Best Floating Aquarium Plants for your Aquarium in 2021
Floating aquarium plants are become more popular now days in the fresh water tropical aquariums scene. The reason being many people are using them less as a decorative piece but more as a part of the biological ecosystem within their aquariums.
Tanks and nano aquariums are becoming also very popular and floating plants gives a perfect addition to these kinds of systems.
So there are lots of different types of floating aquarium plants available. The availability of these species is very in different geographically area.
In some countries you can get almost every species and in others there are restrictions and bans on some floating plants. Because a lot of the floating plant species can be environmentally dangerous depending on where you live.
Most common varieties of floating plants for an aquarium setup are frog bit, salvinia, water lettuce, hyacinth and duckweed.
Why need to add floating plants to your aquarium?
So there are many good reasons to add floating plants to your aquarium. Floating aquarium plants are just look wonderful and they add an extra dimension to your aquarium display.
Gives beautiful looks
Especially when you have got the nice leaves above the water surface and the beautiful trailing roots throughout the aquarium, it really adds that extra piece of beauty to the ecosystem and to your aquarium.
Filtration:
One of the main reasons that people are using floating plants in their aquarium is they provide a source of filtration for their aquarium and to bring down nitrates and phosphates.
Floating aquarium plants are excellent and very efficient to removing waste products from your aquarium. Because floating plants are grow so quickly they remove the waste products very fast as well.
Floating plants are one of the biggest sources of filtration within your aquarium. Not only because they remove the nitrates and phosphates but also because on the underside of the leaves.
On the root systems you will get a growth of the nitrifying bacteria which breaks down the ammonia through the process into nitrate. So Floating plants are excellent to filtering aquariums.
Oxygenation:
On the other hand they are the good source of oxygenation. These plants release their oxygen from the underside of their leaves which allows the oxygen and then get into the water column itself and give that oxygen to the fish or the shrimps within the system.
Fish feel more Secure:
As well as with these floating plants you also get the surface cover for your aquariums. Fish feel more secure when they have something above them.
The plants can provide a great place for baby fish to hide or for fish to lay their eggs onto or even if you have betta fish they will use it as an area to build their bubble nests.
But there are also some negatives things of floating aquarium plants as well-
Firstly if you leave your floating plants unchecked they can take over your aquarium and completely cover the surface.
This can be bad if you are keeping plants below them because they are going to shade out and reduce the amount of light going to your plants which may negatively impact them.
Another thing that will impact your other plants up in the system is a fact that the floating aquarium plants can remove too many nutrients from the water column not allowing your substrate plants to actually get enough food for them to grow properly.
Some Floating Aquarium Plants are-
Frogbit:
Frog bit is an awesome looking floating aquarium plant. It grows very fast and it does not require much lighting or any extra fertilizer or anything.
It looks really cool because it provides massive look of your aquarium. The roots of the frogbit drooped down about halfway of the aquarium and it looks really cool.
Especially with clear glass combs with no LED it looks absolutely awesome and it is definitely one of the best floating plants for aquascaping.
Water Asteria:
It grows fast, it looks awesome and it propagates really easily. It is really good for keeping Guppies because it floats and it has such broad leaves.
It provides heaps of spaces for Guppies to go and hide and when it is in a massive ball on the top an aquarium it looks absolutely amazing.
Duckweed:
Duckweed is an awesome plant for maintaining low ammonia and nitrate levels in the aquqrium, because it uses up all those nutrients and nasty things that kill the fish to grow it.
Duckweed grows rapidly and it provide a cool spectacle in the aquarium because it has always a little blow roots that go along the surface of the clay. it’s really good for bigger fish, they like to eat it and it become food for your big fish.
When you are on a holiday you don’t need to feed them because they can eat it as their food. It also helps to maintain steady levels of ammonium nitrate of your aquarium and use up all those extra nutrients and also it does give the fish a bit of a break from the high-intensity light. It also looks pretty cool.
Hornworts:
Hornworts a weird-looking plant looks a lot like f oxtail. It is actually commonly referred to as a f oxtail plant in the aquarium hobby.
It makes a big jungle in the surface of your aquarium and provides heaps to play plenty of spaces for a little guppy fry to hide.
It is also good at growing fast and it uses up all those extra nutrients in the aquarium that we don’t want.
So hornwort is a good plant for a beginner because it is super low-maintenance.
It does not require any extra laying or fertilizer. It also looks very good too when you have a massive jungle.
Water sprite is an awesome plant because you can grow up both in the substrate and it goes really good floating. It doesn’t require any fertilizers or extra lighting.
Water sprite looks a lot like water wisteria except that it has thinner and less broadened leaves.
It also provides playing spaces for little fry to go and hide. Many people like to keep water spray in their guppy aquariums when they are breeding them for profit