Floating plants

Tapil

Sick of my loaches digging up my plants, they wont let anything grow longer than a day without me finding it replanted or sucked against my filter.

Im debating getting some floating plants, can anyone advise on a plant that will perform like a lower level plant?

-help with water filter
-put oxygen in the water

Though i have a power head and heavy filtration surface breakage.

When advising a plant please list pros and cons
My concerns are filtration and oxygen nothing else bothers me about these plants

Ones ive looked at

Salvinia
Duckweed

((For awhile i was looking into water lettuce/hycanith xD))

beetlebz

Ive only had experience floating rotala wallichii, and Water Sprite (C. Cornuta). The rotala wallichii is pretty enough, but it looked much better planted as it gets bushy and pinkish. Its also stringy and makes a knotted mess. The same was true of the Hornwort I tried. Wound up planting that one as well.

my favorite thus far is Ceratopteris cornuta. Its Water Sprite, the shorter, bushier of the 2 I have seen. Many members here including myself keep it as a floating plant. It grows like wildfire in my 20 long, and steadily in my 55. There are a handful of different ways to keep it in check if it gets blown around by the filter outflow. You could make a loop going through the leaves of the plant with fishing line, and tie it off to the hood. As it multiplies you just keep taking the new growth and putting it inside the fishing line.

Lupin

I would have suggested the Numphaea lotus but I just remembered my botiine loaches used to eat the whole bulb killing the plant. What species are your loaches?

Geomancer

A lot of stem plants will grow floating, the usual suspects have already been listed. You could add Brazilian Pennywort to the list as well.

Floating plants are up close to the lights, so they tend to grow faster than ones planted. This fast growth actually makes them better at sucking up nutrients (ie filter the water). Their byproduct is also oxygen, same as if they were planted.

If you have a lot of water movement, I would avoid the Duckweed. It's pretty small and will easily get sucked down by the filter unless you devise a way to keep it away.

Byron

As mentioned, any floating plant will increase filtration (by the plants) and produce more oxygen through the roots. The ideal floater is Water Sprite. The loaches will also appreciate the shade too.