# Getting rid of Java moss



## chris_ranger (Mar 17, 2014)

i have heard an overdose of excel can harm mosses. i dose excel everyday and my java seems to love it though.
why not just scrub it off?


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## Leaky Filter (Nov 30, 2011)

Manual removal will be step one. The problem with the moss is it gets everywhere and in my experience a 1/4" piece is enough to restart the whole process. 

The piece of wood is a blessing and a curse- it's well seasoned and has plenty of ridges for the Anubius to grab ahold and spread. But that also creates an ideal environment for the moss to really dig into the cracks and ridges.

I wonder if a spray of some kind would kill it. Maybe peroxide.

A last resort would be to remove the Anubius and do another piece of wood.


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## loach guy (Jun 2, 2014)

Without knowing how the moss and anubius are situated on the wood, you could try removing what you can of the moss by hand, then soaking that section of the wood in peroxide for a long duration (1/2 hour or more). It seems to me that a long soak of peroxide kills just about anything. Keep in mind that if you go in this direction, you will kill off any BB on that section and you will go through a mini-cycle in your tank. A bacterial additive may be helpful to minimize the effects.


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## HUNTER (Sep 4, 2012)

My tank was scaped with mostly java moss. I removed most of it by just pulling it, but if you want it totally gone, you need to get it out of the water and scrape it off.


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## talontsiawd (Oct 19, 2008)

It will come back unless scraped off. The problem with moss is once it's in the tank, it's basically going to stay. Even if you get 99% off, that 1% will take a long time to get out. Crazy enough, I have had it come back on a piece of driftwood that was dry for over 3 years.


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