I have an vivarium with a rain forest setting its been mostly selfsustainable for 1 month. I was going to put a pool in the corner large enough to hold 1gal. I would be putting about 1-2 small fish in it. Could duckweed use the fish waste as fertilizer and grow and help with the water quality.
does duckweed effect water condition?
- Thread starter mattman
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Sucks the oxygen out of the water. Eventually you end up with nitrogen soup. No good for fish, unless you intend to put in catfish.
Depends on the fish. A betta or other small anabantid could be fine. The duckweed will suck up nitrate, but will also interfere with the diffusion of oxygen at the surface since it will eventually cover it all. A small waterfall and/or regular thinning will help avoid low O2 levels. A mass die off of duckweed will turn the pool into nitrate soup, so maintain the pool as you would a small aquarium.
friendttyy
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Why don't you use these is your pool is deep enough? https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/p...ihDRD9aUwOsSRCGVGU-_5O17wZ2xAQqQ=w332-h443-nc
friendttyy
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In my area, both our lps has tons of those 
. I used to breed fish so we had a ton of those plants..
. I used to breed fish so we had a ton of those plants..
dementedlullaby
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Filters should add adequate oxygenation for a tank.
If you have a lot of duckweed in your tanks you likely have a nitrate problem. Do some water changes and get rid of it if light can't penetrate to your other plants. A bit of duckweed is fine. Bettas like some of it for cover.
CO2 in planted tanks will also make a duckweed 'splosion. I wouldn't put it in a tank if you're supplementing CO2.
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I forgot to mention the die off part. On the bright side, if it is about to happen it will be obvious. You will walk into the house and remark, 'What's that smell?' Duckweed is a major nuisance for the cattle ranchers where I lived. When it covers the entire pond the cattle can get sick drinking from it. And at just the right time of year and correct climate conditions that stuff can go from absent to covering a small lake in a few days.
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I like threads like this. Only recently discovered duckweed as a possible terrarium/paludarium plant, but it seems to have some quirks. I have a moss terrarium with a bit of water feature, and I'm looking to add some other life to it. From the reading above, it won't be duckweed.
dementedlullaby
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Water cabbage (Pistia) may be worth looking at. I've used it in a few aquariums and it doesn't seem to have the same "take over" effect duckweed can have. It looks kinda neat as well (in my opinion anyway). I like the elongated roots and fancy fuzzy looking leaves.I like threads like this. Only recently discovered duckweed as a possible terrarium/paludarium plant, but it seems to have some quirks. I have a moss terrarium with a bit of water feature, and I'm looking to add some other life to it. From the reading above, it won't be duckweed.
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Oh, I like the look of that stuff! Gives good cover, and likely can be contained a bit easier. Fish would hide in the roots? Would shrimps be okay with these? Should I start my own topic, instead of highjacking this one?? So many questions!!
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But Pistia glops get big! How much room does the OP have? The roots can get up to a foot long. They put Pistia in small fountains and decorative tubs here. The plant gets to be about 8 inches across. Then when it sprouts kids, daughters, they remove the older plant and bury it as future fertilizer. Small fish like it and take cover in it's roots. Very common in 'mosquito killer' ponds with mosquito fish. It grows in proportion to nitrogen availability. Around here with over fertilized rice farms running off into the rivers and canals it's a nuisance but in small tubs it can be regulated.
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dementedlullaby
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That's a good point about Pistia. I was likely underestimating size requirements. Especially in regards to Edge's post. However I think 8 inches in aquaria situations isn't very likely to happen. The max I've seen is about 5" and it was reproducing. The roots were touching the bottom of a 20 long but it didn't seem to have any detrimental effects to the plant, and as you mentioned my fry loved hiding in it.
The upkeep on it is a bit higher. The older plants especially do tend to have yellowing leaves which is useful to remove so you don't add extra ammonia from rotting matter. But you can keep them alive for a fairly decent amount of time and get some smaller ones out of it.
Would be interesting to see someone keeping a rubbermaid tub of adult plants and rotate out larger/smaller ones in a nano aquarium. I'd imagine they are pretty good at nitrate control and you can use water change water as a fertilizer for the rubbermaid container. A small bubble filter and some guppies or something similar wouldn't hurt. Hmmmm now you have me thinking
. (always dangerous)
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That's a good idea with the Pistia. Keep a reservoir of them and just put the young daughter plants in the terrarium. Usually the fish poop is enough food to keep them thriving.