Search results for query: duckweed index Limnobium

Hi all, It will always be competing for nutrients with the aquatic plants, and it has the advantage of having aerial leaves with access to 400ppm CO2. You can actually use it as a nutrient indicator in the same way that you would a floating plant like <"Amazon Frogbit">. It has a very...

Thanks Darrel, I think I'm just going to go with keeping an eye on the drop checker as you advise. much appreciated!

Hi all, With the proviso that I'm not a CO2 user, personally I would just use the drop checker, it gives you a pretty accurate idea of the level of CO2, albeit what the level of CO2 was a couple of hours ago. I'm not a regular pH tester, partially because I have tanks with rain (soft) water...

Hi all, I'd probably remove some of the "Biohome". There is nothing wrong with "Biohome", but it isn't really the amount (or type) of media that makes a difference, it is the amount of oxygen. If you have a lot of ammonia you need a lot of oxygen and a relatively small volume of media will...

Hi all, If any-one is using the <"Duckweed Index">, that is what really healthy Amazon Frogbit (Limnobium laevigatum) looks like. Mine never looks that good, even after I've added fertiliser. Your Daphnia culture looks good, when you feed them on yeast you need to sub-culture them fairly...

Hi all, <"Yes">. It doesn't sound as accurate as looking at changing colours on a test kits, but really it is the same approach, but just much more robust. The <"Lemna bioassay"> is widely used in waste water treatment, and <"phytoremediation"> with floating plants is used to clean up all sorts...

Thanks agiain Darrel :thumbup: So, this is your best advise for a floater? I am looking for one as well since i am having some algae as well. http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/what-kind-of-algae-is-this.42751/#post-457879 Do you have other advice?

Hi all, Nice tank, I'm not usually an iwagumi fan (if you keep fish in them), but the fish should be quite happy in there. <"Certainly do">. <"Limnobium laevigatum">. They are my preferred option for the <"Duckweed Index">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I use <"Frogbit"> for the <"Duckweed Index">, but all floaters perform the same function. "Akwascape" uses <"real duckweed"> (Lemna minor), and <"Azolla">, <"Pistia"> or <"Salvinia"> would all work. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Thanks for all the great answers. God, I love this site! Does anyone have an idea about the dosing if I want to use teaspoon as a measure? Do I just sprinkle it in the tank or does it have to be premixed before adding it in? Also, any ideas on question 3? Darrel, I introduced some...

Hi all, I think this is true for nearly all small fish, being in the open is a stressful experience. I'm a Hornwort fan, it is easy to prune, and small fish really like it. Ceratopteris thalictoides is a sub-surface floater that is easier to control. Have a look at <"60P IWAGUMI...."> for...

Hi all, I think that is a relevant point regarding soft and hard water fish. You can get parameters for hardness from your water supplier in the UK. That is the real problem for me. I'm not anti-testing, quite the opposite I'd really like to know what the water parameters are in my tanks, but to...

Can you believe that I planted the MC "Monte Carlo" in May and I have NEVER trimmed it and this is how much its grown in ~4 months? Note melted Staurogyne repens at the front right. It was growing very slowly for 2 months, then growth picked up for a month and suddenly started melting after...

Thanks to all for your replies. Oh - I was working under the assumption that Ceratopteris would be able use aerial CO2, although having now introduced it into my tank I can see that it is largely sub-surface. Looks great though. I may well consider some more Amazon Frogbit at some point as...

Hi all, This is where a lot of the problems start. People say "my nitrite was 2ppm" etc. but it is really difficult to get accurate measures for NO2-, NO3- or NH4+ and NH3 is a dissolved gas, and all dissolved gases are difficult to measure. Often the discussion centres around the best test...

Hi all, Honestly there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the sand you have already. A substrate with added nutrients and "cation exchange capacity" will offer faster growth, but it isn't a "wonder ingredient" that makes all the difference, whatever the sellers may tell you. Even with your...

Hi all, Great list. I have floaters on all my tanks, and <"I use all of these">. I've got spare if you can't get them locally. I'd add Riccia to the "can get messy list", and Ceratopteris thalictroides to the great sub-surface floaters with Hornwort (Ceratophyllum). I do this as well, I use...

Hi all, I think this is right as well. All my tanks are nutrient limited, some of them have a lot of light, they all have a 12 hour photoperiod and I have very little algae. There are certain provisos, I have "low tech" plants, all my tanks are jungles, I change some water every day, the...

Hi all, Nice tank. I've got plenty of spare Amazon Frogbit, Pistia and Salvinia "auriculata" group you can have. I like Limnobium for the <"Duckweed Index">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, The new leaves on the Water Lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) look fine. It naturally has a pale green leaf (because of the hairs diffusing the light). That was one reason why I preferred Amazon Frogbit (Limnobium laevigatum) for the <"Duckweed Index">. My suspicion would be that things will...

Hi, regarding fertilization I'm using in this tank the Duckweed Index invented by Darrel (aka dw1305) here in UKAPS. I use Lemna minor as floater because when I've tried Limnobium and Phyllanthus fluitans it didn't work (too large for my high surface flow, they turn upside down and don't like to...

Yes I agree with you Darrel. It depends on each persons goals. But (there is always a but), isnt it possible to grow a bigger number of plants if we dont let nutrients bottom up? For example when I let nutrients get near 0ppm levels I normally get crypt melt, as well as for some other plants...

Hi all, The real "problem" with NO3 is that none of us really know how much we have in the tank water. It is quite problematic to measure, even with lab. scale equipment. If you record 10ppm NO3 on your test kit, you know you have some nitrates, but you really don't know whether that is 10ppm...

Hi all, If you don't mind slow plant growth, with the plants you have you could stop dosing Excel and just use the "<Duckweed Index>" for adding macro/micros. You would need to add a floating plant. I usually use Amazon Frogbit (Limnobium laevigatum), but they would also help with GSA as well...

Hi all, Could be soft water, or lack of NPK. Duckweed shows a pretty linear growth response to nitrogen. I have a couple of tanks where the water is soft, and I can't grow duckweed (Lemna minor), and it always looks a bit yellow and anaemic in all the tanks. If you put it in hard water and...

Thank Darrel for you answer. If I tip 7/8ths of water out of filter and leave hoses open, will I not harm the bacteria in the filter?

Hi all, Either Nile Cabbage (Pistia stratiotes) or Amazon Frogbit (Limnobium laevigatum) would be the best floaters. They have the potential to grow quite large and act as real nitrogen "sponges". If you haven't planted the tank and have a nutrient rich substrate? I'd turn the filter and the...

What will you see on the floating plants that will indicate low light?

Hi all, I think that is a pretty good approach. It does, a lot of non-specialized planted aquarium keepers told me that they can't keep plants and they lose them in the winter. Often they said they could grow Java fern, but everything else died. I'm pretty sure this is attributable to lower...

Hi all, I think it is still low light. Because I don't use CO2 and I aim to keep my plants in slow growth I use a different approach to tank management, so I always have a 12 hour light period, and I don't mind too much about the intensity of the light. If I have a lot of PAR, I just add more...

Hi all, If your Frogbit is dark green has large leaves and a lot of root, it just means that it is getting a lot of nutrients (really N and K) from the water column. It was this rapid response to nutrients that led me to use Limnobium as my indicator plant for the "Duckweed Index"...

Hi all, I know this going to sound a little strange, but you can just ignore the tank water pH. The problem is that pH can't be stable in soft water, where small changes in water chemistry cause large changes in pH. This is the exact opposite of the situation in hard buffered water like the...

Hi all, Welcome Diane, no you don't need to add any fertiliser at the moment. If your tap water is high in nitrates (NO3) it is probably high in potassium (K) and phosphorus (P) as well. Java Fern (Microsorum pteropus) and Anubias (Anubias barteri), are both fairly slow growing, so they won't...

Hi all, No, it is a perfectly sensible question. The advantage of having a large plant mass is that it makes tank management a lot easier, you don't tend to get much algae, and water quality tends to be much better. I'm not entirely sure why, it may just be a shading effect, in that some leaves...

Tank : Juwel Rio180L Lighting : 2x45W T5 (one with reflector blocking and shielding tank). 4 hour photo period Substrate : 22kg eco-complete with Osmocote Filter 1 : Fluval 306 External Filter (16W, 1150lph, 6.38x turnover) (Fluval bio-foam, Fluval bio max, Superfish Crystalmax) Filter 2 : Eheim...

Hi all, Last one from me. But surely the whole point is that you never need to get high levels of nitrite, high levels of NO2- are just the smoking gun from the ammonia addition. This really isn't true, microbial systems are much more fluid and complex than this. Free ammonia (NH3 gas) is...

Hi all Riccia isn't really suitable, You need a plant like Pistia or Limnobium with long branching roots. This tank belongs to a great Polish cichlid breeder "Ruki" and he bred Apistogramma ""Breitbinden" in it. Honestly it can. This tank is entirely without fertiliser or added CO2, although...

Hi all, I very much doubt it is iron (Fe) deficiency for all sorts of reasons, but principally that plants only need very small amounts of Fe (it is a micronutrient), and in most situations iron deficiency is going to be a total red herring. If you want to discount this, you can either add some...

Hi all, I'm fairly sure that your plants are lacking one or more nutrients, but also that stopping most dosing may be the answer. The missing nutrient is likely to be nitrogen N, most safely added as nitrate, NO3. I use the orchid, bromeliad, fern, succulent or alpine growing approach for slow...

Brillaint post Darrell, Many Thanks I do have duckweed in another tank, can this be used in place of Limnobium laevigatum? I do a have a lamp, but its a pretty puny one, 3w i think of a warm light ikea jobbie, so I can have this on. Am setting up a 30w light unit for the tank and plan was to...

Hi all, If the test measure TAN (total ammonia nitrogen, free ammonia and bound ammonia together), any ammonia that has been complexed by the "Amquel" will still register on the kit. From <http://www.novalek.com/kordon/amquel+/index.htm> Amquel has a patent, but it still isn't entirely clear...

I'm late joining this discussion so getting back on to the original topic for a moment, I have had very long term success with about 3 cm or so of moss peat, aquatic compost and a mixture of the two; all have a very high CEC. Providing your cap of sand is of a thickness (about 3cm) and grade...

Thanks to Dave for asking if there is a definitive answer, something I have always wanted to know, I have bookmarked this for future reference. Particularly interested in Darrel's 'Duckweed Index' as it's something I could put into practice on my current set up whilst acquiring the necessary...

I do a similar thing with Penny wort on my own non CO2, Duckweed makes a good model as well, a number of commercial growers use their duckweed as a Nitrogen indicator.

Hi all, I'd agree with "look at the plants", all my tanks are low nutrient and I use an extremely ad hoc approach to nutrient addition, I've called it the "Duckweed index", but really it just means that when growth slows and and the new leaves on the floaters are noticeably both smaller and less...

Hi all, No, definitely not liquid fertilisers would allow you to deliver exactly the amount of nutrients that you want, when you want them. I like a few leaves in the tank as these provide surfaces for biofilm to develop on and feed shrimps, fry, Otocinclus etc. I think anything over 6" is a...

Hi all, These will produce virtually no bio-load, almost certainly you haven't got a problem with poor filtration, the smallest internal filter would cope with this amount of fish. If you haven't bought the external filter and want more flow?, a power-head will do, either a diffuse flow...