Moss substrate

[Brandon p]

Ok I got my Shippment of moss yesterday. I was a little disappointed but I was a friend and did his best. I received 3 different types of moss. 1 is a Beautiful green and was in nice 6”x6” pieces. The second looked like it was growing in some pine needles and not tight together. I tried to soak this to get the needles to float to skim them off. It worked a little. The issue is the moss is growing through the needles and they are basically they same. The third is similar I what I have here already. What I did I’d set up the undergravel and laid the moss in the tank. Added about 5 inches of water. The pieces that were tight and in one piece are great and I think I’m going to call and get more to do the whole tank. However for the time being since it’s a learning experience I’m going to Lear. I have enough water so that the green moss which is heavier that the pine needles. I hope that the needles will float. I’m going to make some trees today as well. I don’t halve the undergravel running because I want the needles to  float. Pics1,23 are all the same side with the moss in tight pieces

These last two are the moss with the needles. I the pic is not great but you can see some green. In the last one you can see the needles starting to float.  I’m not done and I will basically have to do this all again. I just didnt have a tub to float the moss. I plan on putting a course filter between the moss  and the undergravel . I might be changing my mind though. The moss that is in the tight big pieces is like a course filter. Thoughts.

Top pic is the one that is nicer of the t2 I showed. The next pic is the best of moss with the needles in it. It doesn’t lol bad until it gets underwater. Then the next to each other.

Edited March 8, 2022 by Brandon p

[Fish Folk]

I'll look forward to seeing its durability. I know it may need to transition to immersed . . . be patient!

[Brandon p]

I tha e done it on a small scale in my 20 gallon. It did well in that tank but tha one only has about 10 neons in it, at least 2 black loaches I never(rarely), a few. Pygmy corys and about 50 ghost shrimp. The shrimp started of as food for some small Angel I had in there at one time and now they multiply. It also has and old school undergravel filter. That on also has moss I collected from my yard. I don’t have much so about 1sq” at was added. Last it’s right in front of a window that gets faces west. At one point the whole bottom was moss. I have robbed piece here and there. There are a couple of big balls in the 75 and the betta tanks have some as well. .

[Brandon p]

Side project, Moss Trees. I do these for friends or my own. Some have lasted 3year when I started them others don’t. 

the finished tree of the pic before last.

Edited March 9, 2022 by Brandon p

[Odd Duck]

@Brandon p That’s some BEAUTIFUL moss!  I especially like the very fine-leaved stuff that looks kind of like a tiny pine forest from an airplane.  Here’s to hoping it transitions well for you!

[Brandon p]

Yes I made a call and my friend is going to try to find enough  for the whole tank. I can use the othe for a smaller tank and trees along with coconut. We have so many coconut  where I live it it’s crazy. The thing is it’s there are supper cheap to buy and opening wild coconuts is harder work than the make it seem on tv.

[Brandon p]

So I got a call from my friend and he can’t get my more of the moss that I liked but he found some at a nursery. He order me some and I now know the mane of it. It is called hair cap moss. I also received the filter material I was going to place over the under gravel and the moss on top. Now I’m debating putting in the filter. It is a very course filter 15 even if the pics don’t show it well. I think I’m leaning towards still placing the filter down. If anyone has any reasons to do it or not to speak now. 

[Brandon p]

Update: do nothing much has happened in the tank yet the moss is looking well. I did put about a 1/2 dozen mystery snails in to help clean up all the pine Needles and moss debris the moss hade attacked. Yes I may have been able to rinse it of but there was nothing holing the type together. He said there were 4 kinds of moss in the box, I could only tell the difference between the two. I will say the hair cap moss I still like, the kind on the right side looking at the tank, but now the snails and my higher ph water helped break down the needles it has greened up more and I think I may use it in the mini discus tank or Sterbai Cory tank. Plus I’ll still have some to make trees. I ordered a few things before I take out the unknown moss. I had to types of UGF in the tank. One was the ones that have the v type grate. The othe was the flat type. Since I ordered moss to match the tank I ordered a new half of the v type. I also order small power head for the lift tubes. That does for in the tank. I ordered pieces of Lexan and hinges to make a top for that tank and one other. The new moss will be here Thursday or Friday. So I should have an update then. I’ll try to remember. I had my heart attack a few weeks ago and now my father just had two stints put in his heart. I told him at least he did have to die to get his. He was in the hospital for a major back surgery and after week of recovery his daily ekg and blood test came back a little ha ha. So they Took him to the Cath Lab today and decided he needed stand so they just did it right then so he was in the right place the hospital I guess is the best place to be.

I do have two things to ask.one does anyone know how to get hard water, Ca,and salt streak off the front of the outside the tank. I plan on setting a camera up so you can watch moss grow. Second what should we stock this with. I have extra angelfish, but I have lots of angelfish. I was thinking some type of Cory, plecos( I have a pair leopard frog pleco coming just not sure where im going to put them). Discus, I’m not sure I haven’t had rainbows. The tank is going very green with moss and trees made of moss. Silver dollars I love. Clown loaches maybe I’m worried about snails. I’m wide open to ideas I was more thinking  about the moss and UGF. No guppies or mollies I have a bunch of guppies. Rams, apstios, who knows.

Whole Tank, you can see we here the divide is about 1/3 on the righ is hair capHair Cap Moss, you can see some green on the left about 1” about the rest. The brown on the righ is the same but a few days olderwhere the moss types meetThe other moss is greener than when we started. Now learning more about the mosses and how these to grow this many be the better long term moss. I’m going to make a moss slurry with some of this and paint it on a cypress knee.

Edited May 13, 2022 by Brandon p
Left on thing out

[Brandon p]

Update: sorry have not I have not updated. The new Hair cap moss came into about 16 inches high. I have been slowly trimming a little at a  time.  If you cut it down to far in the brown it it looks dead but some has greened up but some has not. I will tried to post pictures at the end of the week I started cardiac rehabilitation yesterday and have it today. Wednesday I see the cardiologist

[Brandon p]

I had a set back with the moss tank. The talll haircap moss is just to tall and doesn’t like to be trimmed. The left side of the tank looks great but the right side has moss over half of the tank. The snails I put in love it and I broke a tank and had to put two pairs of breeding ing ang fish. I am currently in contact with the company to find a moss that will work. I think we have figured it out. I wish I was a ligh more north were there is more close growing moss right on the ground. I lost my moss at the house a new guy from the lawn service sprayed it with round-up.. The piece on the ground was 16 inches high. I the fist pic the moss with All most on the right size has grow but trimming it causes it to died but the trimmings do grow I have to tanks with triming that have  really grown in that two other tank I have put the in. I had extra and put it a guppies tank and the produce like crazy, I think because most fry survive in the moss that is from bottom to top. Hopefully I have this fixed. I love the left side the moss has grown some but most sideways.the clumps you see in the last picture are coconuts shells that were bridges.  I was doing some thing and sat the to the left. So that’s were I am with that. I am learning to take care of the talk moss. If you want to about that I would be happe to answer. I should have left it with the different types of moss. There was no real wait time. I put it in the tank and it started growing. I grows slower than on land.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Brandon p

[Brandon p]

Ok I just moved the moss substrate tank to a new stand an one that will allow me to build 4 55g on two rows but for now it just on 55 next to the other. The water is to cloudy to take pics today but I had to move it. There are a pair of angelfish that are amazing that had just laid so maybe they will hatch them. So I also a pair of pandas cories in the tall moss. I haven’t seen them in six months. I found about 15 baby cories in the tall moss. I used the extra tall moss in my other angelfish breeder with the double black. In the tall moss there was about 30 more babies in the second tank. Just a quick up date 

[Brandon p]

The water is starting to clear and I think by tomorrow it will be much better the angelfish are still are for the eggs a little. There are a few bad eggs but I normally I see them remove those at night. I also placed the a pair of panda Cories back in. From the two tanks there were 53 panda fry in about 3 stages of age. 

[Guppysnail]

ORD 😍😍😍 I loved catching up on your journal.  Thank you for sharing!

[Brandon p]

Ok, things started well, but I don’t think this is going to work. I don’t think that it’s a problem with the idea, but the type of moss. If you have been following you know that the first moss I got had several types of moss in the box. After a short time time I felt one type of moss was working that was hair cap moss. After a longer period of time it turns out the several of the other types of moss that came in the first order are working better. I actually know this works I have 20 I will show but it is in a window and gets all the sun it could need. I have good lights on the 55gal. Again sorry for the colors. The glass is pretty cloudy because I got this and another 55gal as breeder tank on Craigslist for $10. this is the right side of the tank if you go back to the top it would have been on the left. I had to move tank. The moss in the purple circle is from my yard. You can actually see the weeds that were growing when I put it in about 2 weeks ago. This is what is on the bottom of the the 20 gal. This moss changes like most plants that grow on land and under water. This moss grow slow but and I don’t much in this area to don’t 10 gal tank. I have this growing in a few tanks and I never take all the moss from the yard. The weed will grow in the tank if I don’t remove them. The roots on the weeds Shrink and pull out east with out breaking the moss apart. In two more weeks it will be very easy to get out. The red circle is a type of moss that worked the best but I can’t find the type of moss and the company I got it from could not ID 

this is the left formally the right side. This is the side that had the tall moss. The blue circle is a third type of moss from the variety pack. It has dont well but it gets bushy and it depends on the fish And other livening things in the tank. I have 2 pairs of breeding angels and one pair of panda corys along with mystery snails. In The bristlenose plecos don’t seem to care for the moss. The apistos seem to keep the moss in the blue circle short or pushed down. The last green is the tall hair cap moss. It seems to be dead except a few small areas. I did find something surprising. The green circled moss it was all over the left side of the tank. When I moved the tank I removed some the hair cap moss. I set in a bucket. I went to put the moss in the tank and looked down and there was about 10 panda corys. I when through all the moss in the tank and found over 40 more. I counted to 50. I was surprised because I have never had that many in a few months. So I moved some of the hair cap moss to my panda Cory breeding tank. And moved some the extra moss from the right to the left.this the 20 gal and it is hard to get a good pic of the bottom. You can see 2 of the moss trees I made withe the moss from the home. It gets bushy but stays short. I try for a better pic. 

[Brandon p]

I am going to try this a again with a short growing moss ground moss.