How to Get Rid of Duckweed (and maybe why you shouldn't): The Good | The Bad
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- Опубликовано: 27 окт 2020
- Hello Fellow Fish Keepers!
In this video we take a closer look at duckweed and talk about how to get rid of it. We also talk about the advantages of duckweed and why it may not be so bad.
Here is more information on fish that will usually eat duckweed:
Electric Blue Acara: • An Amazing Community F...
Severums: • Severum Cichlid Care a...
Tin Foil Barbs (need very large tank): • Tinfoil Barb Care: Don...
Bala Shark (need very large tank): • Bala Shark Care - Real...
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Thank you so much for watching!
#duckweed #aquariumfish #fishtank 
Животные
Here is more information on fish that will usually eat duckweed:
Electric Blue Acara: ruclips.net/video/FvT_E4toJQ0/видео.html
Severums: ruclips.net/video/xnUJKMhr_nU/видео.html
Tin Foil Barbs (need very large tank): ruclips.net/video/wAn0eKDxbjw/видео.html
Bala Shark (need very large tank): ruclips.net/video/6dRXalv-XjA/видео.html
Also, our new shirts can be found at: www.primetimeaquatics.com/merch
For the latest in the fish room check us out on Instagram primetime_aquatics
For more cool behind the scenes stuff consider becoming a member!
ruclips.net/channel/UCYVN7EN0ALL6CE4U7NpMUTAjoin
If you want to see all the cool stuff Joanna does with other types of scapes check out her channel!
ruclips.net/channel/UCPEZk1MpOTGiBVh6BtWjlRg
My severum hated the stuff. I wish he ate it!
I’m a big fan of nuisance aquarium inhabitants. Pond snails, duckweed, give it all to me ❤️
I hear ya, first thing I do when I set up a tank is put in the pond snails, duckweed and lots of daphnea. I let that run for a month like that for a month before adding the fish.
Me too!
I do the same thing! Along with guppy grass, bba and hair algae.
Totally with you!
Same 😂 however every now and then I have to cut my duckweed back a bit because it grows so well 😂
I freaking love duck weed. What survival skills. I have them in 2 of my 3 tanks. Not a problem with the little guy for me. It will take over the top of the aquarium. For me that’s a excellent time to do a WC. Net first then WC. Some fish will even eat it. And you can make food of it. Great stuff
I made a couple of large feeding rings for the tank with the most duckweed; helps with getting more light in as well. I do have to move them at least once a day to keep them relatively clear. And using pre-filter sponge on the intake seems to help keep it - mostly - out of the filter.
I feed the duckweed to my Severum and Buenos Aires Tetra. As much as they love it, I might need to grow it in more tanks!
Didn't realize the Buenos Aires ate it too!
I compost a ton of it. The benefits of having a small bit floating around out weighs scooping out a few netfuls for the compost bin.
You just have to seriously keep up with it, it's manic in how fast it grows.
👍💓👍
I love this stuff. Chiefly, it accesses atmospheric CO2. So it bypasses the primary limiting rate for most aquatic plants; making a great nutrient sink.
However, it's messy and gets everywhere. I've found I hate it in displays. So, I grow it in sumps. I put a baffle in to control it's movement, and light it like a refugium.
Much like a refugium it has the secondary benefit of make a fun invertebrate habitat. It helps support a secondary colony neocardinia and a slew of un unpredated trophic level 2 inverts; which further optimizes the nutrient cycling of the filtration.
Great info. I, myself, do not mind the duck weed. If I have to much, I use a cheap kitchen strainer to remove it and feed it to my koi.
Its just one of those plants that completes the cycle.
Fishfood -> Fishpoop -> Plantfood -> Plant.
Every calory of organic matter going into the tank eventually has to come out. Instead of removing smelly brown stuff you just remove green floaty stuff.
I've also read that duckweed grows faster when there is a large amount of surface agitation or lots of bubbles coming from an air stone. I remember reading a scientific paper where they tripled their duckweed production by adding an airline with an air stone in the 5 gallon buckets they were growing it in.
I have an established tank (15g tall) with no problems in 20 years. Last spring, I got a new light and filter. Next thing, I had ton of algea. Green water algae, then staghorn, green string, etc. I read about duckweed for algae control, and, finding a bunch in a bucket full of rainwater I added it to the tank. Bang! 4 days later massive reduction of algae. No algae at all in 10 days. Lots of duckweed on the surface - Lol! Once the tank was stable again, I added some plants. Some ramshorn snails got in, even though I treated the plants. 3 months later - HUNDREDS of snails, even though I didn't overfeed. But the duckweed was GONE. The snail explosion happened after they started eating the duckweed
Honestly, I'd rather have the duckweed. I made a feeding ring by connecting two ends of a length of tubing. Stays clear of duckweed reasonably well.
Great info Jason :) Sun dried duckweed that has been finely milled in a spice grinder is an excellent food for live bearers and barbs. It also has a high protein content; about 42% or higher I believe. I mix this DW powder with other milled commercial foods to feed all of my fish.
Good point!
My Fantail Goldfish love it. I even have a bin to grow duckweed to supplement the fantail's food. It is healthy for them and saves me money on fish food.
Loving the video and the orange shirt!! Updated edit: Just ordered my XL, thank you for all the knowledge that you and your wife share!🧡
Cool! Thank you!
When I have a duckweed problem, I use a surface skimmer and good ole scooping with the net :)
I like to mix duckweed with dwarf water lettuce. Natural food, nutrate reduction, and low light plants like anubias seem to do better.
Greetings. Jason, thanks for the information.👍
Thank you!
I also have used salt to get rid of duckweed, aquarium salt or african cichlid salt works well as well assuming your fish are ok with that
Wonderful plant! Est nitrate remover. So easy to maintain. If your like me your hands are in the tank everyday. Just a quick skim. Even best, no algae!
i give it to my turtles, parrots and goldfish. Thank you for the info on bba which I am dealing with in two tanks, also about the acaras eating the duckweed. I didn't know that.
I like duckweed I think it is nice & good for fish/tank in moderation.
I have a filterless tank, so I love duckweed!
My goto for DW are Trichopodus microlepis (Moonlight Gourami), these fish are great and thrive on it. I had DW in my tanks full high flow didn't work, scooping it either. I did some research & found that larger gouramis will snack on it
UGH! Duckweed! Gets into EVERYTHING!!!! I have gone to larger floating plants... but it still sneaks in!
Omg fr, I started with duckweed in my betta 10 gallon, got it out after about a month of picking single pieces out, then I switched to red root floaters. Got some salvinia too just for more texture and i got some hitch hikers from the salvinia😂💔
I'm having the duckweed issue but with red root floaters. The light on my 6 gallon is wayy too strong and the algae was killing every plant I put in there, so I got some floaters to block the light. They took off and now I have to dose fertilizer twice a week and am trying to move some of them to my other tanks to make room
If you have an open tank: hang on it half a potato (sweet p.too) or garlic which consumes a massive amount of nitrates and I finally got beautiful flowers on top of the tanks. Not much left for the duck weed. I introduced duckweed to my open tank and there is no explosion respectively it died.
Good to know. Lovely fish. 🌿🌿🌿🐟👍😊
I've used some dried duckweed to kick-start an infusoria culture, worked great!
Cool!
One of my aquariums has a lot of duck weed. Love it. 🍀🍀🍀 🍀🍀 🍀🍀
I don't mind it either. :-)
I love duck weed, I have to buy it regularly as I have demon eartheaters and they love it , loving your show from the uk , keep safe
Set up a small corner where the fish cant get to it. That way you can keep a never ending suply feeding your fish their own poop indefinately.
Great video. Presently dealing with ich with clown loaches and plants...grrrrr.
Hope it works out!
I love duckweed as a top cover. I've bought fish feeding rings to put around the HOB waterfall, and after some disturbance and settling, it's going okay!
That certainly helps!
You quickly understand why duckweed grows so fast when you see it added to a goldfish tank, I've never seen my goldfish eat so ravenously until i introduced duckweed into my pool pond
Yes!
I personally do not mind duckweed in my non planted tanks. In the Wintertime I let it grow across the whole surface (I still keep an airstone running though) to help keep the heat in.
Still on the short list for floaters for my shrimp tank, but I've since been trying to look at other options since I'll be trying to remove it and end up with a whole bunch of shrimp in it
Duckweed is the most underrated aquatic plants.
I am switching to saltwater ,but still going to have the freshwater cichlids love coral
I recommend using a shop vac. I bought a Bucket Buddy from Home Depot that I use only for duckweed.
Sorry I just checked. It's called a Bucket Head.
My planted guppy tank is the duckweed factory for my mbuna tank 👍
I intentionally farm duckweed to feed my Malawi and Goldfish tank. They don't seem to like it but will eventually finish everything up overnight. Every time I do wc it go straight to my duckweed farm I have a few live bear in there. Harvest it every 3 days. Saved a tons of money on fish food. One downside is they poop out some transparent fiber?? it usually float back to the top for a few day then disappear.
I like it.
Perfect! Answered my questions. I now have extra food for my turtle 🐢!
Awesome!
I've removed duck week three times in my tank, only bc it was blocking light and out of concern of surface gas exchange. In two weeks it grows back. I'm not really sure if it affects gas exchange or not. I thought plants provide oxygen. I'm not sure how to test for oxygen in tanks.
I asked the lfs for some of their pest duck weed from their plant tanks, free plants! It's working wonderfully for my bettas, roots are super long already! Sometimes I'll even take bladder snails from the petsmart, free algea cleaning and betta fish snack when their done lol
I've been looking to get some duckweed for a while now. I keep large american cichlids and nitrates are obviously a problem. In my mixed american tank is pretty planted even with a Oscar, blood parrot, flowerhorn, jack Dempsey, and red devil none of the plants are disturbed crazy right. But my convicts, dovii, and jaguar who all don't get along well with others really love to dig. My grow out tank with black nasty cichlids and flowerhorns fry is mildly planted but they are all too young to disturb the substrate right now but considering 4 black nasties could very well lead to a breeding pair digging is inevitable with them. I tried water lettuce but the silver dollars destroyed that and the giant danios are just as bad. So I need blending that spread fast enough to survive the onslaught. And as for my stocking dovii is in a 50 gallon for grow out convicts in a 40 breeder permanently Oscar and Jack dempsey at 1 year old get along well so the 75 gallon they are in is for life but the flowerhorn, blood parrot and red devil all hands 125 gallon tanks they will be going in when they reach 6 or 7 inches. The black nasties which there are 4 fry i have to get a breeding pair then they will go to a 150 while the remaining 2 will go to my lfs the last 2 flowerhorn cichlids I haven made my mind up yet until I figure their demeanor towards each other in the long run.
I believe Flip Aquatics actually sells duck weed. :-)
I'm actually growing it to reduce light on my tetras and gourami because they get too nervous when i set it brighter. I know i cloud just turn off the light or set it to blue but it doesn't look as nice 😜
I haven't had duckweed, knock on wood. I unfortunately ended up with Wolfia in my 20 gallon shrimp tank though, which is an absolute nightmare to deal with.
How do I get rid of small snails?
If you want to get rid of it with low effort, put a high flow hang-on-back filter on the tank. The duckweed doesn't like being submerged and will eventually die off from the water turbulence. You can also remove the end cap off the intake tube so the duckweed gets sucked into the filter, assuming you don't have any fish that would be in danger of getting sucked in also.
Exactly - you need to break the surface tension in a big way. Duckweed is a symptom of poor water flow, something that very few fish or plants actually prefer. Running a surface skimmer and several powerheads can help too. Before you go buying more fish that will eat it, do what Central Ohio Cichlid Keeper says!
Thanks for sharing. I love duckweed for my fish and crustaceans that eat it. I keep it out of tanks I don't want it in. It is a very useful easy plant for me. My live food cultures love it.
Can it be used to cycle a tank? apparently plants also take ammonia nitrate and those stuff
It will certainly help!
Crazy because I got some in my tank recently. Think it may have come in on a net? One piece and I saw it get in there. I was chasing shrimpies so I actually forgot about it lol. That was about a week ago and Well... I think we all know where I'm at now.
Too funny. Ya, it can explode in a tank. 😀
i love this song 🔥🔥🔥
No
I have giant duckweed and I love it. Super easy to manage and great for parameters.
Must find some of that!
I want send me some Professor! Thinking it would be great in my super red bushy nose tank to help clean the water. Also think it would be good for bettas to form a bubble nest?
The frogbit is good for bettas too.
I use a shop vac to remove duckweed I haven’t found an easier way.
I always see and hear about people never being able to get rid of duckweed, but I've never had this problem.
A few times I've purchased duckweed to handle excess nitrates and I've had it fully covering my tanks and was able to get rid of it after scooping it out over two days and it never came back.
Same for 'pest' snails.
I guess that's not a bad thing!
I heard u say turtles can eat the duck weed we have a red ear . That’s ok to give him a net full ?
I haven't kept them in a while, but I don't think it harms them at all.
If you have good surface agitation duckweed don’t stand a chance from my experience.
I added duckweed to my tanks all the duckweed died off lol my tanks naturally killed off the duckweed it seems
Woohoo! :-)
@@PrimeTimeAquatics it's a weird thing in my tank so I guess probably cuz I got low nitrates and I've been using less lighting
@@PrimeTimeAquatics all my other plants are doing good however
I wish I could get my duckweed to grow! I want it for my turtle, and large goldfish (different tanks)
You mentioned Severums as fans of duckweed. I’ve been considering one for awhile. Would an Electric Blue Acara and Angelfish make compatible tank mates?
I have kept them together without any issues! The Acara love duckweed too!
@@PrimeTimeAquatics I guess my Acara must be a “special” guy, he’s never touched the duckweed, lol! My Common Pleco loves it! Thanks for the info!
I've read flagfish will also eat it. Testing that now. Any experience with that?
Yes, I have them in a duckweed free 125! :-)
@@PrimeTimeAquatics Awesome!
i grow it in my betta tanks to feed the goldfishes :D
I keep hearing about people complaining about it but I cant find any, anywhere. I feel left out. 😪
If my memory serves, I believe the famous Greg Sage of Select Aquatics uses dried duckweed as an infusoria starter for new fry tanks.
I believe you may be right!
Currently fighting a black beard algae outbreak in a Fluval EBI nano shrimp tank and it's a total nightmare. I used a nerite to maintain my established cycle while sourcing shrimp and unfortunately it produces far more waste than I expected based on my other nerites and even mystery snails in other tanks. With the shrimp dictating volume and frequency of water changes I just can't get any momentum going. I managed to stabilize my larger tank with Flourish excel treatments (my green mirio took off like rockets) but the algae just covers the mirio and slow growing trident java fern in the nano tank before I can make any head way. I've cut my daily light down to roughly 4.5 hours and maintain a 0,0,5-10ppm levels as per API master test kit and 4Gh 4Kh per API liquid hardness test at 77°F and 7.4PH. I suspect my only real course of action is relocating the nerite first and foremost and drastically increasing my plant load. I was thinking Frog bit and or duck weed since they would benefit the shrimp habitat wise and are well known to scarf up excess nutrients in the water column while also decreasing light to the water column. This video confirms what I've heard and seeing it sells me on it. It looks quiet nice and natural from the tanks you showed! I'm open to any suggestions or pointers either of you may have if my planned approach is flawed or could be improved in any way. Love the channel guys! This has been my go to channel for learning as much as possible on water chemistry before I even entertained the idea of getting the shrimp.
Try frogbit - it's a little easier to manage and control. :-)
@@PrimeTimeAquatics that seems to be the consensus lol apparently the EBI or more accurately the Spec tanks have a tendency to suck duck weed into and clog the prefilter or get into the filter partition and wreak havoc. Many thanks for such a timely reply! I hate I saw the notification so late.
I have tried to put duckweed in my tanks but over a week or so it all disappears.
Someone in the tank might be eating it. :-)
I wish my duckweed would grow, but I have placed it in three different tanks and it just won't grow, in fact it dies off and I have to keep buying it!
My angels eat all my duckweeds, maybe that's why they're already about 5 inches tall just 3 or 4 months in my care. I got them when they're about 2 inches
Now that I think about it, I don't have duckweed in my angel tank either. It could be the Florida Flag fish too though.
What is that fish at 3:25? Thanks guys. Mike.
That is Apistogramma panduro
Thank you. They look awesome.
I scoop it up and feed it to GF and Koi. Fast grower sucks up nitrates. There are far worse problems.
I like to see it floating on the water , I've seen something similar that floats like that but has little roots coming out & the leaves are in clusters. I just dont know the name of it , I would prefer the plant im talking about over duck weed.. any ideas?
Maybe giant duckweed?
@@katebattista7400 ohh okay! See , something so simple🙄😂 i just didn't know, thank you!
Could be Azolla?
Could be Frogbit!
@@PrimeTimeAquatics giant duck weed and frogbit look the same.. so is it the same? Does it basically have the same issues that normal duckweed has on the tank? Thank you for replying ❣ you have helped me so much with getting back into the fish hobby🐟
Wait, what? Mbuna eat duckweed??? 😮 Well I know what I'm doing in the morning.
Thanks Jason😀
They sure do!
The main way to reduce duckweed without fish really is surface movement. Maintaining that agitation with several powerheads (after removing as much as you can manually) and a surface skimmer will eliminate their preferred habitat. Having too much duckweed is more of symptom of a bigger issue - that your water is stagnant. Very few of our aquatic pets originate from stagnant water and most aquatic plants don't like it either. So before you consider buying fish that eat duckweed, purchase several powerheads and break that water tension as much as you can.
My guess is so many of the fish sold in the aquarium hobby that wind up in tanks don't do well with high flow?
@@PrimeTimeAquatics True, a lot of people keep Anabantoids. But most of the fish from the Amazon and Africa (outside of Rift Valley) are fusiform and come from rivers, so they could handle higher flow. I think it has more to do with the cost of setting up a higher flow tank that prevent a lot of people from doing it, not that fish wouldn't appreciate the flow.
I give my duckweed to my sister for her goldfish and turtles... Though just saying, the turtles in my aunt's lake don't seem to ever eat the duckweed which leaves it to take over the canals and spread towards the lake.
That can cause issues over time too, which stinks.
It’s hair algae for me! I’ve never had trouble netting out all the duckweed but ugh HAIR ALGAE! You ever pulled hair algae out of 75 gallons of hornwort? 😂 I think maybe this month some amano shrimp are in order......
For hair algae - Florida Flag Fish - I had it in a 125 and added three FFF - two weeks it was all gone!
I don't get it. i am literally trying to grow duckweed on purpose and I struggle. I took a ten gallon, put a 24w led strip on it, underwater sponge filter, dirt substrate and heat. It just seems to exist and does not multiply. I won't survive in my fish aquariums either.
You could try a little liquid fertilizer?
5:29 what type of fish is that?
That was Oreochromis niloticus.
This is odd to me, I have trouble keeping duckweed in my aquarium. Maybe my pictus is eating it?
I'm not sure, but I wouldn't put it past him :-)
Did he say nuts at 2:50 👀
lol And - the water is cold, too.
I like duckweed.
My Sajicas feast on duckweed 😁
I can't get it to grow!! I'm trying but it won't what am I doing wrong lol
Maybe not enough nitrates in the water? :-)
@@PrimeTimeAquatics yes everything is so low on my tanks it's confusing actually i water change every 3 weeks only about 30% or less vacuum every other week. I would think amonia or nitrates would climb... especially my mbuna tank.... I know they'll eat it that's why it's not in there but my medium heavy stocked community tank won't support growing it.
I gave up on getting rid of my duckweed. I feed it to my goldfish. Honestly, I keep it around for its nitrate eating abilities.
Me too - at some point it's just not worth the hassle trying to get rid of it :-)
I got issue.... My duckweed is gone all to time. My Mollys eat it. I put leftover into separate area. Balloon molly's are circle it now. Funny duuds.
Never had duckweed, maybe I’ve not been in the hobby long enough. At least if I get it in the future I’ll know what to do one way or another 🤓
It's not too bad. :-)
I have an aquarium which needs no water change (Using Father Fish method) and no CO2 and PLUS no feeding thanks to duckweed. I have bunch of Glofish Tetras, they keep Duckweed growth in check and plus I never fed them for over 1 year
I want to get some duckweed for my goldfish tank. However, I've been told they'll eat it ...
They sure do!
My goldfish ate all of them.
I'm watching this video and feeling sad.. I can't keep duckweed alive as much as I want it :(
Try growing it in a separate container----and just take some out of that when you need it.
@@Moamanly , It's not that my fish eat it or anything.. it just dies.
@@audrisampson It goes brown? Thst is normally but usually the growth is so rapid you don"t notice the die off.
Each segment branches off and forms its own little unit....they grow exponentially.
@@Moamanly , no it just melts away and dissapears. Holes will appear in the leaves and it just goes. I can't keep any plants alive in my 5 tanks though the fish are doing fine.
@@audrisampson Msy i suggest you keep some separate from your tanks, preferably in clean rain water or filtered water?
See if it is your tank water parameters that is the issue?
Dude, my duckweed got murdered by my aquaclear in a few days.
Haha - too funny!
NNice
I grow duckweed in three tanks so that I can feed it to my goldfish.
I grow it in my white cloud minnow tank to feed to my mollies. They don’t gobble the stuff but they nibble it enough to keep it from taking over!
100% Pro-duckweed
Also, you can dry it and use it as an infusoria culture starter (Greg Sage). Trout Goodeids and Ameca splendens (a lovely CARES goodeid that likes warmth and breeds like
cockroaches) love it and also dwarf water lettuce, to my dismay. My Shubunkin goldfish happily bred on a diet of duckweed and Tetra Color Granules. Just hate how it slimes everything. Didn't seem to be around in the 60s and 70s my first bout of MTS.
Luckily for me my son has goldfish so I just feed it to them when it becomes too much lol. Those pigs make quick work of it lol
They sure do!
I don’t know about y’all but I can’t grow duckweed at all I’ve been trying for years
I’m struggling to grow duckweed too
i had the same problem. In my case the problem was the flow.
In tanks with little flow or no flow it thrives.
I dont like duck weed because I do like riccia, I have riccia in a breeding tank, and the amount of it I just threw out is horrendous but imagine filtering through a foot square chunk of riccia for duckweed! I wish I could just kill the duckweed! that tank is duckweed free now though! Its also got barely any riccia either but at least it grows back fairly quickly!
Hi Jason
I sent a Instagram message to you about a fish I’m trying to identify
Got it! :-)