Does anybody here speak spanish?

[louis_last]

I found a really interesting youtube video in spanish about cadophora moss balls. The guy has had some incredible results getting moss balls to attach to wood and stone hardscape and even grow across them like moss and he shows some pretty striking and impressive before and after images.
I would really, really like to know how he's doing this as it doesn't appear that he's using glue or thread and I have seen many reports of people trying and failing to get moss balls to attach like this but I've seen other examples than this video so I'm starting to think there's some secret sauce I'm not aware of that must be involved.
I'm hoping someone here might speak spanish, or enough spanish, and be able to give this video a quick watch in order to give us a brief outline of the process he describes and whether he mentions any special tricks.

 

[louis_last]

Just look at that coconut cave!

 

[seedoubleyou]

I think he just uses elastic bands

 

[sparkyweasel]

You can get English subtitles on YouTube. Click the 'Settings' symbol (gearwheel) then click 'Subtitles' then 'Spanish - autogenerated' then 'Autotranslate' and a list of languages pops up; select English or whatever you fancy. Scottish Gaelic is there if you prefer.
The translations are not perfect but you can usually understand them.

 

[louis_last]

You can get English subtitles on YouTube. Click the 'Settings' symbol (gearwheel) then click 'Subtitles' then 'Spanish - autogenerated' then 'Autotranslate' and a list of languages pops up; select English or whatever you fancy. Scottish Gaelic is there if you prefer.
The translations are not perfect but you can usually understand them.

I did not know you could do this! but i just tried it and the auto translation was hilariously indecipherable

 

[seedoubleyou]

Just skip to 4:24 of the video if you disbelieved my response, and pay attention to his right hand.


Tambien se puede atar a un tronco o piedra / It can also be tied to a log or stone.

He’s doing that with elastic bands.

 

[zozo]

He just makes balls from the Clado that he does trim and kept together with an elastic band or fishing line he says. But shows an elastic band in the video. You can attach (atar) in the same manner to a rock (piedra) or piece of wood (tronco).

For the rest, the secret he doesn't show is to keep clean where you don't want clado to grow. If you don't do that it will grow everywhere. Once you have it you'll be in for a treat to keep it neat, that's a lot of work.

It kinda reminds me of the '70s and '80s from the previous century, back then moss was rather a rarity if not impossible to find in local stores not a lot of people knew about aquatic moss and the internet didn't yet exist. Algae (aufwuchs) covered hardscape was very welcome to get some more natural texture in the tank. Some kind of Clado was the usual algae to get first. I don't remember doing anything special it always worked out by leaving it in nature's hands.

But if you want to you can use whatever method to spread it around such as glue or thread or rubber bands. When it doesn't like t attach for whatever reason that's also a natural thing, might be that a piece of wood still contains and or releases a substance the algae doesn't favour and then it simply won't attach, meaning the wood needs more time. There is nothing much we can do about that other than keep putting it on and wait.

I personally had very good results with mosses in the past by soaking the wood for a couple of days in water mixed with a root stimulator for terrestrial plants. And use the same water the wood soaked in as a spray during the dry start. If it favours mosses and plants it likely will favour algae too. That could be a nice experiment to try. There are many brands of Root stimulators to find in the garden centres and I don't know if all are equally good. The one I always used and still use now and then is also to most expensive, Canna Rhizotonic. Since this brand is related to the Cannabis industry and potheads this stuff is not really in favour and is not available at most local garden centres you might need to get it via a webshop. But seeing beyond this stigma if it's good for cannabis then it's good for all plants even aquatics and you don't need to be related to cannabis to make use of it. This stuff is really good if you don't mind spending £22/L. But with 4ml/L recommended ratio it will last a long time and even 1ml/L still does a great job.

 

[kammaroon]

He said the cladophora spreads itself by shedding small filaments which self attach to the decoration. In the comments, someone asked him how he attached it to the big rock: he said he trapped it between two rocks then it spreads.