# Moss for high temperature?



## FriendsNotFood (Sep 21, 2010)

Ok my tank is only at 76 degrees but my moss is brown ): It was so nice and bright green and grew like crazy in the first few months of my tank and now it's an eyesore. I tried reducing Excel for a while and it didn't seem to help, so I'm chalking it up to the temperature. I have weeping moss. As in it makes me weep because it looks so ugly right now. Is there any moss that does well at tropical temps?


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

> I have weeping moss. As in it makes me weep because it looks so ugly right now.


Haha! But in all seriousness, 76 isn't high at all. In the summer my tank easily goes above that to 80-82 :\. Moss will often turn brown if it doesn't get the nutrients it needs either.


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## zergling (May 16, 2007)

diwu13 said:


> Haha! But in all seriousness, 76 isn't high at all. In the summer my tank easily goes above that to 80-82 :\. Moss will often turn brown if it doesn't get the nutrients it needs either.


Agreed ^^

Temperature isn't your moss' problem. What kind of lights do you have in your tank? The last time I was able to let moss turn brown, it was when I had one of those craptastic coralife 2x14W T5NO fixtures.


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## digitallinh (Jun 22, 2011)

Would you mind posting a picture of what your moss looks like now? I just recently planted some willow moss (also a temperate moss), and my tank is 75-76f as well.

Everything I've read says you want the temperature to be at around 72F, which isn't really feasible for me. 

I always thought mosses didn't need many nutrients, how are your other plants doing?


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## FriendsNotFood (Sep 21, 2010)

Here's the moss, in all its baby poop brown glory...


























The other plants in the tank are doing allright... the hygro has holes but grows really fast. The other plants are a couple crypts, some lilaeopsis mauritiana, java fern, amazon frogbit, lindernia india. Nothing but the hygro and java fern is growing too much but I'm fine with that as long as it looks good.

The tank is a 36 gallon, the lighting is 2x24W t5ho for 6 hours and 4x24W t5ho for 4 hours but there's metal mesh under the lights that cuts them by about 60% to make it a low-light tank.


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

Kinda looks like it's not getting enough light. Also, excel hurts moss, not helps


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## jone (Nov 27, 2011)

excel hurts moss??? what do you fert it with then...CO2/ferts?? ..


mordalphus said:


> Kinda looks like it's not getting enough light. Also, excel hurts moss, not helps


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## jkan0228 (Feb 6, 2011)

Yup. What else could you use?... For my tank I don't fertilize at all and it's doing great.


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## FriendsNotFood (Sep 21, 2010)

I scaled back on Excel for a while thinking that was the problem but it didn't seem to help. And mordalphus, I thought mosses were low-light plants?


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## jkan0228 (Feb 6, 2011)

Shaded and low light are different. If its shaded then it's practically no light. Low light still mean that it needs light.


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

My moss has no problem in high light, or medium light. It gets stringy and the underside turns brown if it's under floating plants.


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## digitallinh (Jun 22, 2011)

I'm reading an article right now that says mosses struggle with high nitrogen. What are your nitrates?

http://www.tfhdigital.com/tfh/201003/m3/Page.action?lm=1316126814000&pg=68


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## zergling (May 16, 2007)

digitallinh said:


> I'm reading an article right now that says mosses struggle with high nitrogen. What are your nitrates?
> 
> http://www.tfhdigital.com/tfh/201003/m3/Page.action?lm=1316126814000&pg=68


Interesting statement there. I used to have a neglected 10g RCS tank which has more than half of the tank filled with healthy java moss. That tank was showing 80ppm on the API nitrate test. It was the only plant that could survive the thick GSA caused by 36 watts of PC lighting on a 10g tank without CO2 or ferts.


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## FriendsNotFood (Sep 21, 2010)

I'm inept at reading my nitrate test, I'll do it tomorrow and take a pic for you guys to judge. It always comes out some sort of dark orange but I can't tell exactly if it's 20 or 30 or 40 (yikes). 

I cleaned up the tank today and took out most of the brown moss and I'm thinking that the amazon frogbit's gonna end up going if it's shading the moss. I never even thought about it not getting enough light in the shade, thanks for pointing that out. I assumed moss was like anubias and could live in almost complete darkness.


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

I'm going to give you some controversial advice. Wait it out.

In my experience weeping moss goes dormant over the winter. It isn't just something I've experienced either. When I was in Singapore I had an interesting conversation with the owner of Bioplast fish shop about his mosses and he too has weeping moss go brown this time of year. I figure it is unavoidable. 

It'll be fine, it is just going dormant for winter.

Don't sweat the whole nutrients game. 
-Andrew


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

FriendsNotFood said:


> I'm inept at reading my nitrate test, I'll do it tomorrow and take a pic for you guys to judge. It always comes out some sort of dark orange but I can't tell exactly if it's 20 or 30 or 40 (yikes).
> 
> I cleaned up the tank today and took out most of the brown moss and I'm thinking that the amazon frogbit's gonna end up going if it's shading the moss. I never even thought about it not getting enough light in the shade, thanks for pointing that out. I assumed moss was like anubias and could live in almost complete darkness.


The moss that I strapped to the DW also was turning brown, but the ends are still healthy and growing. It seems like your moss tips are also still doing well judging by the green. I would leave it alone and see how it goes.


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## FriendsNotFood (Sep 21, 2010)

Seems like there's lots of variables to test...

I'm still not ruling out temperature as a cause, although the moss was growing REALLY great for 3-4 months (huge and lush and bright green) in 78 degrees and up in my tank during the summer...

But I'm really hoping someone will chime in who has had any kind of moss growing really well for a long time (6 months+) in a tropical tank? And let me know which kind? And at what temps.


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## zergling (May 16, 2007)

A Hill said:


> I'm going to give you some controversial advice. Wait it out.
> 
> In my experience weeping moss goes dormant over the winter. It isn't just something I've experienced either. When I was in Singapore I had an interesting conversation with the owner of Bioplast fish shop about his mosses and he too has weeping moss go brown this time of year. I figure it is unavoidable.
> 
> ...


Hi Andrew, the weeping moss in my 18" cube is not showing that behavior. Maybe the tank being less than 2 months old has something to do with? 

A couple of small but healthy patches at the top center and top right.









BTW, those two patches came from basically a just a few strings I superglue'd on the wood less less than 2 months ago - http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh8/zergling2/MrAqua18/Dec 6 2011/IMG_0693.jpg

Friendsnotfood - this tank is also at 76F. The lush green moss that you see there is situated right below the 36W PC light, though, so it is by no means getting shadowed. LOL.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Fissidens and xmas moss grow just fine at 84F and have for several years.

Enough said.

There's independence from the other variables other..than temp alone.
Folks that have had trouble, had so due to other factors.

I do not know what each and every factor is.....I can only say that temp is not the issue.


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

zergling said:


> Hi Andrew, the weeping moss in my 18" cube is not showing that behavior. Maybe the tank being less than 2 months old has something to do with?
> 
> A couple of small but healthy patches at the top center and top right.
> 
> ...


It may, but I am not sure. Maybe it is only within certain conditions that may trigger it. I know that I'm not the only one who has observed it recently or in the past.

-Andrew


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