The Best Low-Maintenance Floating Plants For Aquariums (4 Popular Plants Compared And Tested)

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The Best Low-Maintenance Floating Plants For Aquariums (4 Popular Plants Compared And Tested)

In today's video, I dive deep into my experiences and insights on four popular floating plants in the aquarium hobby: Duckweed, Red Root Floaters, Amazon Frogbit, and Salvinia. Floating plants are not just a decorative touch; they play a crucial role in providing cover for fish and aiding in the purification of water, ensuring a healthy environment for your aquatic friends. However, each plant comes with its own set of advantages and challenges.

Duckweed: Known for its rapid growth, Duckweed can quickly consume nitrogen compounds, helping maintain stable water parameters. Yet, its tendency to form dense surface carpets can hinder light penetration, affecting other plants. The ease of its spread makes management a consideration, but I've found a comb method for removal that has significantly eased this burden.

Red Root Floaters: Despite their appealing appearance in photos, achieving the signature red color can be elusive, influenced by various factors including lighting and water quality. They offer a safe haven for bettas and shrimp but can be prone to melting under certain conditions, leading to potential water quality issues.

Amazon Frogbit: This plant excels in jungle-style setups with its aesthetic appeal and functional benefits, including rapid growth and significant nitrogen uptake. However, its maintenance, particularly root trimming, can be demanding but manageable with the right approach.

Salvinia: My top choice, Salvinia combines the strengths of the other plants without their drawbacks. It boasts a fast growth rate, minimal maintenance, and doesn't suffer from the same melting or management issues as the others. Its versatility and ease of removal make it an outstanding option for any tank.

Each plant has its unique benefits and potential drawbacks, and what works best can vary depending on your specific aquarium needs and goals. Join me as I share my personal rankings and tips for integrating these floating plants into your aquatic ecosystem, ensuring both beauty and biological balance.

Remember, your setups and requirements might differ, so consider this guide as a starting point for finding the perfect floating plant for your aquarium. Happy fishkeeping!

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intro
00:26 - Duckweed
01:59 - Red Root Floaters
03:35 - Amazon Frogbit
05:02 - Salvinia

Some of the links in this video description may be affiliate links meaning I earn a small commission from any purchases made.

[NathanMUFCfan]

I have Frogbit in my tank and I have the same issue with it as you. The root growth is crazy. It's nearly down to my substrate in 2 weeks. I have it in a floating ring and it majorly restricts light to the plants below after about a week of propagation. My honey gouramis really like it, though. They're under it a lot and pick at the roots very often.

I might switch it out for Salvinia at some point.

[Wintersdark]

Frogbit: functionally amazing and I keep some specifically to help spin up new tanks, but yeah... The maintenance spent trimming roots is terrible. I prefer corralling it in a small area and allowing it to root right into the substrate there, then simply remove new growth - still a lot of work though as it reproduces insanely fast, like most floaters.

I recently accidentally got RRF and it's been working extremely well for me. Mine is red on the underside of the leaves, roots max out at about an inch. Because it grows slower it's less useful for cycling and stabilizing a tank but it also VASTLY reduces maintenance. I remove excess maybe once a month rather than having it be a weekly task. To me, this is the best floater I've tried for day to day use, but I'll caveat that with: I don't run HOB's anymore, all my tanks are sump or canister filtered, so I don't have waterfalls drowning them. I do run airstones, but the fine bubbles don't cause issues like the larger sponge filter bubbles do.

One day I'd like to happen across some salvania, but I'm happy enough with the slower growing RRF so I'm not going out of my way.

Light starvation issues from too many floaters is a nuisance I don't want to deal with again.

[pegleggreg]

I’d like to add another popular plant, water letttuce. There’s a dwarf variant too. It’s very close in size to frogbit, and has long roots as well.

[jasongoodwin]

My Red Root Floaters thrive in all my tanks. The roots in my 75 gallon are almost 9 inches long. I end up throwing out a ton of them or giving them away as they multiply rapidly. I really like the tiny flowers they have on them. They require lots of intense light and I add liquid fertilizer daily. Instead of doing liquid fertilizer once a week, I divide it into 7 days to keep the tank in constant supply of nutrients.

[Beb_]

I have all 4 and finally managed to get rid of duckweed thanks to the combo of hair comb and a skimmer. Works a treat! And I completely agree about salvinia probably being the best of them all

[DibyenduFX]

Use floating circular rings to keep on opening on the top

[ele]

I can keep root feeders and anubias in my tank, But I can’t keep duckweed alive. I don’t know if it is because I have to much water movement or if my red eared sliders eat it all…..

[GupPi_.]

Got a little duckweed passenger on some guppygrass and hornwart for some reason the duckweed did not take off but the guppygrass and hornwart did, as i only have guppies and Corey's oh and ramshorn snails have no clue if the duckweed died or was eaten

[raysgadgetsandprojects]

Just set up my new 155 litre tank. Currently doing a dark start for a 10 day perios. Learnt a lot from this video..

[sujanbiswal]

Is Liquid Fertilizer Necessary for Hornwort, Salvinia Natans & Water Sprite ?

Cant i make them float in the water surface with good light ?

[cadensheils]

Im sad cause i want floating plants that will have a cool root effect in my aquarium but i live in CALI and Salvinia and Frogbit are both illegal.. can someone help??? I have a betta and 3 Neon tetra in my 10 gallon tall tank.

[ayushmannath]

What exact salvinia type you show in the video?

[thomaslytje]

Water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) should be included. Like the others it has positive and negative things. To me it's rarely the best. But for some aquariums it is. It gets bigger than the frogbit you mentioned.

[moonbear]

I take the duckweed out of my tank and feed it to my goldfish in my pond. they love it.

[quiz]

I got red float rooters, they all died. Now I have small ones and they’re taking 19 years to grow back. I just gave up on floating plants gonna get household plants 😂