Too much floating plants?

[DeepWater]

I purchased a few red root floating plants earlier this fall.  They seem to be reproducing rapidly.  This seems good, however can there be too much of a good thing?  Should I start culling some out?

[Keeg]

If they are starting to affect the growth of other plants and you do not want that, you could remove some. The only issue of having too many floaters is a decrease in light and less nutrients for the other plants. But if you like them like this, go ahead and keep it this way, looks great! 

[Odd Duck]

On 11/29/2021 at 1:20 PM, DeepWater said:

I purchased a few red root floating plants earlier this fall.  They seem to be reproducing rapidly.  This seems good, however can there be too much of a good thing?  Should I start culling some out?

Can you show us the tops of those?  I don’t see red in the roots and even with minimal light they usually have at least a tint of red to the roots even if the leaves are all green.  Plus the roots look incredibly even which red root floaters usually don’t.  Leaves also look very small.

And yes, you can have too much of a good thing.  I remove a couple quarts of red root floaters from assorted tanks nearly every week.

[Griznatch]

 You can definitely have too many, too dense of floaters. My plants were getting stunted and really light green until I thinned out my massive duckweed  in the 75. The water lettuce in the 55 does the same thing.

[Torrey]

On 11/29/2021 at 12:20 PM, DeepWater said:

I purchased a few red root floating plants earlier this fall.  They seem to be reproducing rapidly.  This seems good, however can there be too much of a good thing?  Should I start culling some out?

That's duckweed, I believe. Not redroot floaters.

Duckweed will double every day. Eventually it will develop into a thick mat,  a few inches thick, and starve the water of oxygen and nutrients while shading the stem plants. 

I gather 3 pints of duckweed from my Walstad tank every 7 to 10 days, and put it in my turtle pond for the turtle and endlers to supplement their diet. It is fabulous at removing nitrates from the water, and supplementing vegetarian/omnivore diets.

Duckweed is used in stirfry in some Pacific cuisines, as it is incredibly protein dense.

PS: if the fish in the photos are smaller than 1.5", that's more likely to be wolfia than duckweed (same family, similar nutrition, faster reproduction)

[Odd Duck]

@Torrey That’s exactly my suspicion.  It doesn’t look like red root floaters to me, it looks like duckweed.

FYI, Wolffia doesn’t get any little dangling roots.  I’ve gotten it in a couple of my tanks and it’s never anything more than the tiniest little dot.  Talk about a pain to eradicate!  It’s tank break down time if you get Wolffia and want to clear it!  Fortunately I haven’t gotten it in a large tank, but I’ve got it in my puffer fry tank and another bare bottom that I need to clean and reset anyway. Puffer fry tank will just have to live with it until the babies are out.  It doesn’t harm anything, but I run the risk of it making its way into other tanks the longer it is in my house.

[DeepWater]

Thanks