Moss in non-CO2 tanks

Re: Moss in non-CO2 tanks

I know this is a very old post, but thought I'd mention my 10gal fry tank. It has low 1wpg light 10hrs perday, no CO2 added, no ferts added. It gets weekly >80% water changes. The fish load varies and a few small snails. The bottom of the tank is completely covered with java moss. I did not do this on purpose it was just a happy accident that it worked. I didn't even purposly add the java moss (must have caught a piece sometime when netting fry to move them to the tank and slowly over many months covered the bottom). Never had any noticable algae in the tank in over 2years.

I think the key to why it works is that the java moss is a slow growing low light plant. Since it is growing so slowly, it doesn't have a large demand for CO2 or ferts. I think the fish and snail waste plus the large water change from well water is all it needs.

This is my easiest tank from a maintenance standpoint.

 

Re: Moss in non-CO2 tanks

How do you keep the moss from getting all gunked up when it is all over the bottom of the tank?

 

Re: Moss in non-CO2 tanks

Hmmm, never thought about that. Maybe it's so thick I just cant see the gunked up part. It also could be that as this is my fry tank, it doesn't have gravel in the bottom. For the fry tank I set it up with an undergravel filter plate covered with filter foam. It stays pretty clean because any uneaton food that falls to the bottom doen't fall down into gravel, but stays on top of the filter foam where the fish can pick it clean at their leisure. There are aso some snails in the tank to help with cleanup. I have used a gravel vac in the past to pickup the stuff I tried to feed the fish and they either couldn't or wouldn't eat when trying something new. Java moss sticks very well to thos fuzzy sheets of filte foam. I recenlty plucked some to put in a new tank, and it was like pulling velcro apart.

The fry love it, when you look at the tank normally it looks empty with just a carpet of moss at the bottom, but add some food and the fry all come out of hiding in the moss.

 

Re: Moss in non-CO2 tanks

I have to add PO4 to any of my tanks that have 2 watts per gallon or more, but don't have to add any to the low light tanks. I have no measureable PO4 or NO3 in my hard well water.