Duckweed: Love it or hate it??

aknif

aknif

...maybe the Dingo ate your baby!!
Dec 27, 2004
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Denver, CO
I've never had live plants before and I kinda like the looks of it and thought about trying some. OrionGirl also told me in a different thread that it would help with nitrates/algae... but when I called two of my LFS's looking for it, they told me they don't sell it because they are nuisance plants, and don't do jack for nitrates.

Do you or have you had it in your tanks? Do you like it or hate it? Is it pretty? If I hate it, can I get rid of it? Does it "shed" leaves like some plants and leave junk floating around the tank? Does it actually help with nitrate? Am I rambling? ;)

Thank you! :)
 
Any plant will help with nitrate. That is the major food source for all plants in tanks. The LFS obviously doesn't know much. And duckweed is far better than most as it can grow super fast.

However, it is for that reason that people sometimes hate it. A single plant with the right conditions can cover the whole top of a tank in a week or less. This can block out light, make it hard for certain fish like bettas and can get messy.

But that being said I always keep some in my 5 gallon betta tank. There the fish load is low (1 fish) so the nitrates are low and the duckweed grows slowly. But it does grab the nitrate and helps slow down algae growth.

I generally throw out 1/2 to 3/4 of the duckweed with each water change. I use a small mesh scoop and just scoop it out.
 
I also don't mind pitching some with each water change. I think i'll put some in my 5.5 gallon and if I like it, i'll start it in my 125 too.

Does it "shed" at all? Like leaves dying off or bits of leaves floating around the tank?
 
I did have some duckweed that came in on some plants. I did try for 4 weeks to get it all out before it was all gone. Most of my tanks have hoods on them and they were blocking my lights for the plants I was trying to grow. It is a weed. If you keep tossing ¾ to ½ out of your tank every week then yes it will help with nitrates as long as it keeps growing or in this case reproducing.
 
Like got nailed I kept some for a while, but use the top of my tank to propagate riccia and the duckweed would ride over top of it and get in the way. Not to mention blocking out the light to the lower plants.

For floaters I use riccia, salvinia auriculata and some hydrocotyle leucocephala that I got from TKOS quite a while ago. They all grow quite quickly on the surface except that they are much easier to control. Hydrocotyle is easy because it grows along a stem, it looks a lot like lilly pads, I usually let it grow for a while then throw out (or give away) all but a few leaves. The salvinia is much like duckweed in terms of being more of an individual plant, but it's bigger and doesn't override everything. As for the riccia, there's not an lfs around that wouldn't be happy to take some off your hands if it gets outta control.

edit: took me about a month to get rid of the last traces of duckweed from my tank, yes, once it's there, it's tough to get rid of.
 
Hey Happy, glad to see the hydrocotyle leucocephala is still around. That was a fun plant but when I used it in my smaller tanks I always had it over take things when I wasn't looking. I remember coming back from vacation and wondering where my fish were.

As for the duckweed, I only use it right now in my betta tank so it reproduces fairly slowly and that is great for me. It is also perfect for goldfish as they tend to eat it as a snack and it can almost keep growing faster than they eat it.
 
Darkblade - It's a different variety, but very similar. Both are good plants for nutrients.
Duckweed is a very small plant. So small that the entire plant is smaller than most leaves of reg. aquatic plants. It is very difficult to get rid of because a tiny bit of it will throw baby plants, so you need to find every bit to rid yourself of it.
Salvinia is, by far the better choice for a floater, IMO.

Len
 
Duckweek can be a pain in the butt, but when it starts choking the top of one of my tank, I skim some off and put it in my 55 gal. angel tank. They love it!
 
I also prefer Salvinia over duckweed. Both are considered nusince plants though. But the Salvinia has much larger leaves.
 
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