How to get rid of duck weed

[dskidmore]

I have a problem with duck weed. It quickly turns my tank from high light to low light. I can skim large amounts off with a fish net to restore lighting, but if there is one survivor it will propagate again. I recently redid the tank, and everything got rinsed when moving over, but somehow I missed one and it's back with a vengeance.

Suggestions?

 

[DragonFish71]

I had good luck using Algae Destroyer in a clean spray bottle and giving the duckweed a quick spray.

Just be careful using the Algae Destroyer, most fish have bad reactions to it. Just a light spray while the filters and air stones (if you use them) are on.

 

[dskidmore]

Won't the algae destroyer hurt my other plants? This is a plant filtered tank, I don't want to kill off the other plants.

I don't have any inhabitants other than pond snails, I'm tempted to uproot everything, rinse more, and try picking out every last little plantlet.

 

[rich311k]

A turtle or goldfish work well. I have the same problem, I just skim it when it gets heavy.

 

[Vircomore]

I've also seen people eliminate duckweed using their water-changer. Just set it up like you're going to do a water change (but put it to a bucket or outside instead of your sink) and then once you get the siphon started just turn the end upside down and use it to suck the duckweed down off the surface.