# converting high-tech to low, should I try duckweed?



## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I have duckweed. I wanted a floating plant to shade my anubias. It seems people either like it or hate it. So far mine hasn't multiplied fast enough to annoy me- but I think that's because I have enough ripples on the surface- people say that water disturbance will keep it from growing. I can't really recommend it yet though because I haven't had it long enough to say anything for sure.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

Never had duckweed. In my low tech I use pennywort as a floater. Grows really fast and I need to trim pieces of it quite often. Duckweed sounds like a nightmare to me lol - would personally not go down that road


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

More than one layer causes the bottom layer to die off and rot. You'll see many yellow pieces in there. Keeping it thined out seems to work for some. You have a really hard time getting rid of it once it's in there. One tiny leaf and it's back.
Silvania something or other fit the same purpose but a bit easier to remove.
Best I've had/used was dwarf water lettuce. You'll have dozens of plants multiplying 
on you rather than hundreds.


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## Daisy Mae (Jun 21, 2015)

For floaters I've had-

*Frogbit* inconsistent performance but likely I just have not discovered what it likes, I know it hates condensation from a cover

*Salvinia* took about a couple weeks but now growing well, roots are pretty and shrimp like playing in it, easy to corral with a piece of airline tubing connected into a circle


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## retcheto (Jun 19, 2015)

Thanks guys, I have a feeling if I try duckweed I'll regret, but doing stupid things is a bit of a specialty so I might go for it. I'm going to try some frogbit too I think. 

my grandfather in Venezuela always had a little pond with a billion guppies and tons of floating plants, I always thought that was really cool so I'll see if I can recreate it


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## HDBenson (Jan 26, 2015)

Spirodella polyrhyza is my absolute favorite floater. Same family as duckweed but it's about 8x the size so much easier to deal with!


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## WickedOdie (Aug 15, 2015)

I have the giant duckweed. Not sure what it's called but it's a little bigger than duckweed itself. I honestly don't see what everyone's problem with it is. When you get too much you scoop it out, easy peasy. You also get the added bonus of not only sucking out nitrate but it feeds off ammonia at the same time instead of after the nitrates are gone. What's wrong with that?!


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## Un4tunateJones (Oct 1, 2015)

Try out frogbit. Takes a bit to get established and create a habitat for itsslf before flourishing. Word of advice though, to keep the boom bust from occuring, or atleast delay it, make sure you: (A) Seperate the babies from the parent plants by cutting the runners once the have 2 or 3 leaves (leave a few attached for stability) and (B) when removing excess throw out both new and old plants. Ive had a stable patch for over a year doing so.


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## BDoss1985 (Sep 15, 2011)

Riccia mat grows for me in low light, and if you keep it tied down to plastic canvas or something it's easy to move and such when cleaning. 


I use plastic craft canvas and small bird netting over and tie off, seems to grow big and thick that way straight through the netting but still solid 


needs a trimmin'


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## retcheto (Jun 19, 2015)

Thanks everyone, I've got some frogbit on the way,


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## wantsome (Sep 3, 2006)

I've had frogbit and duckweed. Frogbit is can be difficult to keep from my experience. Some tanks I've had it thrive other tanks it just died. It did best in a tank that I just had sponge filters. In another tank with a canister filter it died. Don't know why.

Personally I like duckweed. It's easy and grows fast. It's great for increasing plant mass in a low tech tank. I've gotten rid of it out of tanks before it's not hard just scoop it out takes less then 5 minutes.


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## Jcstank (Jan 3, 2015)

klibs said:


> Never had duckweed. In my low tech I use pennywort as a floater. Grows really fast and I need to trim pieces of it quite often. Duckweed sounds like a nightmare to me lol - would personally not go down that road


I'm with you, I too have Pennywort in my 75 and it grows fast and looks great. I have frog bit in my 5 gallon and it grows nice and fast too (not as fast) but it gets stuck to your hands anytime you put your hands in the tank to do maintenance, which is annoying.


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## retcheto (Jun 19, 2015)

Penny wort is an interesting idea, I hadn't really thought about that. I'm going to try some of that along with frogbit


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## Aplomado (Feb 20, 2013)

No duckweed! Controlling it annoying.

I like red root floater myself, it's very pretty and flowers easily.


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## MChambers (May 26, 2009)

I agree on frogbit. I've also got some water lettuce in some of my tanks.


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