Water Lettuce

[Cinnebuns]

I am slowly adding live plants to my 29-gallon. I started with easy marimo moss balls. My next step I plan to do water lettuce. It looks easy to care for and will give fry a place to hide. My question is about dealing with water lettuce and HOB filters. I assume the flow can cause issues with it. Should I initially place it away from the filters? Maybe I need to reduce the outtake on my filters with a plastic bottle on the end? 

 

Any tips about water lettuce in general are welcome in addition to them with HOB filters. Ty so much. 

[Guppy Guy]

First off, are you talking about the floating water lettuce? 

If you are, then I would either buy a floating food ring and place it inside that, or just let it free float. Unless there is a barrier or the water is unnaturally calm, floating plants will almost always find their way into the water column. Unless you don’t want the plants to move, I would let them free float, as long as they are still getting sufficient light to grow, and they will eventually grow large and stick in the corners. 

[Cinnebuns]

On 12/20/2021 at 3:28 PM, Guppy Guy said:

First off, are you talking about the floating water lettuce? 

Yes floating water lettuce. 

Currently I'm running 3 HOB filters to get things going but I plan to just run 1 of the lager and 1 small one. The small one mostly to keep the bacteria in it for when I need to use it in a hospital tank. 

[Guppy Guy]

That’s all I can help you with, so good luck!

@Guppysnail @Fish Folk 

[Fish Folk]

Water lettuce is great! We keep it alive through the cool weather until we can put it outside in our summer tubs. It gets really broad-leaved outside if you trip it. Water lettuce "babies" will start off much larger if the "momma" plant is large. If you let it branch out and get small, it's annoying.

It should float for you, no problems. If you'd like photos, I can upload them.

[CalmedByFish]

When I was trying to decide between water lettuce and frogbit, I found out that water lettuce is illegal to own in many of the U.S. states. If you happen to live in the U.S., I'd suggest a quick google to make sure it's okay to own it. (I ended up with frogbit, but I do like it. No regrets.)

[Guppysnail]

Cut a piece of airline tube put a splitter in with the open end pointing up use an airline suction cup to go under the waterfall of the hob to keep floaters out of the down pour or put plants inside to keep them contained to and area. Or just use floating betta ring feeders with or without suction cup.  Thats the only help i can give. Ive killed every surface floating plant i have ever tried including a try at duckweed because I really wanted surface floaters. What i didnit kill my critters ate 🙄🤣

[gardenman]

Ironically, you want to keep the leaves of floating plants dry, so you need to keep them away from the outflow of the filters. Making a floating plant corral of some sort is your best option. There's some debate as to whether there is or isn't a dwarf water lettuce. Some say both dwarf and regular water lettuce are the same plant, but growth varies based on growing conditions. Eh, I don't know. The water lettuce I'm growing now is "dwarf" and stays small no matter the conditions (inside, outside, wherever.) I've grown "water lettuce" (not dwarf) in my pond before it grew larger than the dwarf water lettuce I'm growing now. Given a choice, I'd look for dwarf water lettuce, even if it isn't truly a different plant according to some.

[KaitieG]

I really like my water lettuce but my success varies by tank.  Note: I have killed a lot of other floating plants too, even with filter baffles and feeding rings. 

With that much surface agitation, I think water lettuce is your best bet for a floating plant, but I also think you'll probaby need a way to make a "quiet" area for it to establish.  My best success with mine is in my 95 gallon tank, where it spreads like crazy (but easy to remove).  It's all on the half of the tank away from the HOB though. 

I have a very low-flow HOB setup in a 20 and it has hung on in there but hasn't spread or thrived.  Didn't really like my 5 gallon with a nano sponge either.  Give it a try and see if it works for you!

[Cinnebuns]

I'm thinking I'm gonna make a corral out of straws for it. Would help for other things too to have it just on one end. Ty so much everyone this helps a ton!!