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Growing Mosses

Great thread, been growing mosses in breafast tubes and all on window sill. I have put lids on the tubs to stop evaporation is that an issue? mosses seem fine mind with lid, i am or was hoping to attach to rock and leave on window sill to allow it to attach in the hope that its more solid/together when in tank?
 
hey,

Just stumbled upon this thread.....

I love moss's and was thinking about a tank with just moss and anubis.... but I have to get my main tank working first.

I have an ideal position for growing mosses, along side the herbs in the kitchen :D .

Can anyone please suggest a good source of moss's in the UK (I'm in Wimbledon).

I plan on doing lowtech tanks, so ideally I'll need the less demanding ones!

Regards

Lee
 
Not sure if anyone is aware, I had moss on the window sill in a clear cotainer and it was light green, attached it to wood, with light in tank and it seems to have faded to a dark green. I have read it darker tank it goes darker, some say in more light it stays light? Just wondering if the colour indicates it is in need of ferts or more light?
 
leemonk said:
hey,
Can anyone please suggest a good source of moss's in the UK (I'm in Wimbledon).
I plan on doing lowtech tanks, so ideally I'll need the less demanding ones!

Freshwatershrimp - sponsor have a great selection now by mail
or i believe living waters in croydon have a good selection if you fancy a day out.
 
Just been to Living Waters in Croydon after a recomendation in another thread to someone else.......

What a lovely place. Proper, what I'd call 'spit and saw dust'. No pretty framed tanks or tidy areas...... its just tanks and plants. What I thought was great was that they had some sort of climber inside the conservatory that was dropping roots from the ceiling into the tank..... look blooming (pun intended) marvelous.

Anyhows.... I just bought, what I thought was a bargain, tray of moss... no idea which one, and have spread it out into 3 jars. It was a little dry to start with but after 1hr (trawling this thread) its already pearling, which put a very large smile on my face.

For those that can't seem to find glass jars etc, I'm using an old coffee gar (glass) and two plastic water bottles cut down (I use them for gardening too - put cutting pots into them and fill with water to keep moist). It's not pretty by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm contributing to the recycling :)

My question (after all of that) was how densely should I keep the jars? For £6 I got what i thought was a large tray of moss and even split in three, I think it might be too dense.

I am going to be doing a Walstad style tank and whilst she doesn't favour mosses.... I love 'em.

How long at this time of year would you expect for mosses to start growing?

And...... have you had any joy on growing Anubis this way? I've got a few samples from my old tank that were just floating around so I thought I'd let them accompany the moss on the herb shelf.

I have a conservatory too, and was wondering if that would be to hot in the summer (it really does get warm in there). Could I compensate for the heat with regular water changes?

ps.... fantastic thread by the way.

Also... did you ever manage to get that tutorial together?

Regards

Lee
 
easerthegeezer said:
leemonk said:
hey,
Can anyone please suggest a good source of moss's in the UK (I'm in Wimbledon).
I plan on doing lowtech tanks, so ideally I'll need the less demanding ones!

Freshwatershrimp - sponsor have a great selection now by mail
or i believe living waters in croydon have a good selection if you fancy a day out.

Liviging Waters is where I picked up my little pack. Though to be fair, I wouldn't go all the way there just to pick up some Moss.... you can get that over the internet easy enough (though a whole little tray was only £5 there), but it's worth combining the visit for when you have more time as they have some lovely setups there.
 
I hope Matt doesn't mind but I thought I'd post my own moss experiment here. After getting some spiky a while back in a one-to-grow tropica pot (Ed, you'll correct me if it wasn't Tropica) I thought I'd give it a go. Used some some of those pots with edamame in you get from Pret.

7961082664_7d7ea6e4c6.jpg
2012-8-9_9.42.55 by hotweldfire, on Flickr

Top to bottom, left row - 2 x mini xmas, spiky; right row - peacock, fissidens fontanus.

Basically the moss is in there dry with spray of EI tank water every morning and 15 minutes with the lids off for gas exchange. I punched some holes in the lid of one of the mini xmas pots and it doesn't seemed to have made any difference to growth. Xmas and spiky are doing fairly well, peacock is doing alright given the original amount I put in there was tiny. Fissidens is a disaster. I think I chopped it up far too small. Basically fissidens paste and it doesn't seem like it's going to recover.

I'm not sure I'd recommend this method. Advantages are you don't have to change the water, wash the pots etc, and no algae or snails. But growth is surprisingly really slow. That may be about light as they're sitting on a north facing window sill and only get about an hour's direct sunlight a day. Still, I think Tropica are doing something I'm not. Ed and Radik might be able to share their experience with this sort of method.
 
found some lovely native moss in the river near henley on thames, looks like a type of fissidens, growing in long tufts in the fast current.
 
I have started to grow my moss partially emersed, with about mm or two of water to keep moisture up and the results are far better then submersed. Trying it with some flame moss, hopefully it grows considerably.
 
somethingfishy said:
sr20det said:
I have started to grow my moss partially emersed, with about mm or two of water to keep moisture up and the results are far better then submersed. Trying it with some flame moss, hopefully it grows considerably.
Will this have an effect when you re submerse it?

Not that I am aware, to be honest all the plats that you will buy, be it tropica, etc etc, are all emersed grown before they arrive to you or the retailers, but yeah, could adjust it by adding water bit by bit till fully submersed before transferring to tank if you were really worried. I dont think it will be an issue mind.
 
somethingfishy said:
So the same windowsill technique but in a shallow few mills of water?

Must admit the moss i keep submersed on the windowsill seems to stay healthy but does not seem to grow?

yeah, well I am keeping them in few mm of water, with lid on and it keeps moisture up inside. I had some willow moss which was submersed and yellow, thought it was dead, put it as above emersed, within a week it was green again. Hence convinced me.

Mind Hoteweldfire technique on the previous page seems better, lid off spray with EL water and the lid being off gives good gas exchange (seeing its daily). I am lazy, had good results with mm of water and weekly to fortnight wash and water change.
 
Hello I have just joined. I have a 75 litre tank with CO2 dosing, I use 2 vivalights at 5500K and a 1000ND led tile. Filtration is via an external power filter. I have a week ago introduced some christmas and weeping moss and some riccia fluitans. The riccia looks ok but a bit anemic. i have turned the CO2 from a bubble every 6 seconds to every 3 seconds as the other two mosses have turned brown. My pH is 7.2 and my kH 180mg/l. Any ideas help or advise would be great. Thank you.
 
paulsouthuk said:
Hello I have just joined. I have a 75 litre tank with CO2 dosing, I use 2 vivalights at 5500K and a 1000ND led tile. Filtration is via an external power filter. I have a week ago introduced some christmas and weeping moss and some riccia fluitans. The riccia looks ok but a bit anemic. i have turned the CO2 from a bubble every 6 seconds to every 3 seconds as the other two mosses have turned brown. My pH is 7.2 and my kH 180mg/l. Any ideas help or advise would be great. Thank you.

Are you adding easy carbo by any chance?
 
Hi Mark I do use a liquid carbon. I thought my CO2 system wasnt enough so I started dosing with liquid carbon a couple of days ago.
 
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