# Java moss in extreme low light



## Homer_Simpson (May 10, 2007)

Athos710 said:


> I have a AGA 5.5 that is housing my (hopefully soon) breeding colony of 10 Aspidoras albater. For hardscape I have 4 pieces of rainbow rock that I have a bunch of laying around and a piece of driftwood. The tank is unheated and holding steady at 74 F with a small sponge filter for filtration. Currently I don't have any light on the tank at all. Just ambient lighting when I'm in the room and whatever sunlight makes it through the blinds to the tank 10 feet away.
> 
> On an impulse at the fish club meeting where I got the fish, I got a large clump of java moss, close to baseball size. I know it's considered one of the hardiest of low-light plants, but will it survive in this extreme low-light setup? I'm not looking for a lot of growth, I just need it to survive for the next 3 months or so until I get my larger tank setup where it will eventually live. Sorry for the crummy pictures, I'm still learning how to take good pictures of my aquariums.


Yes and No. A coworker at work who breeds guppies uses java moss in his tank. It grows like a weed and he is forever thinning it out. He uses no ferts and the lighting is the stock lighting that came with the tank.

If your temperature does not climb too high, you may have success. In summer, when my temperature rose drastically, the java moss I had in my 5 gallon hex turned brown and died. Now, in winter, with the room temperature a lot lower, the java moss is a nice lush green and thriving. I have 13 watt compact fluorescent lighting 6500K daylight.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

It will probably get a darker green, but I've had them in my breeder tanks with top light with no issue.


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## FrostyNYC (Nov 5, 2007)

I had large clump of java moss in a gallon beta bowl with no light, no filter, and no heater, for maybe six months. The only light it got was from normal room lighting, when that was on. No sunlight. And it lived. It didnt grow much, but it lived.


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## fish dork (Jan 13, 2008)

Same for me, I have a betta bowl with java moss growing on some DW sticks with no light other than what comes in through the window and it grows... slowly. It doesn't show any signs of dying though either.


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