# Java moss growing up



## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

I think that's their natural growth pattern. You might need more intense light for them to grow low but obviously, algae will be a problem.


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## metageologist (Jan 10, 2008)

its growning nice and low in my low light tank 1.4 watts florecent. and only seem to be growing strait up in my high light tank 110watts T-5. so maybe high light casus it to head for the surface.


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## F22 (Sep 21, 2008)

That's weird. I would have thought the polar opposite


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## metageologist (Jan 10, 2008)

F22 said:


> That's weird. I would have thought the polar opposite


ya my thoughts as well, thats y I'm asking around here to see if I'm missing some thing obvious or if i just missing some thing.


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## jjlin78 (Aug 15, 2009)

i've noticed that moss in higher water flow areas tend to not branch out as much as moss in low flow areas. no branching would make the moss look like its only growing up towards the light.


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## wkndracer (Mar 14, 2009)

*Lighting or not? but I think lighting*

Java moss - Vesicularia dubyana (what I'm suppose to have:icon_roll) and wish I had the answer to this question other then just time to grow. High or low light, injected or not it seems to grow stringy when starting a new bunch then it clumps. Like java fern it grows so slowly that I kind of ignore it in the tanks when cleaning and trimming until the day it's in the way.

While I'm sure light, NPK and all the rest factor into the growth rate I do have two tanks I can time line on it's growth and location with regard to light. I pinned strings of java moss to cracks in my slate background with tooth picks when setting up my 110g tank.

Introduced the plant in August 2009. At first it seemed to crawl along attaching to the slate and petrified wood in stringy runners. I did the first trim on the java along the weirs at the top of the tank 2/6/10 as it had started shading those plants below. So about 6 months to grow into thick clumps for me there.

















Using power heads to aid circulation in my injected high light tank it took about the same amount of time to cover one of these but the exact dating I did not record. The java is attached to the power head only between the Fern and the floaters.








My guess would be that intense light drives it to dense bushy growth faster as mine is thicker high in the tanks closer to the light. The lower in the tank the slower the growth. This last photo is of plants pinned at the same time as those in the first pictures 1/2 way down the back wall.









Possibility of the higher flow rate feeding the plant in these areas more also is all I can come up with.


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