HenryC Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 (edited) I love duckweed, all my tanks that have it seem to be super stable. I've found that a nice roof of duckweed lets me have lights for very, very long periods of time, and in full power, without developing algae at all. They do seem to keep nitrates down as well. Not to mention some fish love to be under the shade of it, like my paradise gourami, and my severums like to munch on them lol! But, I'm wondering, is it bad to have a full cover of duckweed? Will that negagtively impact gas exchange or other parameters?, my 20gal tank is by far my most stable tank of them all, is overstocked with mollies, 6 rasboras, a baby featherfin catfish, tons of snails and 4 ember tetras, yet nitrates are always low, and have near zero algae, which I attribute to the thick duckweed roof. Thanks! Edited February 26, 2021 by HenryC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenman Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 Other than having to burrow a hole in the duckweed to let the food through, massive amounts of duckweed do no harm. If it crashed and all died at once (highly unlikely) it would be a huge issue, but barring that (and does duckweed ever die on its own?) it should be no problem. I've had over an inch thick bed of duckweed in one tank and the tank was fine. The tank was pretty dark due to all the duckweed, but it was fine otherwise. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 (edited) I would put some airline tube in a circle connected together to leave some open surface space for oxygen exchange and surface agitation Edited February 26, 2021 by Colu 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morphy1701 Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 Question from someone who knows nothing about planted tanks: where do you get duckweed? Do you just go and scoop it out of a canal/pond? I might experiment with it just for fun since I can always just scoop it out. Some of my fish would probably enjoy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDukeAnumber1 Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 28 minutes ago, morphy1701 said: Question from someone who knows nothing about planted tanks: where do you get duckweed? Ebay or aquabid or yes harvested locally if you can find it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJV Aquatics Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 Duckweed is a blessing and a curse. Once you have it, it's here to stay. But it is a great ammonia sponge. My only concern is that it shades light from other plants and this may be a problem. Also the feeding issue. I think that gas exchange is likely going to happen regardless of the duckweed roof, but a clear area for feeding (a feeding station or ring) is convenient. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenman Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 1 hour ago, morphy1701 said: Question from someone who knows nothing about planted tanks: where do you get duckweed? Do you just go and scoop it out of a canal/pond? I might experiment with it just for fun since I can always just scoop it out. Some of my fish would probably enjoy it. Yeah, sure you can. Just scoop it out. (Ha!) Sadly duckweed is not that easy to get rid of. If you're not willing to live with duckweed for the rest of your life, and possibly longer. don't get started with it. There are much better floaters that you can legitimately just scoop out, but duckweed, not so much. I'd recommend frogbit as an easy to remove floater. It's big, grows well, but is easy to remove. Dwarf water lettuce would be another option. I've modified a surface skimmer to remove duckweed and it still comes back. The stuff is amazingly persistent. Getting rid of it is much more challenging than just scooping it out. It's very good at removing nitrates though. I remove a big bowl of it every Saturday and by the next Friday you'd never know I'd touched it. Mine started out as one small leaf stuck to a water hyacinth I bought for my water garden that I kept inside until my pond warmed up enough for the water hyacinth. Literally pounds of it have grown from that one leaf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDukeAnumber1 Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 IMO duckweed can be easy to handle and get rid of if you only keep the giant duckweed variety. Personally I would never want to mess with the smaller varieties. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H.K.Luterman Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 1 hour ago, morphy1701 said: Question from someone who knows nothing about planted tanks: where do you get duckweed? Do you just go and scoop it out of a canal/pond? I might experiment with it just for fun since I can always just scoop it out. Some of my fish would probably enjoy it. I got mine from a local big box store (Pet Supplies Plus); they keep it in the tanks where they keep all their potted plants. I bought some anacharis from them years ago and duckweed was all over it. I was like, "Cool, free duckweed." Now it's in all my tanks, on my clothes, in my hair, on the doorknobs, in my pockets, in my coffee.... You could probably just grab some from the wild if you come across it. 2 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenman Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 29 minutes ago, H.K.Luterman said: I got mine from a local big box store (Pet Supplies Plus); they keep it in the tanks where they keep all their potted plants. I bought some anacharis from them years ago and duckweed was all over it. I was like, "Cool, free duckweed." Now it's in all my tanks, on my clothes, in my hair, on the doorknobs, in my pockets, in my coffee.... You could probably just grab some from the wild if you come across it. Yeah, I feel you. If I reach into the tank to do anything my arm comes out coated with duckweed. I keep towels by my tanks and they're layered in duckweed from where I've dried my hands on them. It's here, there, and everywhere. All it takes in one tiny little piece of duckweed and before long you're buried in the stuff. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celly Rasbora Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 (edited) Those of you who say it is impossible to get rid of clearly are not watching @Coryget rid of his with the help of goldfish. Edit to add yootoobles link Edited February 26, 2021 by Celly Rasbora 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biotope Biologist Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 goldfish are perpetual grazers. Having a snail problem? Goldfish. Leeches in your pond? Goldfish. Too much milfoil or other alien plant? Goldfish. I had an adopted one for pretty close to a decade. Her name was Bob and she ate my $100 Anubias nana down to the rhizome. It recovered thankfully. Anyway, if you collect pond duckweed I would highly suggest quarantine. If you have access to a blue light or uv sterilizer, it will make short work of unwanted pests. You can also buy foam or plastic circles to corral your duckweed to keep it from overtaking your aquarium. Fun fact duckweed has the smallest known flower measuring only 0.3mm. If you see a small yellow or white spec on your duckweed chances are it's a flower. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, Celly Rasbora said: Those of you who say it is impossible to get rid of clearly are not watching @Coryget rid of his with the help of goldfish. I mean, yeah...in giant 500gallon totes...What goldfish is reccomended for my 5 gallon betta tank? the 7.5g pea puffers? The 83 degree ram tank? They are awesome, but they can't fix everything, sadly. And having them tear apart my meticulous aquascapes would be far worse than the duckweed. Honestly I don't mind it at all. I DID NOT deliberately introduce it, and actually tried very hard to keep it out. Now that it is here though, I am resigned, so I talk up the benefits too. Would I deliberately inroduce it again? NO. Edited February 26, 2021 by Brandy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H.K.Luterman Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 1 minute ago, Brandy said: I mean, yeah...in giant 500gallon totes...What goldfish is reccomended for my 5 gallon betta tank? the 7.5g pea puffers? The 83 degree ram tank? They are awesome, but they can't fix everything, sadly. Honestly I don't mind it at all. I DID NOT deliberately introduce it, and actually tried very hard to keep it out. Now that it is here though, I am resigned, so I talk up the benefits too. Would I deliberately inroduce it again? NO. Yeah, I enjoy having it too. When it completely covers the top I like how dim and green the light in the tank gets. The benefits far outweigh having to scoop some out every week, at least in my opinion; my livebearers like to pick at it and my mystery snails love it. And I mean, it's part of my Swamp Hag look now, so I'm totally rockin it. X3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 4 hours ago, MJV Aquatics said: Duckweed is a blessing and a curse. Once you have it, it's here to stay. I was looking into duckweed myself and would see this mentioned many times by many sources. Is there a particular reason why this is the case? It looks like you would just have to skim it all off of the surface to get rid of it. I must be missing something... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 2 minutes ago, Martin said: I was looking into duckweed myself and would see this mentioned many times by many sources. Is there a particular reason why this is the case? It looks like you would just have to skim it all off of the surface to get rid of it. I must be missing something... It colonizes tank rims and filters and etc. It is a massive undertaking, but it can be done. It is like cleaning up spilled glitter...6 months later it is still sifting out from behind baseboards. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 2 minutes ago, Brandy said: It is like cleaning up spilled glitter... Oh god, say no more. Message received. 😆 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenman Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 My goldfish don't eat duckweed unfortunately. Even in my outdoor pond they just push it aside to get to the pellets. I guess if I starved them enough they'd eat the duckweed but I prefer not to starve my fish to get them to eat stuff I don't like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJV Aquatics Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 30 minutes ago, Martin said: I was looking into duckweed myself and would see this mentioned many times by many sources. Is there a particular reason why this is the case? It looks like you would just have to skim it all off of the surface to get rid of it. I must be missing something... That's true....if you collect every single frond of duckweed you can eliminate it. However, leave just one or two behind and in no time it will be back - it's almost unreal. 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhitecloudDynasty Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 It does hurt gas exchange..you ever seen and high oxygenated river/stream with duck weed?.. even adding an air stone the rest of the aquarium surface is still exchanging gas also..with duck weed itll slow it down 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Billy Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 Unfortunately duckweed is super invasive. It gets everywhere, every time you stick your hand in the tank, duckweed all up and down your arm. Tank maintenance, duckweed. Filter maintenance, duckweed. Feed the fish, duckweed. Anything going in and out of the tank for any reason, duckweed. From someone who thought this little floating plant was cute, might i suggest #1 giant duckweed. Yes there is a giant variety of this plant that is much easier to deal with than standard duckweed. It does all the same stuff the standard duckweed does, just easier to manage in the giant variety. #2 Salvinia, is quite similar in size and appearance to giant duckweed. Other good floaters are Amazon frogbit (which i cant get in Tennessee), Water lettuce, Water Hyacinth, and Red root floaters. All of which i have tried and recommend (with exception of frogbit) to standard duckweed. All of this coming from a guy who loves pest snails, but cant stand pest duckweed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 (edited) If you’re looking for nice floaters, I’m a huge fan of salvinia! I have salvinia minima and it has very short roots, yet the leaves are big enough to easily scoop out. The leaves stay attached in groups of 9 or so, which also helps. I also love how water repellent its little hairs are. I can squirt bbs or fertilizer right on top of the leaves and it just rolls off. The LFS where I sell/trade my honey gouramis has duckweed in most of its tanks, and if I bring anything home I am always SOOOO careful to remove every leaf. It really is like glitter. I just glanced through Walstad’s book searching for duckweed, and I wonder if the problem in ponds @WhitecloudDynasty is more the duckweed plus lack of circulation rather than just the duckweed alone. Walstad mentions that in studies comparing duckweeded aquariums to no-surface-plant aquariums, ammonia levels rose equally in each until they added water circulation. We know that circulation helps with gas exchange, so I wonder if it’s enough to counteract any smothering effect of duckweed carpets. I’m just hypothesizing—I certainly think it’s plausible to get enough duckweed that surface gas exchange is inhibited. Edited February 26, 2021 by Hobbit Better words 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhitecloudDynasty Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 @Hobbit wouldnt surface full with duckweed have less surface area? Some duckweed can get to half to 2 inch thick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Cleveland Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 It is a little bit messy. And it will starve the tank of oxygen if you have any kind of livestock in the tank. I would recommend if you really want to use it put a couple of small sponge filters in each corner of the tank or air stones and you can also take a piece of Airline in divide the tank in half from front to back. Some fish like to eat it so it can be scooped out and used as a fish food and even other animals like to eat it like chickens. If you do research people are now he's using it as a superfood but it has to be boiled and prepared correctly or a human can get sick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celly Rasbora Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 @Brandy, I was just fresh from seeing Cory’s video and was just using new knowledge. I get it. And your glitter analogy is [chef’s kiss]. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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