Marimo Ball

**prince** · 15th Mar 2012, 07:09

Hi all, I am new here. Hope i publish my question at the right place.
I owned a tank of guppies + marimo ball. I wondering:-

1) How I should wash my marimo ball? The shop seller, as my to squeeze it in the aquarium, but i saw someone writing in blog mentioned must squeeze in different bucket.

2) I saw marimo ball floating, wondering why my marimo ball never float?

3) I saw some marimo ball, got some oxygen appearing at the bottom, but mine one nothing happen. any reason?

4) Any special method to take care my marimo ball?

5) and isit Ok to add more marimo ball (probably one or two) into my aquarium, size 1.5 feet -18 guppies?

**Aquanoob** · 15th Mar 2012, 09:20

I love Marimo Ball too and I used to have 3 of them in my 1 feet tank before giving them away. It is actually a species of filamentous green algae.
What I do during water-change is to take it out and give it a few squeeze into the bucket and not putting the dirt back into tank again. And also another thing you can do is to turn the marimo regularly so that the bottom part can also have access to the light, if not it will turn brown. On the occurrence of
Marimo floating, it is because it is filled with air (O2) inside during photosynthesis. My marimo will only float occasionally and not everytime. I think you can probably add a few marimo ball in your tank since they come in different sizes, just get a few smaller one if you can.

**stormhawk** · 15th Mar 2012, 10:47

I agree with Aquanoob's advice. In a bigger tank, you can make this ball grow faster with sunlight and a strong filter that causes it to rotate and roll around. If you break the ball into smaller sections, with the right conditions they will grow larger over time.

Wash the ball in a separate container with old tank water. Just give it a good squeeze and you can place it in your tank once all the debris has been dislodged. Some of these marimo balls float because they are tied to plastic balls or pieces of styrofoam within that keeps them afloat. Typically, these balls are heavy enough to stay at the bottom of the tank without much effort.

**prince** · 15th Mar 2012, 19:45

Thanks for your advice. Let me try to explore it

So to double clarify, when you say squeeze it in a bucket. Can it be normal water, or i need to take some water from the tank?

**Aquanoob** · 15th Mar 2012, 19:50

It should be the water in the tank.

**Jucino** · 15th Mar 2012, 22:33

Help needed .. Just got myself a moss ball from c328.. I have left it in a quarantine container and I notice that there are actually some microscopic organisms that came with it .. Ie white dots moving around and very thin whit e worms that wriggle in the water vigorously to swim around .. I have soak it in a diluted bleach solution for 1 hour and upon washing for a few times , I still observe this organism around ..what else can I do to remove this unsightly organisms???

**SeVenZ** · 15th Mar 2012, 23:05

put it with some hungry fish ?

**stormhawk** · 17th Mar 2012, 09:19

This is normal since microscopic animals will be present in these balls. If you are afraid of the presence of these animals, soak the ball in a weak solution (and I mean just slightly tinted pinkish) of potassium permanganate for about 5-10 mins. Any pests present will drop to the bottom of the container and die. The solution will turn slightly brownish over time as the PP decomposes in the water.

**prince** · 18th Mar 2012, 07:19

When we say we need to turn the marimo ball, how long does it refer to?
1 week, 2 week?

**Jalal** · 18th Mar 2012, 07:33

1 week should be suficiant, when I kept them I just made sure to move them during the weekly water change. Problem with when you leave them in one position too long is the portion that isn't getting light starts to brown and die, also collects detritus which is why squeezing them out in a bucket of tank water is beneficial.