# Cleanest (no roots?), easiest plants? Floating plant?



## LugiaChan (Mar 8, 2012)

Wondering if there is such a thing as a clean plant to add to my aquarium (10 gallon heated filtered tank). I ditched the plant idea years ago when there were massive algae issues and root degree going everywhere.

I don't plan on getting gravel, I have a tank with marbles inside baby food jars keeping fake silk plants in.

But i'm always curious if anything is clean enough. By clean, I mean the cleanest avaible plant or a nice floating plant for more shade. I have some fake plant ideas as a backup just in case.... Thanks.


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## Polkadot (Feb 10, 2013)

Riccia is very nice and clean. I just bought a tub of it for the first time and it's great. It floats around like a little green pancake. My betta loves it,so do I.


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## LittleStar (Oct 2, 2015)

Curious where you get your Riccia from? I'm reading that its hard to get and Aquarium Plants is out of stock. Seems to be inexpensive though. 

TY : )


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

Riccia is a good on if you hate roots, it has no roots as its a crystalwort.

For most people it comes into the tank as a hitchhiker from the seller's tank on other plants and just grows.. that's how I ended up with it.

my riccia mat on a 11.8" cube


underside view-as it grows it pushed the older growth under water but it can easily be pulled off to thin it out/spread the amt out more.


I also have a 5.5g surface completely full of it that's 1.5-2" deep (husband's betta tank) his girl loves pushing herself up into the riccia mass to sleep.

chunk I pulled off from my tank to give more light to plants below (this piece is about 4.5"x3")

If you'd like to buy this chunk PM me, I don't believe we're suppose to discuss sales pricing in the non marketplace sub forum(?)


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## Davo (Feb 21, 2016)

Anubias is clean and low light.

I have been using Frogbit, its a floater, fast grower and is easy to pull out of the tank if you need access. Lots of shade for down below too. The roots grow down into the water column and my betta likes swimming through them.

If any leaves start to go bad, its easy to just pull them off.


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## jaliberti (Mar 13, 2016)

LugiaChan said:


> ... I ditched the plant idea years ago when there were massive algae issues ...


So when you had live plants you had problems with algae, but then once you ditched them the algae cleared up? I'm confused. 

Back in the day when I maintained neutral/alkaline tanks, some with plants some without, I found algae was a problem in those tanks with little or no plants. The heavily planted tanks had no algae. I've heard similar experiences from others. Supposedly planted tanks use up the CO2 (?) or the sunlight (?) so that algae cannot survive or even become established in the 1st place.


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## NickAu (Sep 28, 2015)

> I also have a 5.5g surface completely full of it that's 1.5-2" deep (husband's betta tank) his girl loves pushing herself up into the riccia mass to sleep.


I had a Betta that loved sleeping in Riccia.


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## LugiaChan (Mar 8, 2012)

Aqua Aurora said:


> Riccia is a good on if you hate roots, it has no roots as its a crystalwort.
> 
> For most people it comes into the tank as a hitchhiker from the seller's tank on other plants and just grows.. that's how I ended up with it.
> 
> ...


I'm a bit interested, i'm just wondering if it'd create any algae problems first. My betta would love that in the tank sooo much ^^ I want to avoid another disaster though, I don't have anything planted in here and my room lights are on 14 hours a day (during the night) and working on getting better curtains to keep light out during morning/day. I'm a night owl. If you think there'd be 0 green water/algae I can pm you if you let me know... Ahahah ^^;


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## NickAu (Sep 28, 2015)

> i'm just wondering if it'd create any algae problems first


No it wont, in fact quite the opposite, Riccia gets all its nutrients from the water and algae will starve.


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## LugiaChan (Mar 8, 2012)

NickAu said:


> No it wont, in fact quite the opposite, Riccia gets all its nutrients from the water and algae will starve.


I would LOVE THAT!  If you also know of any plants that do that or ones your selling that are similar too let me know, i'll pm you about the riccia!


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## Olivia27 (Nov 26, 2015)

Riccia IS a high light plant though. Mine died immediately because I was dumb enough to glue it inside a Betta log to cover the sharp parts ._. even the free floating ones died quick

Any plants will compete with algae me thinks. In fact, that's my current anti algae plan right now: getting more plants. But then again I never actually thought about a no-roots plant so I don't have too many suggestions. What about java moss? They're low light, low maintenance, grows rather quickly and... well, moss can't have roots.


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## Polkadot (Feb 10, 2013)

LittleStar said:


> Curious where you get your Riccia from? I'm reading that its hard to get and Aquarium Plants is out of stock. Seems to be inexpensive though.
> 
> TY : )


I bought mine from a place here in Australia that sell tissue culture aquarium plants in tubs. Very lush and nice.


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