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is it the temperature of the water?
I have one tank that I use as my "moss farm." It's basically a grow out tank - not scaped, no filtration, no fish, just a couple of yamato-numaebi to keep the moss clean. I change 1/3 of the water a couple of times per week, or sometimes 50% of the water. The substrate is swimming pool filter sand. The mosses are attached to lava rock with 2lb-test fishing line. The tank is a standard "10 gallon," and the temperature is continually in the range of 20-22 deg C. Lighting is one 23-watt "twisty" -style CF bulb. The ph stay in the range of 6.4-6.8. Alkalinity is about 55-60 ppm. There is yeast-generated CO2, and the water is circulated with a Koralia 2.
The current "crop" has been in there since early December. The tank contains:
*Taxiphyllum montaignei
*T. sp "flame moss"
*T. sp. "spiky moss"
*T. alternans
*an unknown species, probably Taxiphyllum, that I collected from a local greenhouse that looks like a HUGE T. montaignei
*another unknown species from the family Amblystegiaceae from the same greenhouse, that grows as fast as bunch plant and can reach at least 8"
*Fissidens fontanus
*an unk species, possibly Leptodictyum, from a local spring
All mosses are growing well. I was particularly pleased with the amount of growth I got from the F. fontanus in one month's time.
Until this past weekend, that is, when I noticed that every single growing tip of the Fissidens turned brown. I'm not seeing this happening to any other moss. I've never seen anything like this before, period. I have seen moss die-offs, but usually parts of the stem turn brown, and then that spreads. That happened when I tested Flourish Excel on mosses - after a couple of weeks of accelerated growth, the stems began to turn brown and the moss began to die. But this is much different - it is only the very youngest leaf or two (ones just poking out of the tip), it has happened on every single stem of Fissidens, and so far the plant seems otherwise happy - bright green, no spreading of the dead portion.
Thoughts? I have only done those things mentioned above - no aquarium additives are used except API Tap Water Conditioner (which is merely a sodium thiosulfate solution) for dechlorination. The fact that it's just the growing point makes me wonder if somehow it is related to a nutrient deficiency, but then why isn't the "weedy" moss having trouble (instead of growing so fast that it will soon require drastic pruning). There is little algae and the tank is very clean.
Anyone seen this before? Thoughts?
Knowing others, one is wise; knowing the self, one is enlightened. In conquering others, one is forceful; in conquering oneself, one is mighty.
is it the temperature of the water?
Too much of a fish SIAO to quit fish keeping/fishing..
No, it isn't - take a look at the first paragraph.
Ok, update time, and it makes it an even weirder situation: Most of stems have continued to grow, and it seems like the actual meristem was fine. The tips of the then--most-recent leaves are still brown, but there is fresh, green growth appearing beyond them.
I added an iron supplement on a hunch yesterday, but this improvement was already taking place, so I'm stumped. Perhaps there was something in the water on the day of the last water change, but my local water authority isn't in the habit of adding anything other than chlorine. If I hadn't dechlorinated, it still wouldn't have affected the moss, so I really am stumped. I'll check over at APC - there's a good-sized brain trust of planted-tank gurus there who might have some ideas....
Knowing others, one is wise; knowing the self, one is enlightened. In conquering others, one is forceful; in conquering oneself, one is mighty.
Hi, i may be wrong but i do face the same problem. And i realise we have same thing in common. i added seachem Flourish excell and some portion turn brown. and after some time new leaf grow over the brown portion.
for my case what happen is during a rescape i was topping up the water while i dose the flourish excell directly to the moss so there is a particular patch that dies. feel heart pain thou but lucky it will grow.
It is a mistake for me to learn.
Cheers!
Hi, I've been dosing seachem excel straight to the moss using a syringe, and i have notice that some parts are brown.so could it be that direct dosing of excel on the moss kills it?Originally Posted by Halimlee85
you cannot dose Excel directly on moss, it'll kill them just like it kills algae.
hmm... think this happened before some time back (from a thread here somewhere), where some kind of moss was 'wiped out'....
I'm not sure where the confusion came from, but I am NOT currently using Excel. I did in the past, and I mentioned that in order to point out that this new damage looks entirely different than that caused by the Excel.
As of today, the moss seems to be growing normally, with only the leaves that were originally harmed showing damage. Those leaves are now 2-3 leaves back on the stem.
It MUST have been something in the water on the day I did a water change, but I can't think of anything that would cause such widespread damage without killing the moss, and without harming the shrimp. I'm afraid it will remain a mystery.
Knowing others, one is wise; knowing the self, one is enlightened. In conquering others, one is forceful; in conquering oneself, one is mighty.
Not yours... Excel thingy is to halim and v_nod who dosed excel.
But there was a wipe out of erect moss once upon a time to everyone at the same time...
Its nutrient deficiency, Something lacking in the tap water not something extra. Fontinalis is more susceptible than Fissidens. Adding TRACE quantities of Ca, Mg, P, K, Fe when carrying out water changes avoids this problem.
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