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I strongly prefer Hornwort to Anacharis; by a wide margin. However while hornworth grows like a weed in my tank; others have problem with it shedding ( no clue why ). Anacharis is a bit easier to grow but i find the stuff yucky these days.

 

For surface frogbit is pretty nice. I have a lot of red root floater; one thing i prefer about frogbit are the long roots which in nice calm waters can grow 12 to 24 inches long; but they are fragile the fishes will usually keep them closer to 6 inches. Red root floaters are much smaller and the roots are 1/4 to 1/2 an inch. I prefer frogbit to water lettuce because of the texture of the leaves but my water lettuce does bloom. Also water lettuce and get quite large - good 6 to 8 inch diameter if given lots of tender love care and time. It is really a pond plant. I've not had salvinia so can't comment on how it compares to frogbit.

 

This is my 5 gallon showing the roots from water lettuce and frogbit:

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This is my black 29 showing hornworth (2nd picture is zoomed in and has it circled in red):

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My personal view is I hate duckweed more than well just about anything. The problem with duckweed is once you have it you can't get rid of it. It just keeps on giving. So before you put duckweed in your aquarium make sure you want it - or be prepare to get something like a gold fish that will eat it.

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I thought I had a picture of the watersprite and the pearlweed in my fry growout tank, as I really enjoy the protection pearlweed gives microfauna which feed fry.

My Walstad tank does have a good cover of miniature water lettuce and duckweed (4 different varieties). As someone who was originally a theater major, I am actually in love with nerm glitter. It's great food for my turtle, and is a good water quality indicator. 

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Water sprite, duckweed, and a floating pogostemon stellatus octopus. There are also roots of mini/dwarf water lettuce on the right. 

My spouse's tank has watersprite that has erupted out of the water! For some reason, this tank can't grow duckweed or azolla, despite having more light than any other tank I own.

Water lettuce does okay in one small area of the tank. If I put it anywhere else, it rapidly deteriorates. The hornwort in this tank doesn't float🤷‍♂️ It likes to overgrow the center area, and look like it's dying, but it grows close to 10" each week. 

When I trim it back, it does float in the turtle pond and my QT. The turtle eats it faster than it grows.😅

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Pothos, watersprite and dwarf water lettuce on the far left, dying duckweed in the middle and hornwort completely submerged, another pogestemon on the far right that is actually planted.

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Closeup of immersed watersprite, Watson the nerite,  floating log, and bizarre looking hornwort. It literally only grows on the bottom in this tank. Never drops needles, occasionally hosts algae, softest hornwort I have ever handled. I am guessing it's an interaction between the hornwort and one of the pieces of wood. Endlers never get sick in this tank, unheated, UG filter on far right supplies waterfall on far left. Temps range 65° (last night) to 72° (over the summer), pH is highest in this tank at 8.4.

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Middle of the tank shows closeup of hornwort 

 

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Far right close up of frogbit, caroliniana bacopa (sp?), and pogostemon on far right. 

 

 

<please excuse the dirty glass, lol>

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