Moss turned brown.

[foxwagon]

Hello I am Ben Wong from Singapore. I am keeping betta-plakats. I use java moss & christmas moss in the containers (for individuals) & community tanks. I do not use fertilizers/CO2/air pumps/filters or chillers. I place them on IKEA rack with incandescent bulbs switched on for 3 or 4 hours a day. Water change is partial weekly. Some of my moss had thinned, some turned brown.

I am asking what I can do to prevent the moss from turning brown/thinning out. Should I add fertilizer, if so what would be a good one? Those brown out moss, are they "dead" or could be revived back to health with fertilizer/stronger lights/cold water?

I am starting a backup tank in the office to grow some new moss on mesh, thinking perhaps the airconditioned environment might help. It does not have any fish at all to keep it clean. It is 1 foot, with 11w fluorescent tube. What else should I consider to assist in the moss growth? Thank you for any pointers.

[whuntley]

Ben,

I think I can answer your basic puzzle with one word, "Food."

Plants need nutrients, and one of the most important is light for driving photosynthesis. Incandescents will mainly heat your water and provide a fraction of the useful light of good fluorescents with good reflectors. Switch to them and leave on for at least 10 hours a day.

Mosses, in particular, are intolerant of warm water and the low oxygen that brings with it. Aerate and cool as much as possible.

Plants also need a source of nitrogen and carbon plus other macro and micro nutrients. Some of that can come from fish food and the excretia from living animals. Most often, that will be a recipe for algae growth, as the simpler plant organisms seem to tolerate serious imbalance better than the higher (vascular) plants.

Frequent small water changes seems to help avoid the worst imbalances, but each situation differs and understanding the underlying principles can provide the best guidance for a crystal-clear plant tank.

Start by feeding your plants properly (light and nutrients). I have raised more questions than you have, but as you move along, we can help provide more answers.

Wright

[Green Baron]

Ben,
Java moss typically do not turn brown as mosses from this genus are very hardy. Christmas moss ( and Singapore Moss) on the other hand are more sensitive to water quality and temperature and has an tendency to turn brown. They grow best in 24~26C and clean water.

If your intention for the office tank is to grown mosses, just make sure you do not have too many fishes and provide 1 to 1.5W/G of light.

[timebomb]

Wright's right about plants needing nutrients but as far as I know, mosses need only a little. Your mosses are browning probably because the temperature's too high. I would suggest you remove the incandescent bulbs because they generate a lot of heat. If you're not looking for prolific growth, ambient lighting is sufficient to keep mosses alive.

I keep many mosses in small tubs under my Killifish bench where it's dark. The mosses stay green even though there's only a little light. My guess it's the cool water in the tubs that keep the mosses alive as the Killifish bench is out in my balcony where it's a lot cooler than indoors.

Loh K L

[foxwagon]

Hello Wright, Gan & Loh.

Thank you for your advice.

I'll source for new white lights to replace the existing yellow incandescent bulbs (2 X 7W) as a start. I had the choice of getting incandescent bulbs or fluorescent lamps in the beginning when fixing up the fish rack. I chose incandescent bulbs because it is not so glaring to the eyes when I look at the fish. Does it have to be fluorescent tubes or white light bulbs with similar W will do? If I use white light bulbs then I can use the existing bulb holders. If fluorescent tubes are required, then I will have to re-do the rack - not difficult, I just want to minimize abortive work.

Besides changing the type of lights, should I also add some liquid fertilizer or the waste from the fish is sufficient? I'm housing the bettas mostly in pineapple tart PET containers. CO2/chiller system would be overdoing it.

The fish rack is placed in the living room underneath a North facing window. It doesnt get direct sunlight. Since moss requires low light, can I deduce that the other variables like heat, nutrient & water conditions are what I should check as well?

[PeterGwee]

Ben, consider stopping the water changes completely (just top up for evaporation) and only do so when "mulm" aka dirt builds up substantially. It probably would not work well for your bettas in containers but should do well for those in the community tanks. Just make sure you have a lot of moss to begin with.

(Most aquatic plants are highly adaptable and can grow in either high or low CO2 enivronment. All they need is time to re-allocate their uptake enzymes accordingly to the environment they are in. Plants in high CO2 environment destroys most of their uptake enzymes and spend most of their resources on food production and storage since CO2 is plenty. On the other hand, in a low CO2 environment, they need to spend more resources on CO2 uptake enzymes as CO2 concentration is limited. All this re-allocation of resources takes about a week or so from research data. Hence, it is wise not to bump the CO2 up and down thus confusing the plants. Water changes usually add CO2 back which is why in a non-CO2 enriched tank, you should stop doing it all together.)

Just note that things grow very slow though and do not go high light in a non-CO2 tank. Go with 1.5-2wpg of NO FL light at most. You can go lower if you use good reflectors but make sure to change the bulbs when it dims since you are already near the lower limit.)

Regards
Peter Gwee

[foxwagon]

Hello Peter thank you for your reply.

In fact, I've observed the moss in my community tanks for breeding (less water changes) are greener than those in the individual containers. Let me give your suggestion a try, for those in the individual containers - betta plakats are hardy fish & can adapt to water which is dirty. There is also a fries' container with algae, & the moss is still green.

I only had once a community tank's moss all turned brown, but I deduced that it was bacteria growth due to over feeding of microworms.

Ben Wong.