Duckweed?

[Deezy7]

I'm on facebook marketplace and saw some lady advertising duckweed - i don't know much about plants in tanks and so forth but is it okay? And any other suggestions for it

 

[kwi]

I've read enough about duckweed on here to know to stay away from it..........

 

[goldfish_is_orange]

Cory from Aquarium Co-op YT channel feeds that to his goldies every other day. I haven't been here long, but same as @kwi, I've found this forum avoids that plant like a plague.

 

[mbsqw1d]

I'm on facebook marketplace and saw some lady advertising duckweed - i don't know much about plants in tanks and so forth but is it okay? And any other suggestions for it

Go for salvinia or frogbit instead. Duckweed is ridiculous stuff. Once you've got it, theres no going back!

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Paying money for duckweed???

 

[FishGuest5123]

It’s great for goldfish. Not so great for anything else.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I wouldn't recommend it. It's good at absorbing nitrates, and provides surface cover, but it literally coats everything, I deeply regret ever allowing any in my tanks.

Once you've got it, unless you're one of the few who can't get it to survive or you're using it as salad for goldfish, you can't get rid of it. It only takes one tiny dried out speck to survive, and it'll come back with a vengeance. No other floating plant is like that. It's super messy compared to other floating plants too, anything disturbs the duckweed coated surface, and the duckweed blows down into the tank, getting caught up on everything in there. If you net out a fish, you have a net full of duckweed. Put your hands in to do any maintenance, arm covered in duckweed that stays stuck to you. It gets on all your equipment, dries out, stays there. Will need constant thinning out if it's growing well so it doesn't completely choke out the surface, and it's not as easy to thin out as water lettuce or frogbit, since you can scoop out full nets of the stuff, and what's left just spreads out and covers the surface again.

Then if you decide you've had enough and you want rid, and want to try frogbit, water lettuce, salvinia or red root floaters or something, you can't. It'll out compete the other floating plants most of the time, and no matter how thorough you think you've been in removing it all, it only needs one tiny bit to come back. One tiny dried out speck on a net, a bucket, under the rim of the tank, caught on the back of a cable - all it takes for it to come back and take over again. And since it got all over every bit of fish equipment you own, that's a lot of dried out specks you have to eliminate to get rid of it.

I even soaked some fish equipment in a bucket of bleach recently. Only meant to leave it in the diluted bleach outside for a few hours, but I fell ill and it ended up staying there for a few days. It rained a bit in that time. When I came to tip out the bucket a couple of days later, found bright green, healthy, thriving duckweed in there Sure, the rain would have diluted the bleach a little, but the duckweed still survived for hours in bleach solution strong enough to kill most things

So I really recommend going with any other floating plant before duckweed.

 

[kwi]

Sigourny Weaver had Duckweed once.

 

[Deezy7]

Paying money for duckweed???

It's free searched up "free" on fb market you find useful things

 

[WhistlingBadger]

OK, seriously, Adora gave you the straight scoop above. Adding duckweed is a lot like adding pond snails. Both can be beneficial, and both can take over if you're not careful. Free is good, though.

 

[Deezy7]

I wouldn't recommend it. It's good at absorbing nitrates, and provides surface cover, but it literally coats everything, I deeply regret ever allowing any in my tanks.

Once you've got it, unless you're one of the few who can't get it to survive or you're using it as salad for goldfish, you can't get rid of it. It only takes one tiny dried out speck to survive, and it'll come back with a vengeance. No other floating plant is like that. It's super messy compared to other floating plants too, anything disturbs the duckweed coated surface, and the duckweed blows down into the tank, getting caught up on everything in there. If you net out a fish, you have a net full of duckweed. Put your hands in to do any maintenance, arm covered in duckweed that stays stuck to you. It gets on all your equipment, dries out, stays there. Will need constant thinning out if it's growing well so it doesn't completely choke out the surface, and it's not as easy to thin out as water lettuce or frogbit, since you can scoop out full nets of the stuff, and what's left just spreads out and covers the surface again.

Then if you decide you've had enough and you want rid, and want to try frogbit, water lettuce, salvinia or red root floaters or something, you can't. It'll out compete the other floating plants most of the time, and no matter how thorough you think you've been in removing it all, it only needs one tiny bit to come back. One tiny dried out speck on a net, a bucket, under the rim of the tank, caught on the back of a cable - all it takes for it to come back and take over again. And since it got all over every bit of fish equipment you own, that's a lot of dried out specks you have to eliminate to get rid of it.

I even soaked some fish equipment in a bucket of bleach recently. Only meant to leave it in the diluted bleach outside for a few hours, but I fell ill and it ended up staying there for a few days. It rained a bit in that time. When I came to tip out the bucket a couple of days later, found bright green, healthy, thriving duckweed in there Sure, the rain would have diluted the bleach a little, but the duckweed still survived for hours in bleach solution strong enough to kill most things

So I really recommend going with any other floating plant before duckweed.

Omg thank you for the suggestions! I'd probably go with red root floaters/frogbit in that case - my next question how do i prevent them from getting into my sump.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Omg thank you for the suggestions! I'd probably go with red root floaters/frogbit in that case - my next question how do i prevent them from getting into my sump.

Ooohh, I've never had a sump, so I'm not sure. But you can make plant corals out of airline tubing, to restrict where they go. I haven't done it myself yet, but I know @ClownLurch has. Presumably you could make some to keep them in one part of the surface, or stop them going too close to the sump intake.

 

[HoldenOn]

I have duckweed in my tank. It just floats, I take out half of it every week. My corydoras like the shade. I'd definitely get frogbit though.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

It floats, gold fish eat it, it’s died, then comes back. That’s literally all it does/is.

 

[Deezy7]

Ooohh, I've never had a sump, so I'm not sure. But you can make plant corals out of airline tubing, to restrict where they go. I haven't done it myself yet, but I know @ClownLurch has. Presumably you could make some to keep them in one part of the surface, or stop them going too close to the sump intake.

Because i think any surface i place my floating plant will eventually get pushed to the entrance of my sump. Refer to photos! Pls ignore the lady the missus threw her in for a laugh