# Christmas Moss turning black or is it Algae?



## Codzilla (Aug 26, 2013)

I don't know whats going on. 7 hour lighting per day. I dose excel and flourish every other day. Should I trim off all the blackened parts?


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## thefishnoob (Jul 12, 2014)

Based on the fourth pic it looks like some sort of hair algae. Trim it off!


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

It appears you have staghorn and hair algae in the tank. The moss is just dying for whatever reason, possibly deficient in micronutrients.


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## Dragonxflare (Jul 1, 2014)

Is that new or old moss? I remember when I first tied Christmas moss on my drift wood, over time, the older moss died off, but I had new lush growth taking over.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

Dose excel every day IMO but I don't think that is your problem.

+1 that old growth can die off with xmas moss. Mine did the same and is just starting to bounce back and take off.


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## danellis1229 (Jan 24, 2013)

thanks for posting this question with pictures it appears mine is doing the same thing


so if its old growth dying off does anyone know the life cycle of xmas moss


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## Codzilla (Aug 26, 2013)

I tore off all those bits that were blackened out. A lot of the moss underneath those parts were still green though. I think part of my problem was that the bad parts were under direct light with water current and it would attract a lot of debris. That may have caused algae to grow on it and choke out the moss. I repositioned my driftwood so that the moss has a little shade. That is just my theory though...


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## danellis1229 (Jan 24, 2013)

i was having this issue i increased my ei dosing and co2 bam gone in 2 weeks and tons of new growth


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## IDR (Apr 12, 2014)

Codzilla said:


> I tore off all those bits that were blackened out. A lot of the moss underneath those parts were still green though. I think part of my problem was that the bad parts were under direct light with water current and it would attract a lot of debris. That may have caused algae to grow on it and choke out the moss. I repositioned my driftwood so that the moss has a little shade. That is just my theory though...


Don't tear it — trim it. Trimming X-Mas moss will spawn new growth.

Do you use Excel? Do you have any shrimp in the tank, like Amanos?


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