Re: Help!! Spiky moss turning yellow/ brown

[williamng]

Hi

I have a 4 feet tank with 220W PL light. On sun, I plant some spiky moss in my tank. After 2 days, some start to turn brownish n yellowish. Can anyone pls advise..

Thanks!!!

[Rupert]

Hi William,

What is your tank temperature? Could the moss have been exposed to high 30C+ temperature for a prolonged period before you planted?

Moss is very hardy so the situation might not be as bad as you expect.

[williamng]

Hi

My tank temp is 27 degrees. Will it turn green again?

[AquaObsession]

Hi

I have a 4 feet tank with 220W PL light. On sun, I plant some spiky moss in my tank. After 2 days, some start to turn brownish n yellowish. Can anyone pls advise..

Thanks!!!

if you plant on sun, it will turn brown or burn of course

Spiky moss do well in water with temperature of 27-28 degrees, and they turn greener if the temperature is maintained below 27 degrees for longer period of time. If all the other parameters are okay, it should pick up soon. Once there was a time when I first tied mine on a metallic grid, it turns brown at start, but after 1 week with Co2 and low temperature (<2, it started to grow.

I've heard moss needs an adaptation period. I don't know if this is true or not, but assuming this is true, I would say taiwan moss or java moss take more time to adapt than spiky moss. Anyone please feel to correct me if I am giving wrong info here.

[dc88]

I have some Xmas moss that took closed to 5 weeks to adapt and grow. The temp. is 28C. It was struggling for some time (stune and turn dark color and the yamato almost turn them to bare bones) until I started dosing KNO3 and KH2PO4. (Everything else remain the same),It reacted very fast within a week with many new green moss growing out.

[williamng]

What is KNO3 and KH2PO4? I am dosing tropica master growth.

[FishFan]

KNO3 - Potassium Nitrate

KH2PO4 - Potassium Dihydrogen Phospate

These chemicals are dosed for NO3 and PO4. Moss typically do not require much nutrients or CO2.

[dc88]

I only add about 0.7ppm NO3 and 0.3ppm PO4 daily, to a weekly target of 5ppm NO3 and 2ppm PO4.
I also feed the fish daily so the net NO3 could be more. I didn't measure.
Everything start to grow well, not just the moss.
If you are interested, you can learn more about EI from Tom's site.

[williamng]

i am using tropica master growth, I guess this is ok too right?

[dc88]

If I am not wrong, TMG does not have N or P.

Depends on your rate of growth, e.g. at slower grfowth (lower light level, non-CO2, etc) you can rely on fish food and bio load in the tank to fill the N and P.
Some of the folks here have high light level, high CO2, higher plant load vs. fish load in theri tank, they will need some pure inorganic N and P dosage so that the plant will not be starved : ) (and help control the algae too.)

BTW if you visit Tropica web site, they just revamp their product line. The new product name is called Tropica Aqua Care - and they now offer 2 types of liquid fertilizer. The original "Tropica Master Growth" is now called "PLANT NUTRITION liquid" (donot contain N or P). And a new liquid fertilizer called "PLANT NUTRITION+ liquid" which contain N and P !
You can see how comercial manufacturer now also catching on the "new school" learning !
We have to agree that "Tom is right" !