# flame moss carpet??



## ponyo (Aug 9, 2010)

I have a lot of trouble growing anything in my tank. Anubias nana petite has done ok other than reverting to a larger size than petite. And I have some bacopa carolina (I think--not shown in the picture) that seems to also be doing ok. Otherwise I haven't had a lot of luck with most plants. Here's a picture from a while ago (sorry the quality is bad):










I removed the moss from the drift wood because it was dirty and also got all over the tank and looked gross. The L. mauritana you see is all dead and gone now. The dwarf sag in the back is also dead and gone. The marsilea minute is hanging on but barely--that's maybe half of the amount left. And as you can see I have an algae problem--that stuff was super hard to scrape off. It's mostly gone now but I still get algae.

I'm not really asking for why I can't grow plants as I've given up trying to figure out why. I'm looking to redo my tank a bit with the two things I can grow: anubias nan petite and moss. I bought some drift wood that makes kind of like a cave to put in the far right corner on which I will plant some more anubias. Then I wanted the rest to sort of look like a field so I'm thinking about putting down a carpet of flame moss. 

Is flame moss a difficult moss to grow? I couldn't get fissidens fontanus to grow--it died. And do you think it would get dirty and and just look bad as a carpet?


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## scapegoat (Jun 3, 2010)

my flame moss did poorly without co2 when my milwaukee regulator broke.

it was a sore loss... if you're having issues growing plants I'd start figuring out why.

a lot of people on here will be able to help you get going strong. 

whats your maintenance like? water params? lights? etc


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## ponyo (Aug 9, 2010)

scapegoat,
Oh that's too bad about the flame moss. I'd love to figure out why I can't grow anything and also my fish die a lot. But I have been down this road many times here and I think people are going to get sick of me always asking. 

My tank is 29 gal, 30" by 18" high and I think it's 12" deep. Eco-complete substrate. My water is hard or so I'm told--it's from a well. My mom said they tested it a number of years ago and it's high in either manganese or magnesium (she can't remember). I should try to find the old test report. It maintains a very steady pH of 7.6. That's what it is out of the tap and what it is in my tank even if I haven't cleaned it in a while. And I always get the same readings: no ammonia or nitrites and 5 ppm nitrates. These have never changed and I don't really bother to test much anymore because I never get different readings even if it's right after a water change or when I've been lazy and it's over due for a water change. 

I have a HOB filter. The lighting is a T5 NO coralife fixture with 6,700K and colormax bulb, each one is 18 watts. I am just about to replace them. Couldn't fine a colormax so I decided to just go with two 6,700K bulbs this time. 

No CO2 or ferts. I did just order some dry first from someone here and plan to dose them at half the amount recommended by the sticky in the fert section. 

The tank's been set up for about 2 years. All the fish I had in it to start with have died except for I have 3 original japonica shrimp left. Right now I have 3 madagascar rainbows that I know are going to outgrow the tank but they don't grow much so I think I have a while to go before I have to think about that. They seem to do ok with the hard water though which is a first. And then I have one very small dwarf gourami. 

I do a 15-20% water change every two weeks. I scrape down the glass when I do the water change. And then I clean out the filter in between but probably I should do it more often. By clean out I just mean rinse everything and get the debris out of the intake. I can't really vacuum the substrate because of the MM so it is pretty dirty. Not sure what to do about that. I try to vacuum the parts that I can. There isn't much MM anymore but it's kind of spread out.

I forgot to add I was dosing with excel but it didn't seem to be helping with the algae so I have recently not bothered.


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

I would seriously consider running some fresh carbon after water changes and look into dry frets. Eco is terrible without frets. Or add some aqua soil to it.


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## Hmoobthor (Aug 15, 2011)

mine is growing tall and well...

no co2 or ferts...


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## Ach1Ll3sH33L (Mar 1, 2012)

When you say your washing your filter media, are you doing this in tank water or sink water? Always clean your filter media in water you drain out of the tank, its helps preserve the bacteria colony in the filter media.

Based on your tanks picture, all the plants in the tank are pretty slow growing, mosses and anubius are very slow, and dont really use much in terms of nutrients. Moss actually doesn't like excel either and will die after prolonged exposure in my experience. Using some faster growing stem plants, and put a root tab or two under them,this will help out compete the algae. Get some easy to grow stem plants and stick a bunch in maybe the back left corner and see how they do. 

You should have good lighting for the tank, its possible if the bulbs are more than a year old they are no longer producing light in the proper spektrum for the plants, this is why its recommended to replace the bulbs every 12 months.

Because your not running c02, you can try running a siesta period in the tank. Have the light on for 4 hours, off for 2, then on for another 4. This dark period in the middle lets a small amount of c02 build back up, which is then used by the plants when the lights on, but this only works when you have a good ripple on the water surface to provide good 02 exchange.


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## ponyo (Aug 9, 2010)

I do clean the filter material with tap water. But to be honest, I don't clean it that often... From now on I'll save some tank water to clean it. 

It does need the new bulbs but I had problems long before they needed to be replaced. 

Tom Barr suggests using the excel if you want to do regular water changes to help keep the CO2 at a more steady level to prevent algae. But I should not use it if I end up trying a flame moss carpet?


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## Ach1Ll3sH33L (Mar 1, 2012)

I haven't had much luck with excel and mosses, do a quick search and youll find similar experiences. new bulbs will help get the plants growing better which will out compete the algae. you may also try reducing your photo period, or raising the light up a little bit. mosses and anubuis dont need much light at all. 



ponyo said:


> I do clean the filter material with tap water. But to be honest, I don't clean it that often... From now on I'll save some tank water to clean it.
> 
> It does need the new bulbs but I had problems long before they needed to be replaced.
> 
> Tom Barr suggests using the excel if you want to do regular water changes to help keep the CO2 at a more steady level to prevent algae. But I should not use it if I end up trying a flame moss carpet?


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