

I have 4 pumps in the tank (two in the middle and two on the sides and by directing the gets in a particulare direction you can make them float where you want them to be
 
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