# Why is my Java moss growing so slow?



## aledr2004 (Mar 8, 2009)

i have the same problem. Mine is in a medium light tank. 48w over 24 gallons with diy co2 and easy carbo + liquid ferts and it grows like 1mm per week. Someone must have a theory.


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## sonby101 (Apr 14, 2009)

Well, at least I know somebody else is having the same problem. Oh well, I'm going to be having a high tech. 29G tank soon, and see if that works. I plan on putting Riccia on this peice of driftwood, and putting that in my high tech. tank to grow real fast. then put it in my low-tech. 10 gallon tank to look pretty. And the plus side it will grow slow so I don't have to trim it very much ^^.


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## dthb4438 (Nov 12, 2007)

Moss is a slow growing plant. You have to be patient. It also helps to trim it back to make it more dense.


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## Honorable24 (Nov 16, 2008)

Java moss is my slowest moss I have. Everyone says it grows extremely fast. My lighting is 23watts in a 10 gallon. My flame moss, and christmas moss grow way faster than my java moss.


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

My pheonix moss grows REALLY REALLY SLOW, probably slower than any of your mosses  . Most of it mysteriously disappeared, and then it stopped disappearing, but now I only have a really small amount left, and it grows extremely slow; not even one little branch a week.


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## Philosophos (May 7, 2009)

Try abusing it perhaps? While I've got no clue what the dominating variable is, or the science behind it, but I find it's grown faster for me in poorer conditions. I've kept it in tanks from high to low tech, it's grown fastest in a neglected high tech setup where the light was blotted out by tall plants and ferts were forgotten, and currently in a little beta setup with indirect light, nasty tap water and no ferts besides food. 

Maybe test out abusing it, then change the variables one by one and observe?

-Philosophos


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## efish (Apr 23, 2006)

i found my grew quicker once i added more DIY CO2. but it is still a slow grower.


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## houstonhobby (Dec 12, 2008)

sonby101, hate to say it but things might get worse when you go high tech. With high light it tends to be overrun by filamentous algae so you get nothing. At least, that is what happens to me.


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## Philosophos (May 7, 2009)

High light shouldn't cause algae unless you're messing up on ferts or CO2. Usually BBA showing up tells me that it's time to clean my diffuser disk, and maybe the filter.

-Philosophos


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## paulrw (Apr 14, 2009)

i had the same problem i had it tied around drift wood for about 2 months it looked brown and grew really slow i got frustrated and ripped it off a few peices were rooted to the wood i left them figuring they wood die the grew back quickly now it grows fairly rapidly but i agree with dthb4438 it helps to trim it


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## sonby101 (Apr 14, 2009)

Well, it's still growing just as slow as ever, I thought about ripping it all off, and covering it with just Riccia, or Flame moss, and or Christmas moss. But I'm too scared they will die off in low-light setup. I've heard they only do well in medium, to high light tank setup. Oh and I did trim it back a little, it seems like it is trying to grow more upwards then over the peice of driftwood .:angryfire Does anyone reccomend just switching to another moss, because I think it just might be my water? :/ I'm about ready to just rip my driftwood out of my tank, snap it in half and throw it threw the frekin window...


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## sonby101 (Apr 14, 2009)

Oh, yeah, and also. I did try abusing it a little in the beggining. But it turned a yucky browm color. So I heard alot about how you can always bring java moss back to life, even if it is at the brink of death....that didn't quite work out as I hoped, it just polluted my tank :-0. Thank goodness I saved some of it!!


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## Preeths (Jan 29, 2008)

Adding CO2 and potassium sulphate made mine grow really fast. It grows about 1.5 inches every month.


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## o snap its eric (Jan 12, 2004)

mosses does take time to adapt to its condition before growing.


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## Bugman (Jan 7, 2008)

What it the water temp in the tank. Moss likes cooler water. In the upper 70's to low 80's it does poorly.


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## sonby101 (Apr 14, 2009)

Well, I keep the temp. at 78F So maybe I will try letting it getting to a lower temp to see how it does. Also, I just had to rip out almost ALL of my hornwort in my tank because of the bottom. I didn't head the warning on hear about how if you don't allow the bottom to get much light the bottom dies off. And it polluted my tank beyond imagination :'(. So now it is bear and empty looking besides the little tiny bit I kept, and the driftwood, and a few fake plants. Now I'm worried if I keep the light on too lonf algae will become an issue. now I'm cutting back the hours of light, and letting more sun light into the tank, just a little morning light to see if that helps any. And leave the light in the aquarium on about 6 or 7. Now my tank looks a whole lot cleaner ^^ on the bright side.


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## sonby101 (Apr 14, 2009)

Oh and I'm not adding CO2 at all since this is a low-tech tank, with very little plants right now, adding CO2 is asking for an algae disaster :eek5:. And I'm not in the mood for that right now...


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## Rich976USAF (Mar 27, 2009)

patience young grasshopper


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## sonby101 (Apr 14, 2009)

Well, I guess I will wait for it to completly ajust to my water. If I don't see much growth in the next, hhmm, lets say 3 months. Then I will try Christmas tree moss.


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## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

When I dosed with potassium sulphate it grew well.


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## Kolohe (Jun 21, 2009)

Java moss does start off slowly, but can over fill a tank quite quickly. My 150G tank is currently about 40% java moss which happened over 6 months. It was started with about a baseball sized starter that covered about 5% of the tank.

I have no lighting and I don't add fertilize for any on my tanks. The moss seems to like the sun out here in the middle of the pacific. And the 4 fish in the tank seems to provide more than enough nutrients for the moss.

Having it grow slowly is not a bad thing. When it grows fast it tends to float in mid water.


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## sonby101 (Apr 14, 2009)

Well, I cut back my lighting for it, and used more natrual light (indirect sun light), and lowered the water temp. to about 72F-73_. I have acually seen it to start growing a little faster, but it is trying to go away from the driftwood, and not fill it in :-/. I tried trimming but all it does is grow more tward where I trimmed it. I will see how it does when I don't trim it.


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## Bugman (Jan 7, 2008)

It is the nature of any plant to grow toward the light. If you didn't have a pretty good covering of the driftwood to begin with then you may not get the affect you were looking for. You may have to retie some of the moss that is growing up back down on the places that are sparse.


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