I am begging and beseeching for help w/duckweed

[Bubbles2112]

I have tried this. The problem is one day you look in the tank and it's gone. The next day it's gone too. The third day there's nothing. So you stop looking. A week later the tank is infested again. The stuff is like a bad penny.

....I am definitely feeling your pain.

duckweed sucks. Should be a tee-shirt for AC :headbang2:

 

[Wycco]

It's even harder to get rid of when you have a floating plant you WANT- because you scoop out all the duckweed, and, I don't know how, but it sticks to the other plants some how. Can't kill the duckweed without killing the floaters you want.



I don't know how I first got duckweed... just appeared one day and was all over the tank the next. All I can think is it came in with some pet-snails. (ironic isn't it- plants hitch-hiking in on snails). Snails were the only recent additions to the tank.


Supposedly high water-surface movement kills the stuff... which is fine... as long as you don't have surface plants YOU WANT- because it kills them too.

 

[coach_z]

keep scooping!
incrrease surface agitation to a terribly high level where water is practically squirting out of your tank
sanitize your net in bleach after use in your tank so you dont re-introduce it.

 

[ayra321]

for surface plants you do want,just get a bucket and swish them around underwater with your hands.also netting out the dukweed has worked fine for me.just keep an eye on the tank surface and snatch out any lil bits you see and keep an eye out for hitchhikers on nets

 

[A. Nonymous]

I will try to add more agitation. The one tank that seems immune does have a pretty gnarly hob filter. Maybe that's my key. The tanks that are infested have canister filters.

 

[toddnbecka]

I have a 29 gallon tank that's filtered by a fluval 305. Duckweed does survive in that tank, but it doesn't run amok and cover the surface even though I have a sponge prefilter on the intake. In the tanks w/canisters simply position the intake somewhere that the current will send duckweed towards it.

 

[CONDUCT]

scoop everyday
Try getting rid of this with over 100 cherry shrimp swimming all over and 20 fry. Every scoop you have to look and see if someone ended in the net.

 

[zpromoter]

scoop everyday
Try getting rid of this with over 100 cherry shrimp swimming all over and 20 fry. Every scoop you have to look and see if someone ended in the net.

that just sounds terrible. I am never going to get duckweed anytime soon

 

[Dr. Awkward]

I have one tank with pond snails, they eat it. I can't keep any floating plants in that tank because they all turn into snail lunch. I'd rather have the duckweed than the snails though.

 

[THE V]

I deliberately grow duckweed in my guppy tanks in the garage. When it gets out of control skim it up with my net and drop it in my 125 gallon goldfish tank. A baseball sized bunch of duckweed usually takes them a day or two to clean up. I've haven't had a problem with constipation since I started doing this about once a week. The goldfish also look really good.

I've got pond and Malyasian trumphet snails in the planted guppy tanks. They do very little to control it. The SAE's I have don't touch it either. Goldfish act like its candy. They don't leave any minute piece of it.