Red root floaters

[Novabound]

I bought a pack of red root floaters and salvinia to help soak up nitrates in a 7 gallon. After somentime the salvinia is doing well but the red root floaters are browning, sinking and disappearing. I've read care guides that say they dont like surface agitation but they're pretty hardy. But i can't get them to survive in my tanks. The only agitation is from a sponge filter.

 

I dose fertz regulary and lightly over feed the tank. Anyone have any ideas?

Water stats

0-0-20ish. 8.0 ph. 8 hours of high light per day. Dose 0.7 ml of iron once a week. Soft water hardened with wonder shell.

[Irene]

I can attest to the fact that red root floaters hated surface agitation and melted even though I was using a sponge filter. I ended up downsizing my Aquatop AP-50 air pump to the USB nano air pump to lessen bubbling, and then the red root floaters grew back just fine. You can also use an air valve to decrease the air flow as well.

My red root floaters that melted because of a strong air pump:

//content.invisioncic.com/b300999/monthly_2020_09/1642344196_20190403_220627Meltingredrootfloaters.jpg.d086dfd179bb4b5a8edc3ccb6e552e40.jpg

Edited September 18, 2020 by Irene

[Ben Ellison]

They seem a lot like frog bit which also wants as little surface  agitation  as possible.