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Attaching weeping moss(superglue) and pruning Cyperus helferi?

discusdan

Member
Joined
7 Jan 2013
Messages
302
Hi all

I've been in the process of starting my first planted tank and have got some weeping moss and a couple of cyperus helferi along with some other stuff.

Because of its long leaves the helferi must of taken a bit of a beating in transit as quite a few of the leaves have broken/split.
I removed the worse ones before planting but have now noticed a few more damaged leaves which dont look great.
Whats the best way to prune this plant to get it healthy and promote new growth? I don't want to start hacking away at it and do something wrong.

I also bought some tropica weeping moss which I plan to attach to some mopani wood.

I was initially going to tie the moss down with fishing line but while doing some research I read that some people use super glue to attach moss to rocks/wood.

At work we use a 2 part super glue, one part is liquid and the other part is an aerosol activator.
It doesn't say on the bottle that its not for aquarium use and seeing as i'd only be using a tiny amount I'm thinking it might be worth a try. It would be much easier to attach the moss with glue rather than fishing line.

Has any one used super glue for this before? Did it work and more importantly where there any ill effects to the aquarium?

cheers.
 
I've used standard superglue before - cyano-acrelate, safe to use. Although when the moss died on the coconut it was on (long story) there where whitish patches where the glue was, so fishing line may be preferable long term in case the moss dies or you would like to remove it one day.
 
cheers for the reply, I know exactly what you mean about the white residue. I'll see how I get on with the fishing line I think and if I start tearing my hair out i'll try the glue.

any one know about the helferi?

cheers
 
I went to my LFS yesterday to have a look and next door is a hobby craft, so i popped in there after to see if I could find any thing to tie down the moss.

I came out with some fabric mesh for the grand sum of 19p :)

axx8TIG.jpg


I placed the moss on the wood then covered it with a piece of mesh.

I then wrapped fishing line around then whole thing to keep it all in place.

RTMpI1E.jpg


Hopefully the holes in the mesh are big enough for the moss to grow through.


I also trimmed the helferi, I read that its best to cut the leaf as close to the grown as possible. So i've done this. just got to see how it goes.
 
you can just attach the moss to the wood with fishing line and forget about the mesh pad mate, eventually the moss will grip on then you can take the fishing line out :)
 
um... depends on your growth really mate, for example dont usually even tie it down.. I had some dragon rock I was able to just push int oa crack and it sat there and grew amazingly well. Then when I came to strip down my tank it had to physically tug the moss from the rock as it had well and truly gripped itself right on to the surface, I had scrub the moss off before I sold the rock it was that good lol. maybe a month or so? but the longer the better I guess.
 
oh didn't realize you could cut the fishing line off after awhile, I thought it had to stay on permanently.
How long roughly before i could cut the fishing line off?
Depends on the type of moss, some anchor to the wood some won't.
 
Depends on the type of moss, some anchor to the wood some won't.
Yeah sorry I was just talking about weeping moss as above :) i should of said mate

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