Duckweed acting strange

[buildingaqua]

I just recently added this floating 3d printed ring to keep the duckweed out of my HOB filter stream, and now the duckweed won’t float upright, and there’s a lot of debris attached to the roots of it. I can tell it has to do with the floating ring I used, but everyone says that having surface agitation is bad for duckweed… Is there anything I can do to fix this? 

[Guppysnail]

Just give it time. It will straighten itself out. 

[Odd Duck]

I think you might have more than duckweed there. Those “roots” are very thick for duckweed so I suspect you may have some staghorn or hair algae growing among your duck weed. Could even be some Riccia. 

[buildingaqua]

On 3/27/2024 at 6:23 PM, Odd Duck said:

I think you might have more than duckweed there. Those “roots” are very thick for duckweed so I suspect you may have some staghorn or hair algae growing among your duck weed. Could even be some Riccia. 

How would I go about fixing this? My tank already has somewhat of an algae problem, but for some reason I can barely grow anacharis or duckweed, the two plants that are supposed to grow like crazy. Maybe a fertilizer issue? I dose with Fluval Plant Gro+ micronutrients 

[Odd Duck]

On 3/27/2024 at 7:34 PM, buildingaqua said:

How would I go about fixing this? My tank already has somewhat of an algae problem, but for some reason I can barely grow anacharis or duckweed, the two plants that are supposed to grow like crazy. Maybe a fertilizer issue? I dose with Fluval Plant Gro+ micronutrients 

Personally, I’m trying to get rid of duckweed since it’s a nuisance when trying to net out fish, move plants around, clean the tank, etc.  Aquarist glitter as they say since it sticks to everything, shows up where you least expect it, etc.  It has its good points just like any other aquarium plant, but I like plants that are easier to control instead.  Frogbit, red root floaters, etc.

As far as why you’re having issues, we would have to see your water parameters to give you a better idea of why it isn’t prospering as any parameters too far in any direction could cause it to not do well.  Are you testing your water?  Do you use test strips or drop tests like the API Master Test Kit?  Can you tell us your typical results please?  And if you have a series of them, make a chart of list for us if you can.

Ammonia: X, Y, Z . . .

Nitrite:

Nitrate:

GH:

KH:

Temperature:

Plus your tank size (is that a 5 or a 10 gallon?), type of filter (or rather what your HOB is packed with - carbon cartridge, sponge, Biorings, other.

How often you add your fertilizer?  Do you check your nitrate level afterwards to see if you’re getting to the level you need / want?

I can’t find the nutrient analysis info on your fertilizer.  I do have this handy chart for comparison for others including Easy Green (which looks very good in this comparison chart).  To get more precise nutrient control you have to start mixing your own.  If you can get Easy Green from ACO, it’s a very good fertilizer as you can see for yourself on the chart.

 

[JoeQ]

@Odd Duck your post went from like to love on account of the graphic!! 🤣

[buildingaqua]

On 4/1/2024 at 12:22 AM, Odd Duck said:

Personally, I’m trying to get rid of duckweed since it’s a nuisance when trying to net out fish, move plants around, clean the tank, etc.  Aquarist glitter as they say since it sticks to everything, shows up where you least expect it, etc.  It has its good points just like any other aquarium plant, but I like plants that are easier to control instead.  Frogbit, red root floaters, etc.

As far as why you’re having issues, we would have to see your water parameters to give you a better idea of why it isn’t prospering as any parameters too far in any direction could cause it to not do well.  Are you testing your water?  Do you use test strips or drop tests like the API Master Test Kit?  Can you tell us your typical results please?  And if you have a series of them, make a chart of list for us if you can.

Ammonia: X, Y, Z . . .

Nitrite:

Nitrate:

GH:

KH:

Temperature:

Plus your tank size (is that a 5 or a 10 gallon?), type of filter (or rather what your HOB is packed with - carbon cartridge, sponge, Biorings, other.

How often you add your fertilizer?  Do you check your nitrate level afterwards to see if you’re getting to the level you need / want?

I can’t find the nutrient analysis info on your fertilizer.  I do have this handy chart for comparison for others including Easy Green (which looks very good in this comparison chart).  To get more precise nutrient control you have to start mixing your own.  If you can get Easy Green from ACO, it’s a very good fertilizer as you can see for yourself on the chart.

 

Thank you for this response, I was considering getting seachem flourish, but looking at this I will probably go for easy green instead. 
 

I ended up getting my water tested at my LFS, and turns out the ich X medicine I was using to treat my new cardinal tetras completely crashed my cycle, and my tank is full of ammonia, and no nitrites or nitrates. It explains why my duckweed grew very well for a couple of days because that was before I started treating with the ich x. I am dosing seachem stability and prime every day, and doing 30% water changes every other day while I wait for my new master test kit to show up. Another contributing factor to why I didn’t notice this at first is because I was using test strips that I now know are terribly inaccurate. I will probably not dose any more ferts until the cycle stabilizes again. 

[Odd Duck]

Most test strips aren’t too bad, but most don’t have ammonia and won’t give you notice as things start to go awry.  You have to get separate ammonia strips.  I also don’t just trust the strips alone.  I double check against my drop test kit if it’s something important.  I do use strips as a quick check if I think things aren’t going well.  Then I check with my drop kit if I still suspect an issue that my strips haven’t shown me.  I’m usually getting fresh water ready by that time, too.  I have also sometimes used the strips to see if I need to add ferts.  Most of my tanks have lots of plants and if they aren’t doing well, I’ll dip a strip.  The tiniest trace of pink on the nitrate strip tells me I likely need to add ferts if it’s plants I really want to do well.  😝  It’s my lazy way to check, honestly.  It’s just so much quicker than drop testing.