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Floaters
- Thread starter Parablennius
- Start date
Parablennius
Member
Found a sweet spot after a long time. I now front load KNO3 and KH2PO4 at 30% W/C. 1/4 Tsp of each into 60L + 1Tsp MgSO₄ , Tap already has 25/30ppm Calcium. Topped up with a daily squirt of Urea and a splash of trace. Tank TDS hovers around 210 over the week. After W/C indicated Nitrate is 25/30ppm.
John q
Member
Hi all,
cheers Darrel
You have reinvented <"finest green">.
Well that certainly works.
No, I'm suffering too much <"Frogbit envy"> and I'm going to forget that this thread ever existed.
cheers Darrel
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Parablennius
Member
Darrel, I followed your lead. I'm pretty sure that front loading helped, plus the addition of Urea and Solufeed trace across the week which I touched on previously in a not very scientific way! You're dead right though, floaters are the miner's canary! I didn't mention photoperiod or lighting. Currently 10hrs via a home-made LED luminaire, made up from stuff via Aliexpress .HTH. Electricians amongst us would have a coronary but it's been chugging away for over six years!
_Maq_
Member
Darrel's 'hobby' is green Limnobium, my hobby is oxygen.
So let me remind you that water surface covered by floaters is lost to gas exchange between air and water. Add to this that most floating plants do not like vigorous movement of the water they 'sit on', and that's another hindrance to oxygenation.
So let me remind you that water surface covered by floaters is lost to gas exchange between air and water. Add to this that most floating plants do not like vigorous movement of the water they 'sit on', and that's another hindrance to oxygenation.
_Maq_
Member
I said what I said. In nature, under the cover of densely growing floating plants, hypoxic conditions develop and fish can't live there.
Yet I'm far from saying that floaters are outright detrimental to tanks. One should be just aware that floating leaves do not contribute to water oxygenation and occupy a space which would otherwise serve as an interface of gas exchange.
John q
Member
Our tanks aren't a slice of nature, anybody that thinks that is. Erm ..
I have floating plants, and. ... healthy fish.
You have 🥱
I have floating plants, and. ... healthy fish.
You have 🥱
xZaiox
Member
This comment seems kind of unnecessary.
I assume you likely also have non-floating plants which will indeed contribute to oxygenation? Regardless, this is irrelevant to @_Maq_ 's point that floating plants are not productive for oxygenation. He never said they were "detrimental" either. I'm assuming the point is about moderation - if you have some floating plants with a reasonable flow then fine, but if your entire surface is covered by them, accompanied by a low flow output, then that is likely not going to be productive for oxygenation.
Hi all,
I'm not sure it would ever be an issue with Limnobium laevigatum, because it is a <"fairly porous blanket"> and I would need a lot of persuading that this (below) isn't an unalloyed good thing in terms of water quality.
cheers Darrel
Well that went well, ten hours in, I've replied already and I still have "Frogbit envy".
I think it is a <"legitimate concern">, and that you could potentially end up in a situation where you had a very thick layer of a plant (like Lesser Duckweed (Lemna minor)) where it could interfere with gas exchange. I'm also a <"fan of high levels of oxygenation"> but I'm confident that floating plants are a plus, rather than a minus, as far as oxygen levels are concerned.
I'm not sure it would ever be an issue with Limnobium laevigatum, because it is a <"fairly porous blanket"> and I would need a lot of persuading that this (below) isn't an unalloyed good thing in terms of water quality.
cheers Darrel
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PARAGUAY
Member
I became a convert to the advantages of floating plants when joining UKAPS. FIghting a hopeless battle at the moment to eradicate common duckweed which came in mysteriously it can cover the surface in 3 days. Salvinia does well for me and will always have it.
Parablennius
Member
OK, well, with regard to oxygen or any other gas exchange, maybe I get away with it like this. The tank, 200L NET is run by one pump in my DIY filter. ( Think parallel sump) The pump is unfettered and returns up to 1000LPH at MAX setting. All this water returns to the filter over a weir, it has no choice, there is no other way back. This means that it has to hit the surface where it surely gets oxygen? The return side resembles a mini waterfall at times. There are sufficient submersed plants to prevent floaters getting dragged around. HTH.
Hi all,
Rapid growth was one of the <"advantages / problems"> with Duckweed (Lemna spp.). The very quick growth rate was useful as it gave you <"finer scale differentiation between nutrient levels"> and also meant that you could <"diagnose nutrient deficiencies in non-mobile nutrients"> more easily, because there wasn't such a long lag between a nutrient becoming available and new leaves growing.
cheers Darrel
This thread maybe of interest <"Removing Duckweed (Lemna minuta) - any natural solutions?">
Rapid growth was one of the <"advantages / problems"> with Duckweed (Lemna spp.). The very quick growth rate was useful as it gave you <"finer scale differentiation between nutrient levels"> and also meant that you could <"diagnose nutrient deficiencies in non-mobile nutrients"> more easily, because there wasn't such a long lag between a nutrient becoming available and new leaves growing.
cheers Darrel
PARAGUAY
Member
I do actually like common duckweed and the barrell feature as it and l just clear it a bit every so often. In the tanks diffent matter suppose if I had goldfish would be a natural food source. It is telling me the nutrient levels are ok though but so is the hyg. Polysperma
MichaelJ
Member
Hi (again), I don't think I ever had oxygenation issues with the very dense growth of floating plants in the tank where I still keep a very prolific amount of pennyworth, frogbit and duckweed (thanks Darrel 
). Almost every other week I remove several fistfuls of Frogbit and try to scoop up as much duckweed as I can... Plants and livestock are thriving. I run one of my Pat Minis (internal flow filter) with an air intake and the outflow from my two HOBs seems to provide a reasonable amount of surface movement at the outflow... perhaps 10% of the surface area around each... Not sure how much surface movement we really need relative to tank size / surface dimensions, stocking level, plant density etc. but I suspect there is a relationship there. Floating plants serves a great purpose providing shade for "low-light" plants, a sense of safety for livestock and a as a gauge of plant related nutrient health. Also submerged plants - when overgrown - such as Echinodorus, vallisneria, java ferns, etc. can be as much of a limiter to surface movement as floating plants... of course I have that "problem" too 
Cheers,
Michael
). Almost every other week I remove several fistfuls of Frogbit and try to scoop up as much duckweed as I can... Plants and livestock are thriving. I run one of my Pat Minis (internal flow filter) with an air intake and the outflow from my two HOBs seems to provide a reasonable amount of surface movement at the outflow... perhaps 10% of the surface area around each... Not sure how much surface movement we really need relative to tank size / surface dimensions, stocking level, plant density etc. but I suspect there is a relationship there. Floating plants serves a great purpose providing shade for "low-light" plants, a sense of safety for livestock and a as a gauge of plant related nutrient health. Also submerged plants - when overgrown - such as Echinodorus, vallisneria, java ferns, etc. can be as much of a limiter to surface movement as floating plants... of course I have that "problem" too Cheers,
Michael
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Parablennius
Member
Morning. Update. For the past few weeks my Limnobium has flowered almost daily, they don't last long though. I think this is because I removed the younger plants and kept just one large, mature plant, instead of the other way round. Normally this splant would have been replaced before now. No changes to feeding or photoperiod. Pics att.
Cheers
Steve
Cheers
Steve
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Parablennius
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