Hello folks! I'm -sort of- new to the forum. I treated myself to a subscription just this week and I have been reading up on all of Tom's old newsletters (starting from the beginning). I am happy to say that most of it makes sense to me, coming from a biochemistry background. I'm still in school, but I feel sort of geeky when I read stuff that I know I could not understand without my education. 
All of this research I am doing is for a tank that I am planning. This will be my one and only tank, so I want to get things right.
I am a mossaholic and I already know I am going to do a fissidens fontanus carpet and a taiwan moss wall. I have all the moss in my current main tank, a 10 gallon low light tank. One thing I have been having problems with is that there is a ton of hair algae growing in my moss (which I unwisely ordered before I actually knew what to do with it) and some BBA on my leaves (it is pretty densely planted with stems). I thought the fact that I have low light would help prevent algae from growing, but it is possible that because of my inexperience that the light is actually a lot brighter than I think it is, and that I should start CO2.
One thing I am wondering about is will a dry start cure the moss of the algae?
And secondly, I would obviously like to prevent it from growing back. The light that I put over the new tank can be variable, as it is a DIY LED and will be programmed with an Arduino. So far in my adventures, snooping around the forum and stalking Tom's threads for advice, I have found that I can use the light to be the limiting factor in plant growth, and that making sure there is enough CO2 and nutrients will allow my plants to grow well and outcompete algae. I want to use moderate light so that I don't have plants growing out of my ears, but enough so that I can get thinks like hydrocotyle to grow in a more horizontal fashion than vertical.
However, my concern is that since the tank is mostly moss (I plan to keep a few stem species and hydrocotyle), moss will not compete with algae very well and that there will be too much room left for algae to thrive. Any suggestions on the matter?
I look back and realized I wrote a novel. Sorry if I included anything irrelevant or extraneous information. I'll try to keep things shorter.
All of this research I am doing is for a tank that I am planning. This will be my one and only tank, so I want to get things right.
I am a mossaholic and I already know I am going to do a fissidens fontanus carpet and a taiwan moss wall. I have all the moss in my current main tank, a 10 gallon low light tank. One thing I have been having problems with is that there is a ton of hair algae growing in my moss (which I unwisely ordered before I actually knew what to do with it) and some BBA on my leaves (it is pretty densely planted with stems). I thought the fact that I have low light would help prevent algae from growing, but it is possible that because of my inexperience that the light is actually a lot brighter than I think it is, and that I should start CO2.
One thing I am wondering about is will a dry start cure the moss of the algae?
And secondly, I would obviously like to prevent it from growing back. The light that I put over the new tank can be variable, as it is a DIY LED and will be programmed with an Arduino. So far in my adventures, snooping around the forum and stalking Tom's threads for advice, I have found that I can use the light to be the limiting factor in plant growth, and that making sure there is enough CO2 and nutrients will allow my plants to grow well and outcompete algae. I want to use moderate light so that I don't have plants growing out of my ears, but enough so that I can get thinks like hydrocotyle to grow in a more horizontal fashion than vertical.
However, my concern is that since the tank is mostly moss (I plan to keep a few stem species and hydrocotyle), moss will not compete with algae very well and that there will be too much room left for algae to thrive. Any suggestions on the matter?
I look back and realized I wrote a novel. Sorry if I included anything irrelevant or extraneous information.
I'll try to keep things shorter.