# How to tie tie moss on driftwood, stones, steel mesh with pictures



## RONY11 (Jan 6, 2011)

I think most people use mosses in shrimp tanks this post should be posted in the shrimps forum. 

A new driftwood was chosen boiled in water for 3.5-4 hrs with coarse salt. Then soaked in a bucket with water for 8 days to remove excess tanins. The water in the bucket was changed daily.
Wirror Moss was chosen for this particular driftwood.










I used scissors, tweezers, fishing thread, stainless steel mesh, a good quality fishnet stockings were kept overnight in water to check that it doesn't release color, luckily it didn't. The fishnet was cut into portions taking into account the stainless steel mesh size.










The moss was placed in such a way that it wil give a fluffy appearance.



























The full driftwood was covered with moss.









All the driftwood it totally covered and the moss was tied to the driftwood with the fishing line.









I used the fishnet stocking (elastic) to hold moss like Pellia in place on stones and stainless steel coz its difficult to tie with fishing line and keep it in place.










Placed the pellia moss on the stainless steel mesh covered with the fishnet stocking hold it in place and tighten around the edge with stocking, turned it on the otherside and tied the loose ends with a fishing line.










Same with river stones which were carefully chosen, checked that they're suitable to be used in an aquarium. Later on kept in water for 8 days, washed several times before use. The moss is carefully spread on the flat stone fishing net is placed the ends held carefully together, the stone is turned on the other side with the moss and tied with a fisihng line.









Same with stainless steel mesh and this is the final result.



















The final result in an aquarium.


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## Exquizique (Nov 19, 2012)

Wow, thanks for the nice step-by-step with photos from a very appreciative newbie!!


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

very nice! Looking forward to seeing how it grows in for you.  Do you dose or anything for that tank?


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## RONY11 (Jan 6, 2011)

Ciddian said:


> very nice! Looking forward to seeing how it grows in for you.  Do you dose or anything for that tank?


Thanks for the compliments I do not dose ferts at all in this tank.


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

Thanks for the step by step, I'm setting up and redoing a few tanks now and will try to use super glue method. I have been doing the same thing as you up until now. Just want to try new ways to see how they work.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

You can also use plastic netting, rather than fishnet stockings. I take apart those bath puff things you can get almost anywhere. They come in assorted colours, but once the moss grows you won't see it no matter what colour it is. 

The puffs tend to be cheapest at dollar stores. Once the tie in the centre is cut, they provide around ten or twelve feet of soft plastic mesh that works well for metal mesh patches. The netting that river stones typically are packaged in works very well too, for holding moss onto metal mesh.


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## Playing God (Dec 13, 2012)

I prefer the rigid plastic mesh (called plastic canvas mesh) you can get from Michael's crafts store. It comes in 10" x 13" sheets for $1 each (all colours). holes about about 1/8" square.

I don't cover the moss in mesh as the moss trapped under the mesh tends to rot if not exposed to water. Instead, I stuff bits of moss through the holes and pull it through a bit just to keep the moss in place, eventually it attaches itself and spreads. Makes a great carpet. A few stones well placed will keep the mesh from floating...I use fishing line to tie pieces of mesh together to cover tank bottom.

Here's some pics of the interim stage as I was too cheap to buy enough for coverage. These pics are about 1.5 month or so after I bought a few sprigs of taiwan moss at Big Al's, (after separating the moss out twice for better coverage...) its just a glass bottom underneath the mesh- no gravel, so it collects as little garbage as possible seeing as taiwan moss doesn't have roots anyway)


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

I've used plastic canvas too.. it comes in a few sizes, but the commonest one is seven holes per inch. 

It bugs me because it tends to float unless weighted down with a piece of rock or something underneath. 

I got some nice SS mesh patches at Kim's awhile ago and discovered they are nearly all done with a plastic net of some kind, similar to the stuff I get from the bath puffs. It looks like hand tied fishing line when you first look at it. But it's just net, hooked over the edges of the open wire ends on the mesh. Works really well, and the spaces are larger than the canvas, so you can press the moss down and it won't get suffocated. Grows through in almost no time. 

I've also tried hair net, the sort they use for food service. While it will work, it has such large spaces that any small bits just float away. Be good for subwasstertang though, or the larger size of regular pellia too.


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## Playing God (Dec 13, 2012)

When I decide to change things up, maybe I'll switch from the plastic mesh to stainless steel. I'm a little leary about leaving large quantities of stainless steel in my tank over time as it will oxidize slowly (despite common belief) and I probably don't do enough water changes to compensate for that.

Where do you find the stainless steel mesh that you use? what is the hole size in the mesh (approx) or holes per inch? Do you know what grade of stainless it is? 316 stainless won't erode underwater, but the more common 18-8, 303 and 304 grades of stainless will. 
I definitely wouldn't trust stainless steel in brackish water tanks, but then I don't know many people trying to grow moss in those conditions anyway.


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