Low Profile Floating Plants

[Second Hand Pat]

Looking for suggestions on floating plants with a low profile for my wilds tanks. Need a low light plant which can fit in the 1/2 inch between the surface of the water and glass top.

Duckweed would work but is not my first choice.

[dbfzurowski]

Amazon frogbit!!! It is a very easy plant. Even without dosing anything it still grew in my old tank pretty darn good. Even better now with the new setup. I went from 5 quarter size plants to an area of 1'x1' in a month.
If you were closed i'd give it 2 you. Got mine on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/Amazon-Frogbit-/250763648680?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a62ad9ea8#ht_2943wt_2796 bought a bunch. He packs it with a heatpack which was surprising.

[3dees]

yeah, frogbit and mini water lettuce are good choices. I can't grow frogbit even in my open top. I have a lot of surface aggitation and frogbit liks still water. I use brazillian pennyworth. easy to grow and you can even plant it if you want.

[Darrell Ward]

I posted this earlier in another place, but I have amazon frogbit as well. It grows OK, slower, in my low light 240 gal. with a 2 1/2" ball airstone. I don't mind that it doesn't choke off, and cover the entire surface...

[jimg]

Amazon frogbit!!! It is a very easy plant. Even without dosing anything it still grew in my old tank pretty darn good. Even better now with the new setup. I went from 5 quarter size plants to an area of 1'x1' in a month.
If you were closed i'd give it 2 you. Got mine on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/Amazon-Frogbit-/250763648680?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a62ad9ea8#ht_2943wt_2796 bought a bunch. He packs it with a heatpack which was surprising.

Thanks for the info.... just ordered some

[Second Hand Pat]

Amazon frogbit!!! It is a very easy plant. Even without dosing anything it still grew in my old tank pretty darn good. Even better now with the new setup. I went from 5 quarter size plants to an area of 1'x1' in a month.
If you were closed i'd give it 2 you. Got mine on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/Amazon-Frogbit-/250763648680?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a62ad9ea8#ht_2943wt_2796 bought a bunch. He packs it with a heatpack which was surprising.

Me too. Ordered 10, thanks dominik

and thanks for all the suggestions.

[dbfzurowski]

No problem, hope it does well for you.

[dbfzurowski]

Just remember to pp dip them. I think I did pp@5ppm for 30mins, enough to kill all the snails that came with it :)

[Second Hand Pat]

Thanks dominik, will do.

[RudeDogg1]

Just remember to pp dip them. I think I did pp@5ppm for 30mins, enough to kill all the snails that came with it :)

i pp dipped all the plants in my tank yet ive still had a swarm of bloody bladder snails apear which me and the loaches r picking off when we spot em lol. I cant get over how long frogbit roots can grow some of mine are over a foot!

[mwdw]

thats why i have been wanting to try frogbit. i have a couple HOB filters on 150 gallon. is that to much surface aggitation for the frogbit? what is pp dip?

[RudeDogg1]

mines agitated and they are growing strong. PP = patasium permanganate

[mwdw]

thanks for the info. can't wait to get some.

[dbfzurowski]

thats why i have been wanting to try frogbit. i have a couple HOB filters on 150 gallon. is that to much surface aggitation for the frogbit? what is pp dip?

You can go to Pet supplies plus and buy "Clear Water" by Jungle its potassium permanganate.


My roots stay around 1-2inches but they spread like crazy!

[JL15219]

You can go to Pet supplies plus and buy "Clear Water" by Jungle its potassium permanganate.


My roots stay around 1-2inches but they spread like crazy!

Does the "Clear Water" work just as good as the concentrated PP?

[dbfzurowski]

SAme thing, just clear water is dissolved in water so for bigger applications I would go with concentrated pp

[JL15219]

SAme thing, just clear water is dissolved in water so for bigger applications I would go with concentrated pp

I was thinking to use it to disinfect plants...

[dbfzurowski]

thats what I did. I used 3x the recommended dose on it. My frogbit came with snails and snail eggs. 30min pp bath and nothing survived. Worked for me is all I'm saying.

[mwdw]

would frogbit do well with 10000k bulbs?

[dbfzurowski]

Currently I have it with one 8000K & one 6700K. In my old tank it did very well with one 24W 6700K and one 24W 10000K. So I would suggest at least one bulb with lover K temperature.

[mwdw]

thanks again for the information.

[dbfzurowski]

4 little plants + 1month later =
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn29/wadopl/55G%20tank%20build/IMG_0750.jpg

[mwdw]

looks awesome. almost ready for some frog bit. i'm going to use shop lights. i just got in some mylar to use as reflectors.

[Second Hand Pat]

dominik, thanks for the picture. Nice thick vals you have there.

[dbfzurowski]

Thanks, its nice to see, for once,a healthy looking plants in my tank:)
So i was googling why my frogbit roots are so short and found that they will grow super long when they lack of nutrients. I wish they got longer but guess I'm doing a good job with them.

[JL15219]

thats what I did. I used 3x the recommended dose on it. My frogbit came with snails and snail eggs. 30min pp bath and nothing survived. Worked for me is all I'm saying.

So soaking the plants in 3x the recommended dose of Clear water will kill any diseases as well? OR just snails and eggs?

[dbfzurowski]

PP is used to kill parasites. So i would assume it would make your plants safe. But who knows for sure...

[RudeDogg1]

I had a pp related cock up on friday as ive had a bladder snail outbreak out of nowhere i decided to remove all floater and pp dip them as thats where all the snails seemed to be. Well i OD them and they are all dead other than the portion id taken out to send someone gutted i had some huge frogbits in there :(

[Fishish]

i was looking to buy those plants too, but i actually just bought some other ones from ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260748243967

http://cgi.ebay.com/Christmas-Moss-x-5-portions-/260255066439?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3c98692947

they say they are easy plants, i havent gotten them yet, still waiting on the shipping. im looking forward to seeing how they do.

[andyl9063]

how do you guys feed if you have the floating plants covering the top layer?????

i assume you spread them and then feed?

[RudeDogg1]

i dont let it spread fully just 1/2 to 3/4 and the covered end i made a lol feeding ring out of co2 tubing so theres allways a lil circle clear

[darkpandora]

interesting thread, im planning to have floating plant im my 540liter aquarium, but still dont know which floating plant to buy:)

[Skip]

thats why i have been wanting to try frogbit. i have a couple HOB filters on 150 gallon. is that to much surface aggitation for the frogbit? what is pp dip?

i used ALUM 2 tablespoons for 1 gallon and soaked for about 45 min.. that is supposed to kill all snail.. it is another alternative to PP..

[MariaF]

Another option that I use is regular old bleach. It does a good job of killing snails, snail eggs and algae. I use a 5% bleach solution. I let plants soak for 3 min (exactly) then immediately rinse with water and dechlorinator. Any longer may kill your plant (you may want to do bit less for really sensitive plants like mosses). I not lost a plant yet to this treatment, and have not had any new algae issues or snails in my aquarium since I started doing this last year. The treatment is rough on the plant, it will sometimes lose it's leaves but mine have always recovered within a couple weeks. I would rather kill a plant though then accidentally introduce something to my tank. The reason I use this instead of PP is that I read somewhere it is more effective at killing algae and snail eggs but it is definitely harder on the plant.