"Moss Mountain"

Hi all.

This one's for the moss heads amongst us 😉

After many hold ups for one reason or another, I have finally got round to uploading pics of my latest lo tech, low budget project called "Moss Mountain". Part of the delay was that I have to strip out the hardware to take the photo's as the spraybar casts an awful shadow on the light background.
This is going to be a lo tech moss and shrimp only tank. I know a1matt has been waiting anxiously for this 😉 .
It has now been running for 3 weeks with mature media from one of my other filters.
So I've taken the plunge and introduced some cherries to get things started.

Tank specs (forgot to do this on my last journal 😳 ).
60l
1wpg 6 hours per day
No Co2
Tetratec EX600 filter
running at 24 degrees C
Ferts: very little.

Flora (I'm working on the latin names 😳 )
Mosses
Taiwan Moss (Thanks to a1matt for a generous portion of this)
Singapore Moss (not sure of the true identity of this one 🙄 )
Spiky Moss
Flame Moss
Weeping Moss
Fissidens Fontanus (Thanks to LondonDragon for this, it came with his cherry shrimp )

Liverworts
Monosolenium tenerum (Thanks to a1matt)
Lomariopsis lineata (Thanks to a1matt)

Fauna
Currently only 6 Cherry shrimp.

It has only been planted for 3 weeks, so lots of growing in to do.

So on to the pics.

Front shot (algae wafers against the front glass 🙄 )



Shot from above



No.1 Spiky Moss
No.2 SIngapore Moss
No.3 Weeping Moss
No.4 Lomariopsis Lineata
No.5 Monosolenium Tenerum
No.6 Taiwan Moss
No.7 Flame Moss
No.8 Fissidens Fontanus

Looking in from the right hand end.



Finally, a couple of shots of the residents.



Dining on an algae wafer.



Needless to say, this is going to be a slow growing affair, so I'll probably only post up new pics once a month, although that said, the Flame Moss has started to straighten itself up and the Fissidens is just starting to pop up through the stainless steel mesh 😀 .

I would like to say a big thank you to a1matt for his mosses and liverworts, and LondonDragon for his Fissidens (and suggestion 😉 ).

Hope you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed setting it up 😀 .

Hi guys

Thanks for all the nice comments.

andyh said:

This looks great! It has amazing potential!

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Thanks Andy. I'm quite looking forward to this slow growing, low maintenance affair 😀

andyh said:

You have some serious moss in there, you may want to get some more shrimp as they will help clean the moss of debris

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That's the plan, lots of shrimp.

ghostsword said:

I for sure will like to see this one develop..

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Thanks Luis

ghostsword said:

take a pic a week and post...

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If I must

SteveUK said:

Nice one Chris! Great slate arrangement That's a lot of moss! This will be a little gem when it matures

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Thanks Steve. I hope so too, although I hope we're not in a rush 😉

FishBeast said:

Can't wait to see iot grow in mate.

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Thanks Fishbeast, neither can I.

mlgt said:

Good work mate. Where have you fit this in then in the house ?

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It's in the same room as the other low tech planted tank that you saw................I need a bigger house

mlgt said:

I think it will look great once its all grown in. Well done for taking the plunge and doing it. I know we talked about it last year when we met at LW.

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Yeah, finally took the plunge, but plenty of time to plan 😀 .

mlgt said:

Take a snap shot every week and then at the end of the year, put it together using windows moviemaker and then you will have a photo video.

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Thanks Rik.
Never thought of doing that, might give it a try.

Thanks again for all the nice comments.
Right...............................now where's a1matt .

Hi guys

Hi Matt
Glad you liked it 😀

a1Matt said:

Nice one doing the index of the mosses as well.
Appeals nicely to my geeky nature.

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Appeals to your geeky nature eh.
I only done the list for myself cos I just know I will eventually forget what I put where

mlgt said:

Good choice of rocks, but have you thought about raising the substrate at the back to create a tiered effect from the back?

This will also give you more height at the back and give a sloping effect from the front

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Hi Rik
Check out the third photo in the opening post. I couldn't have sloped that more If I tried. I admit the front view looks a bit flat in the photo but boy that's a serious slope on the substrate.
Any higher and the tall rock obstructs the spraybar at the top of the tank .

mlgt said:

a1Matt wrote:
CeeJay wrote:
Flora (I'm working on the latin names )
Mosses

CeeJay wrote:
Liverworts
Monosolenium tenerum (Thanks to a1matt)
Lomariopsis lineata (Thanks to a1matt)



Good! I get the hump when people call these liverworts round pellia and pellia. 'Cos they just ain't pellia!


I think possibly this stuck with Chris and he remembered

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It did , and as Matt was kind enough to supply it, the least I could do was call it by it's right name :lol

Thanks guys.

Hi all

LondonDragon said:

Looking great Chris, I like how you rearranged it a little, looking better than I could imagine it on the phone photo.
If you need some more fissidens let me know or shrimp haha

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Thanks LD, as you can see I took up one of your suggestions
I may be on your case for some shrimp sooner than you think

nelson said:

that looks great chris.after seeing darrens,i'd love to do a moss tank.just don't know if i have the patience .
glad you went for it .

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Thanks nelson. I'm hoping that will be the beauty of this tank, low maintenance. Of course patience plays a part, but I have one hi tech and one low tech planted to keep me occupied, so I won't be dipping my hands in this one so often 😀, apart from the odd haircut, but that's a long way off yet.

zig said:

Nice rockwork Chris the slates work well.

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Thanks Peter. That's praise indeed coming from someone of your calibre.
I have to say your HC Mountainscapes just blew me away. Inspirational (as if you hadn't guessed). I have since seen a couple of German moss scapes which were awesome on a similar theme, and I thought.... I want one of those 🙄.
The thing that finally made me get up and do something about it was a UKAPS meet at Living Waters. There is one moss tank there that is simply stunning.
You can see it here at the bottom of page 10
MA @ Morden and Living Waters visit

Once again thanks for all your comments, well chuffed 😀.