leedsrhinojohn
Member
Ive just added some frogbit but it seems to clump where spraybar is and in a corner, I need a good surface water flow so how can I keep the plants all together and stop them piling up in a corner?
Thanks
Thanks
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looking for tips for keeping floating plants together
- Thread starter leedsrhinojohn
- Start date
leedsrhinojohn
Member
excellent idea thanks
just need to buy some straws
jameson_uk
Member
Ahh the million dollar question 🙂
You can use airline and the little connectors to form little areas but I found that with reasonably decent flow they still clumped up.
I also have a piece of wood that breaks the surface and I tend to find the plants do well behind this acting as a little break.
I ended up giving up a bit and let it go where is goes (I have the eheim spray bar which is in sections so I varied the angle of a few sections which helped a fair bit) but a lot ends up squashed against the front.
Some of your Frogbit is from that squished up mass. When it gets to the point that it is too dense and plants are starting to get pushed under I thin it.
You will probably find some of the Frogbit looks different. There is some from my shrimp tank which is colder (23C) and has little flow and very low ferts and some from my Betta tank which has marginally more flow but is much hotter and has a fair amount of ferts. It is rampant in all my tanks. The shimp tank stuff has fairly thin leaves and really long roots, the plants from the Betta tank have thicker leaves and the ones in my main tank with much more surface flow have the thickest leaves but also need the most amount of maintenance. I find that when it gets squished there isn't enough room for all the leaves to get light so you tend to get the lower leaves getting pushed under the water and turning to mush.
I am still not totally happy with the main tank but I think high surface flow is going to end up with plants clumped together.
You can use airline and the little connectors to form little areas but I found that with reasonably decent flow they still clumped up.
I also have a piece of wood that breaks the surface and I tend to find the plants do well behind this acting as a little break.
I ended up giving up a bit and let it go where is goes (I have the eheim spray bar which is in sections so I varied the angle of a few sections which helped a fair bit) but a lot ends up squashed against the front.
Some of your Frogbit is from that squished up mass. When it gets to the point that it is too dense and plants are starting to get pushed under I thin it.
You will probably find some of the Frogbit looks different. There is some from my shrimp tank which is colder (23C) and has little flow and very low ferts and some from my Betta tank which has marginally more flow but is much hotter and has a fair amount of ferts. It is rampant in all my tanks. The shimp tank stuff has fairly thin leaves and really long roots, the plants from the Betta tank have thicker leaves and the ones in my main tank with much more surface flow have the thickest leaves but also need the most amount of maintenance. I find that when it gets squished there isn't enough room for all the leaves to get light so you tend to get the lower leaves getting pushed under the water and turning to mush.
I am still not totally happy with the main tank but I think high surface flow is going to end up with plants clumped together.
leedsrhinojohn
Member
I think a bit of trial and error is called for
curious how you are directing the flow from your spray bars - as per Mark Evans I have mine angled slightly downwards so there is only a gentle surface “roll” BUT I don’t have any surface plants so no idea if this will actually help much
(As I recall Mark Evans has his fairly steeply angled (up to 45* I believe he mentions at some point but I’ve no idea if that was the actual angle) - perhaps this is apparent in some of his videos, I’ve not noticed one way or another
)
Matt @ ScapeEasy
Member
Ive heard of people using fishing line tied to suckers too... but agree with others about letting it find places it can thrive and using plants or hardscape to help.
jameson_uk
Member
The spray bar is all along the back of the tank. It is actually in two parts with one being fed from filter and another from a powerhead.curious how you are directing the flow from your spray bars - as per Mark Evans I have mine angled slightly downwards so there is only a gentle surface “roll” BUT I don’t have any surface plants so no idea if this will actually help much
(As I recall Mark Evans has his fairly steeply angled (up to 45* I believe he mentions at some point but I’ve no idea if that was the actual angle) - perhaps this is apparent in some of his videos, I’ve not noticed one way or another
I have angled the main (filter) bit down so one end is lower in the water than the other. I have also turned a few sections so they aim just below the floater roots and a few which aim closer to the surface. Not a massive difference in the angle but it is just enough to keep flow in a normal pattern but leave a few calmer areas on the surface