Duckweed!?

[Aspen35]

Some of you may feel personally attacked by me asking for duckweed, but I love feeding it to my snails, goldfish, and turtle. Normally, I don’t have enough to go around. Unfortunately, a bit of a tank disaster caused all of what I had to die. I know that anyone who has duckweed thriving in a tank probably has too much of it, and nothing to do with it. Is there anyone even remotely in the same location as me who would be willing to send a bit through mail? I can pay for the shipping.

 

[Colin_T]

I can't help you get any but I used to grow it in plastic storage containers outside so I had a steady supply for my fish. Rainbowfish love the stuff. Maybe when you get some more, set up a couple of containers outside so you have a backup supply.

 

[Aspen35]

I can't help you get any but I used to grow it in plastic storage containers outside so I had a steady supply for my fish. Rainbowfish love the stuff. Maybe when you get some more, set up a couple of containers outside so you have a backup supply.

That’s a good idea! I’ll keep it in mind. Thanks

 

[mcordelia]

just make sure it doesn't freeze I know it's pretty hardy stuff, but that might be a bit of a challenge for it to recover from haha.

 

[Retired Viking]

I am trying to grow some duckweed for my turtles in a plastic container. I do not have much so far. My wife is not wild about it being on the kitchen table when I put it out for some sun.

 

[Munroco]

I should have enough to fill up a medium size aircraft in the next week or so. I would dearly like to get rid of all of it.

 

[StevenF]

Generally duckweed is very easy to grow. And when everything it needs to grow it can cover the surface in a week or two. And it is nearly impossible to iradicate

If you cannot grow iIt you have a nutrient deficiency present. Meaning your water doesn't have enough of any of the following:

Nitrate
Potassium
phosphate
Calcium
Magnesium
sulfur
Iron
manganese
Boron
Zinc
copper
molybdenum
nickel

Yes docked does need light and CO2 but it does well in low light and floating at the surface it has access to CO2 in the air. And it does need a chloride salt but all tap water has that. (byproduct of the chlorination process at the tap water treatment plan)

So if you cannot grow duckweed you need to fertilize you water.

 

[Aspen35]

Generally duckweed is very easy to grow. And when everything it needs to grow it can cover the surface in a week or two. And it is nearly impossible to iradicate

If you cannot grow iIt you have a nutrient deficiency present. Meaning your water doesn't have enough of any of the following:

Nitrate
Potassium
phosphate
Calcium
Magnesium
sulfur
Iron
manganese
Boron
Zinc
copper
molybdenum
nickel

Yes docked does need light and CO2 but it does well in low light and floating at the surface it has access to CO2 in the air. And it does need a chloride salt but all tap water has that. (byproduct of the chlorination process at the tap water treatment plan)

So if you cannot grow duckweed you need to fertilize you water.

I’ve never heard of chloride salt, could you possibly explain it a bit? I have well water, maybe that has something to do with it not growing.

 

[Essjay]

A chloride salt is something like sodium chloride (common salt) potassium chloride etc. Water supplied through main water is treated with chlorine or chloramine. Dechlorinators turn this chlorine into chloride which is why StevenF said chloride is found in tap water.

 

[Aspen35]

A chloride salt is something like sodium chloride (common salt) potassium chloride etc. Water supplied through main water is treated with chlorine or chloramine. Dechlorinators turn this chlorine into chloride which is why StevenF said chloride is found in tap water.

Is it something plants need? They wouldn’t be getting that in the wild...

 

[StevenF]

Is it something plants need? They wouldn’t be getting that in the wild...

Plants do need chlorine to grow. witout it the plant will stop growing and will eventually die. However pure chlorine will destry point tissue and harm fish. But a chloride salt will not harm fish or plants And provide the needed chlorine. Chloride salts are typically present in most streams and lakes but at level that you wouldn't not notice. Tap water is typically treated with chlorine gas to kill harmful bacteria. After the bacteria is killed any excess chlorine will react with KH in the water creating a harmless chloride salt.

This wikipedia artilcle list elements that are needed for good plant growth.

 

[Aspen35]

Plants do need chlorine to grow. witout it the plant will stop growing and will eventually die. However pure chlorine will destry point tissue and harm fish. But a chloride salt will not harm fish or plants And provide the needed chlorine. Chloride salts are typically present in most streams and lakes but at level that you wouldn't not notice. Tap water is typically treated with chlorine gas to kill harmful bacteria. After the bacteria is killed any excess chlorine will react with KH in the water creating a harmless chloride salt.

This wikipedia artilcle list elements that are needed for good plant growth.

That’s good to know, thank you. So my only question is, what do you do if you use a water source not from the tap? Reverse osmosis, RODI, etc?

 

[mcordelia]

My stupid answer to this question is you toss a rock into the water, the kind that leeches out minerals / salts. I think the less stupid answer is something like there are remineralizing compounds you can add to your RO water to reconstitute it how you want, but I don't know enough about any of that to give any kind of intelligent answer.

 

[StevenF]

hat’s good to know, thank you. So my only question is, what do you do if you use a water source not from the tap? Reverse osmosis, RODI, etc?

You can add any of the following to an aquarium to increase Cl:
potassium chloride (KCl) increase potassium and chlorine in the water
Calcium chloride (CaCl2) Increase calcium, GH. and Cl
Magnesium Chloride (MgCl2) Increases, Magnesium, GH and Cl.
Sea Salt.

you can use this nutrient calculator to determine how much to add to your aquarium. You will need a small scale to that can read down to 1 milligram. I purchase a cheep $20 scale on amazon.com and it has worked very well. For the nutrient calculator enter your tank volume, Select DIY, Select the compound your are interested in using. Select dry or solution dosing, and then select dose to reach a target and enter the concentration you want. Note this calculator will assume you are interested in K, Ca, or Mg generate a number to reach the concetration you want but for K, Ca, or Mg. So you probably will need to adjust the concentration target to get Cl at the number you want. I would suggest aiming for a target of 0.2ppmIt is highly unlikely that you would need more than 0.2ppm.

For sea salt it adds sodium, Cl, ,Ca, Mgm, K, and a number of other elements but most will be at very low concentrations. You can add sea salt at low levels to safely supplyCl. unfortunately the calculator i mentioned earlier isn't much help for this but you could aim for 0.5ppm and multiply that number by the number of liters of water in your tank.

Now if your water has a low Gh (general hardness) there is another approach. buy a chloride GH booster such as Seachem Replenish. it is made of Calcium chloride and magnesium chloride. For a low GH I would suggest a minimum GH of 3 degrees. IF your GH is already close to 3 increase the GH with Replenish by one or 2 degrees. Formy 100% RO aquarium I make a GH booster from calcium chloride and magnesium sulfate so that there are 3 parts calcium and one part magnesium. This mix provide calcium, magnesium, sulfur, and chloride that plant need.