planted tank duckweed questions.

[smooth_cannibal]

a few months ago i bought a nice bunch of duckweed on ebay for a couple bucks. strange as everyone says its a nuisance and covers the whole top of the tank within a few days. me not so much. in fact its the opposite. i've almost lost all of it. its in a 10g tank with 5 platys, 5 ghost shrimp. i have quite a bit of baby java fern (30 plus leaves) and an anubias. its under twin 13 watt cf lights with a internal whisper filter.

i haven't messed with ferts before because i a afraid of hurting the fish. it is my first go around with plants that haven't just immediately died. the other plants are all doing well but not the duckweed.

and also with the amount of plants i have in the tank which is i feel is quite a bit i am still having a freakin brown algae problem. in all my tanks actually. the 30 gallon does have some green growth but only on the hood and the 10g has some but only in the filter. i've never not been able to grow green algae ever. i got back into fish when i moved like 6 months ago and i did it for years before that and i can't even remember ever growing just brown algae

 

[aqnix11]

I'm also having problems growing duckweed. I mean, it still 'hangs around' but definitely not in the numbers I was expecting. I did add fertilizer since I'm cycling right now and have no fish. My only guess is that the stuff keeps getting sucked up by the filters.

 

[smooth_cannibal]

yeah its definitely strange to me. mine just turns more and more brown and becomes shrimp food.

 

[Abiduwhabi]

How much surface agitation do you have?

 

[Fishninja]

Following because I'm interested in getting some duckweed

 

[smooth_cannibal]

Following because I'm interested in getting some duckweed

with shipping i paid 4 bucks for what i got on ebay. i think a 1/2 cup and it was a lot. i could put a good amount in 3 tanks plus a good amount in my moms pond.

glad you posted as it got me thinking. it did really well and was dividing like crazy for a while when i got it in august. i did have to dip some out a few times and replace what the goldies were eating in the pond. then i'd say in the last month or so it just stopped doing well and just slowiy gets brown and doesn't divide. i never see my platys eating it. couple times i've seen them mouthing it.