Does anyone out there have Duckweed in their tanks? I got some today at the LFS. I liked the look of it and I was in the market for a floating plant. After reading a little about it on the net, I am getting some mixed reviews.. If I regularly remove it as it gets thicker, will my rooted plants get enough light and nutrients?
You gota keep up on it, but it is a great nitrate sponge. I can remove about a third of it and by a week its pretty much all back. At most it will diffuse the light getting into the rest of the tank, not an issue unless you are trying to get tons of growth out of your other plants or have a plant that requires really high light.
This is a low tech planted tank, so I guess that will not be much of an issue I will just remove it as needed with my weekly water changes. I just did some more reading though and found that some people have trouble keeping it alive with HOB filters. Is this going to be a problem for me? I try to keep the water level high to minimize surface agitation, but there is some.
As with most floating plants surface current of the water will hinder growth, this is because they are always moving around so are not under the light consistently. Which from a duckweed perspective is good, it will keep it under check.
i noticed with my surface plants that when i reduced teh flow of my canister, they really took off! the frogbit which has barely grown at all in a week was all over the place
not to highjack the thread, but when you "trim" the surface plants im not sure how to do that? do you just shorten the individual growths or take out whole pieces?
I had duckweed and I didn't really like it. Couldn't reach the hand in my tank, fish things out, etc, without duckweed getting all over.
Is it really that great of a nitrate sponge? If so, it's tempting. lol. But I really still don't like it. I removed seriously like a couple cupfulls every couple weeks in just my 10 gallon tank. But maybe that's why I could keep so many fish in a 10g.... (platies had babies and just ended up with a lot)
I'm sure u can keep it under control, but it's messy and can be irritating. Especially if you're tired of it and want to get rid of it all. It's pretty hard.
None of my tanks had a HOB filter so idk how it'd go with a HOB filter. Those aren't very good for any plants.
I think I may have to get rid of it. The current from the HOB's is making a mess of the tank. The fish seem to like it though. I think they must think it is food they keep chasing all the pieces that the filter pushes down in the water.
Duckweed is ideal in "pond" or flooded forest aquascapes, and better in smaller (10g, 20g, 30g) tanks than larger (4+ feet). I find it especially useful as a second floating plant mixed in with Water Sprite, Amazon Frogbit, Brazilian Pennywort.
Like all floating plants, it assimilates a lot of nutrients from the water, including ammonium [this is why your nitrates are lower, the ammonia is being utilized up front so there is far less nitrite and thus minimal nitrate] because it has the advantage of assimilating CO2 directly from the air rather than the more laborious process from water like submersed plants, and the light is obviously brightest at the surface.
It is not difficult to keep in check; growth will fluctuate due to seasonal factors, and regular (weekly) removal of some of it will keep it where you want it.
I personally hate the stuff mostly cause its been a near two year battle getting it out of a koi / goldfish pond outside, and the duckweed is still winning no matters how much I think I got it. It comes back... In a tank though its a decent floating mess. and long as you don't mind it shading whats down below it shouldn't pose too many problems. Just net what you don't want up and toss it in the trash and you'll be good to go. It'll grow like a weed though generally.
I wish mine would grow, I have it in a 55g and have seen no major growth. I wouldn't trash it people are paying for it on ebay and the like, kinda expensive for and being sold by the table spoon.
Actually might just do that, would help fund the new fish for the 55 I'm working on if I ever figure out what to put in it.
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