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Thread: Maintenance of Moss - Advice/Tips?

  1. #1
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    Maintenance of Moss - Advice/Tips?

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    Hi there,

    Would love to know what others do to maintain nice looking moss.

    I bought a large piece of driftwood covered with moss from Teo's (Ah Liu aka Mr. Tattoos chose it for me - Nice!) sometime in August when I got my 4x2x2 tank. The moss was growing well but I realised a couple of weeks ago that certain areas of the driftwood are gravitating towards a brownish-green although a larger portion of it is dark/deep green.

    I went to closely inspect the brownish-green areas and realised that the newer shoots are covering older brownish ones at the bottom. In areas where the moss has piled up, I carefully shifted the newer shoots to see what is at the bottom and to my dismay, I can see the dead moss (light brown color) and engulfed in BBA!

    I also noticed where areas are deep/dark green, the moss layers are thinner and no dead undergrowth.

    Any suggestions on what to do?

    1. Do I remove all the brownish-green areas and let the dark green areas spread to it?

    2. Is it good practice to keep the moss layers rather thin? Or can one grow thick amounts of moss without seeing any decaying undergrowth? If so, how?

    3. Notice that moss traps a lot floating debris (from food, dead leaves, shrimp shells, etc). What is the best way to remove this? Or is it necessary at all to remove it?

    Looking forward to some pearls of wisdom from any Moss gurus out there.

    Cheers,

    Roger Thien

  2. #2
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    Roger,

    When I was growing the moss on driftwoods, I never experienced what you mentioned. Although those fronds under the ones on top turn brown, usually you won't be able to see them because any frond that is exposed to enough light will remain green. Here's a picture of the Christmas Moss when I was growing them in my cube tank. The pic was taken several years ago:

    http://killies.com/Smalltank01BP.htm

    I don't think you should remove the brown fronds because mosses have a way of reviving themselves. As far as I know, even a completely dried-out frond of moss will resurrect itself and turn green if given the right conditions.

    It is a good practice to keep moss layers thin. I think it is impossible to grow thick amounts of them without seeing any decay. Like many other plants which grow into dense bunches, those right inside the bunch does not get enough light and will die. I don't think there's any way to stop this. I've grown many moss walls and the one I have now in my tank is probably my 7th of 8th wall. As far as I know, the wall looks best about 2 months after setting it up. When growth has become too thick, the wall doesn't look nice. You can keep the layers thin by pruning them constantly. But don't use scissors to cut moss because tiny fronds will settle all over the tank and it won't look nice. To prune moss, I pull selectively. But this is easier said than done and there were many occasions, I pulled too much and left a gaping hole in the wall.

    The moss traps debris but this shouldn't be a problem. After all, it helps to keep the water in the tank crystal clear. But if it bothers you, you can clear some of the debris by beating on the moss gently with your fingers when you are changing water. It's like in the old days when our mothers put out the bedsheets and pillows and beat them with a stick to clear the dust. Only difference is you shouldn't beat as hard

    By the way, the easiest way to propagate and grow the Christmas Moss is to do it emmersed. Here's a picture of my emmersed moss growing on a piece of driftwood in the tank outside my house.



    Loh K L

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    Mr Loh,

    Thanks for your advice. I'll try it out and see if I can rejuvenate my bits of brownish/algae-infested moss.

    Cheers,

    Roger Thien

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    Maintenance of Moss - Advice/Tips?

    Hi Mr Loh,

    Like to check with you, for growing the xmass moss in emersed way. Do you have to constantly keep it wet?

    Wouldn't it dry up and die. Cause so far i seen most display in submerge state in plant tank. I could see that your is growing very nice n green.

    From the way you grow, it mean you do not give any CO2 to it?

    Hope to grow one of near such standard.



    thanks
    Best Regards
    Teck Song

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    Re: Maintenance of Moss - Advice/Tips?

    Quote Originally Posted by ts168
    Like to check with you, for growing the xmass moss in emersed way. Do you have to constantly keep it wet?
    Teck Song,

    The moss has to be kept moist all the time or else it would, as you have guessed, dry up and die. What you couldn't see from the picture were the silicon airlines that are feeding water to the driftwood from a powerhead in the filter box. Here's how it works:



    You don't have to inject CO2 when the plants are emmersed. There's enough of it in the air for them to grow.

    Loh K L

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    Maintenance of Moss - Advice/Tips?

    HI Mr Loh,

    Can i ask you, How long has you been growing that piece of moss?
    And will you be putting it into the tank?

    I think it will be very nice when you put it into your tank.

    Now i m trying out on small piece of drift wood in my little tank and could see some green leave growing.

    I also try some on metal mess piece and they are also seen to be growing.

    Thanks For your knowledge sharing here. I believe alot of newbie who like to grow some moss could learn here.

    I was at the Killies gathering last sat but did not have the opportunity to have a real look at the erect moss (abit disappointed) and seen many of the forumer killies. it a nice gathering. Seeing so many people crowding the counter area.

    At the moment i have seen up close with most of the moss.

    Cheers.
    Teck Song

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