# flame moss help!



## babydragons (Mar 14, 2012)

Ok so here is the deal. My dad hadd ordered a small batch of flame moss from a seller on ebay (no one here:icon_lol and it came pretty much brown and ugly and dead looking. It was super cheap with free shipping which is why he figured he would try since he knew I was kinda looking into it. Well I have it in a little tupperware container right now hoping that it will spring back to life a little bit since some of it looks slightly more green. I refuse to contact seller since it was so cheap and seller had bad reviews. (My dad was trying so hard to be nice) So is there any way I can help whats left come back to life? Should I put it in the tank?


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## babydragons (Mar 14, 2012)

Oh the tupperware has tank water in it and has a hole in the top. Ive been putting it in a window that gets direct sunlight for a few hours during the day. Idk if that helps


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## Bunfoo (Jan 14, 2012)

Put in an airstone for water flow. Stagnant water is not good for moss if it's tank water. Good flow will work miracles! I'd clip off all the obviously dead parts and just to to work with the green bits, even if they're small.


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## babydragons (Mar 14, 2012)

Thanks a bunch! Ill get to clipping and the pet store for an air stone!


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

I'd just search for new moss through the swap and shop, sure someone has it out there. It'll take forever to revive. Definitely contact seller as you paid for it, you should get what you paid for. Or try growing it emmersed in the tuppleware.


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## mfurufuru (Mar 20, 2012)

Also moss usually like cooler temp so besure the sun isnt heating the moss up too much.


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## al4n (Nov 18, 2008)

put it in the tank it will be fine..


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

bear in mind, the brown stuff isnt necessarily dead so go too trim happy 

The dead stuff looks like black string.


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## wastedtime (Oct 27, 2011)

Flame moss is a slow grower under low light conditions, If you have a tank with Co2 i would suggest you put in in there, It will bounce back faster. Also moss are resilient they dont die off easily.

You can always put it in a breeder box and hang it inside your tank.


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## babydragons (Mar 14, 2012)

I'm definitely going to look into the breeder box idea. Really want this stuff to come back


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

All mosses are very resilient but do like cool water with CO2 and tons of light if you can provide it, after you wash it, trim it, and get light to the green areas it should start to turn around. You can also take a portion of it and chop it finely and then rub it onto the rock/wood you like and then place in a covered tank with a half inch of water, like a dry start tank, after 10 days you will have moss growing on the item, it will still require light in this covered tank, research the dry start method/DSM.


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## gordonrichards (Jun 20, 2009)

Seller was from Asia perhaps?

-Gordon


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## boolz (Oct 9, 2012)

The same happened to me, I had a few flame mosses shipped and they looked all brown and tiny, nothing like the ones you see in pictures. Three weeks under strong light with good filtration, cool water, and co2 did the trick. They now look great! I attach them to rocks with moss cotton and use them as background. They grow upwards nice and bushy.


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## D-raw (Oct 17, 2012)

Same thing happened to me, I never want to buy from ebay again


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## babydragons (Mar 14, 2012)

There was no helping the moss I had gotten from this guy. Maybe if i had co2 it would have worked better. I just threw it out and bought some from a guy on here. And it came much better


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## AVN (Oct 3, 2012)

Although you already threw it out... let me remind you that mosses are very resilient compared to other plants. You can probably still salvage it from the trash if it's yellow, so long as there is still green on it, it will recover over time.

I encountered the same problem you did months ago, I ordered 9 7x7 Flame moss pads from a seller in China, he had good reviews though and an amazing DOA guarantee, on top of free shipping it was a steal!

Anyways, 4 of the 9 pads came in withered, as they were stuck up in the customs office for an unnecessarily long time. They had withered from the bottom up, turning a yellow color, but they were definitely still alive if not just dried out. 1 of those 4 pads was 85% yellow and parts of it had turned brown.

I didn't throw ANY of it out, instead I plucked out bunches of it from the mesh and planted it in a loose carpet in the substrate of a 10g. Needless to say, with vigilant trimming and the right environment the moss rebounded very quickly, all the yellow had recovered and all the brown parts I snipped off regrew.

After 3 total weeks from the time of delivery my flame moss had carpeted the entire length of my 10g and began growing bushes upward toward the light.

It is a slow grower, but that is relative to the rate of faster growing mosses. This moss still grows like a freaking weed!

Note, I do not dose any ferts or run Co2 in this 10g, it sits outside with a heater, filter, and a dual 6500k fixture that I turn on after direct sunlight stops hitting the tank. Light time is 10-12 hours.


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## babydragons (Mar 14, 2012)

I do want to point out that this was originally posted back in may. I don't know how or why it suddenly resurfaced. But i was still really new to plants then. I had maybe 2 in my 15 gallon. It was my first moss ever. I don't know if i didn't have enough experience or if maybe I didn't do it right. But i had put the moss in a tuperware on my windowsill with an airstone. I waited a month and a half and it never really came back. It didn't get any bigger. It didnt get any browner. But it was never yellow. So after that long i just gave up. Next time though I will try harder


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## AVN (Oct 3, 2012)

Oh, I didn't notice that. Someone bumped it up, you replied in context, so I assumed it was a new thread, didn't look at the post dates.


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## babydragons (Mar 14, 2012)

Haha yea that might been my fault. Sorry for the confusion!


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

The next time, I'd add a drop of micro ferts into the container on the windowsill. That could help jumpstart growth.


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