# moss growth and temperature



## holocron (Mar 12, 2006)

Hi there,

just wondering if anyone here has moss growing in their tanks where the temperature is over 28C?

for some reason moss just doesn't like to grow in my tank. The temp is 28.5C


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Why is your tank so hot? I think they grow best around 24C - 26C. Maybe you aren't fertilizing them enough...

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## holocron (Mar 12, 2006)

i am guessing its the temp, because I could grow moss last year (before the discus) quite well.


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## Grey Legion (Mar 20, 2006)

My Java Moss is growing like mad  

I keep my 135G at about 79F and offer plants 10 hours of 6700K light per day, I use little to no ferts and no CO2.

I am actually going to have to pull a bunch out, I noticed lastnight I have a HUGE batch growing in my filter inlet !?!


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## holocron (Mar 12, 2006)

nice, I am perhaps just over the threshold for moss, running at 83F. I'm not sure I am comfortable lowering it because of the discus. I am guess I am stuck. Good reason to start a cube tank!


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## Grey Legion (Mar 20, 2006)

Is the moss in oyur tank dying off or just growing at a very slow rate ??

Is it turn brown or getting all stringy ??

How is your water movement near the moss, do you ever groom it ( shake all the crud out of it ) 

and lastly not that it is a big factor for moss but what are you using for lighting and how deep is your tank ??


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## holocron (Mar 12, 2006)

It's just stagnant. It's not really browning, and its not really growing. You can see some buds on it, but again its very slow. Algae seems to over take it before it can flourish. There is good movement near the moss, so that shouldn't be an issue. I also brush it from time to time to get the crud out, but the thread algae is really hard to remove since it pulls the moss apart.

My tank is 18" deep with about 2-3" of substrate. I have a 192 watt light on a 50g tank.. should definitely be enough lighting.



Grey Legion said:


> Is the moss in oyur tank dying off or just growing at a very slow rate ??
> 
> Is it turn brown or getting all stringy ??
> 
> ...


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## ranmasatome (Mar 14, 2006)

Cold water is essential for anything else besides java moss...
Best to get it down to below 27degrees celcius.. 
I;ve grown them in waters around 21-24.. Grows extremely fast!!


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## holocron (Mar 12, 2006)

here is the moss in question:


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## ranmasatome (Mar 14, 2006)

its hard to tell what it is when you dont go close and look at them.. made harder by its not so healty form.. cant really say..i would guess christmas??


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## holocron (Mar 12, 2006)

yeah its xmas moss.


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## Plant Crazy (Mar 24, 2006)

Hey holocron,

My main planted tank is running between 28 to 29 deg Celsius, and I've found that this higher temperature range doesn't seem to adversely affect the growth of my mosses (Taiwan and Singapore types, I think). Two factors that seem to help out growth are: 1- lots of water movement; 2- lots of lighting. Your lighting sounds more than sufficient. Do you have the moss in an area of high water movement? The thread algae could also be choking out your moss?


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## holocron (Mar 12, 2006)

hmm well, that kind of changes things 

yeah its definitely in high light, and as far as water flow, I'm not sure about that one. I moved the moss yesterday right in the line of fire of the flow and light, so we'll see if it takes off. I did see hundreds of buds on it yesterday, so maybe it's finally decided to grow out.

Thanks for the advice!


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## 66 north (Apr 10, 2006)

I recently lowered the temperature in one of my tanks from 82F down the 72-74F. I keep weeping moss in the tank and found it wasn't dieing or doing particularly well. Since lowering the temperature it is doing much better. Although it's under different lighting the same moss in my lower temperature tank has always done better. I think there might be something to this idea.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

I wanted to see if the water movment would help out and i did three things.. 
I have some Java sitting in a rather low current tank but with increased light, no heater.. Noticed some new bright growth.
Second... Tank with no change to light but placed moss under Powerhead output, heater 82 degrees... Lots of new growth!

Free floating java moss, tumbling (beside high output bubbles), low light no heater... Nothing to note at this time.. Looks the same.  

Neat to know


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## Plant Crazy (Mar 24, 2006)

*Short article on mosses*

Glad to hear that you're getting lots of new growth! I'm still not sure why, but they definitely do like the current and higher lighting.

Here's a short article talking about different types of moss, for anyone that's interested:

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/plants/Leong_Mosses.html


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## holocron (Mar 12, 2006)

well, now I have a new theory. I recently took the peat insert out of my cannister filter because I gave up on toninas and low and behold my xmas moss is now EXPLODING with buds. It's literally like a xmas tree with little green lights on the tips.

not sure what the peat was doing, but it certainly slowed the moss growth.


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## Plant Crazy (Mar 24, 2006)

Hey holocron, that's a very interesting observation. Wonder if it's the low pH that did it? What was the pH of your tank when you had the peat moss? Another explanation might be that some organics being released from the peat moss acted as a growth inhibitor. Nevertheless, glad to hear that your moss has taken off!


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## holocron (Mar 12, 2006)

my ph went as low as 6.3 with the peat without it hovers around 6.7.

Not sure exactly what the deal is, maybe is the peat I used, I am pretty stumped on this one. I asked on APC didn't really get a response.

<shurgs>


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## Plant Crazy (Mar 24, 2006)

Well, it probably isn't the pH at least. My tank is usually at 6.4 to 6.5 (will be more stable once my pH controller arrives!). Must be something leached by the peat inhibits growth then. Ah well, we may never figure this one out.


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