Natural Uk Mosses in the planted Aquarium

[carlw]

 

[carlw]

Hi everyone.

I live up in West Yorkshire near to Saddleworth moor and was given a 50 litre tank a few weeks ago from my brother. I used to keep tropical fish some years back and attempted to grow a carpet of grass and moss etc but without much of a success rate. Had the c02 going and all the rest..

Anyway as I say I live out in the sticks a bit and went down to my local river the other day with a big bag and collected quite a few different types of mosses to experiment with. Ive got perhaps about 4-6 moss types from on wet rocks in the river and also from fallen tree trunks, as well as a couple of plants that were growing in the wet environment by the river.

Its all been in the tank since the 28th of February 2016 with the light set to 8 hours a day and a filter running. Also a heater that on the first day set to 18 degrees and the next up to 21 degrees. Its now the second and everything is still alive for the time being. If some survive im going to make a proper aquascape etc..

 

[Aqua360]

Hi everyone.

I live up in West Yorkshire near to Saddleworth moor and was given a 50 litre tank a few weeks ago from my brother. I used to keep tropical fish some years back and attempted to grow a carpet of grass and moss etc but without much of a success rate. Had the c02 going and all the rest..

Anyway as I say I live out in the sticks a bit and went down to my local river the other day with a big bag and collected quite a few different types of mosses to experiment with. Ive got perhaps about 4-6 moss types from on wet rocks in the river and also from fallen tree trunks, as well as a couple of plants that were growing in the wet environment by the river.

Its all been in the tank since the 28th of February 2016 with the light set to 8 hours a day and a filter running. Also a heater that on the first day set to 18 degrees and the next up to 21 degrees. Its now the second and everything is still alive for the time being. If some survive im going to make a proper aquascape etc..

That's cool, good luck!

 

[parotet]

Hi Carlw

Subscribed, I love this kind of projects with native species. However my advice would be to get rid of your heater... I can well imagine the temperature of the water when you collected your mosses. These are not tropical species as the ones we commonly use in the hobby and they live much happier in cool waters. I live in the Mediterranean with water temperatures in our rivers (lowland) that could be perfectly classified as subtropical and I have never been very successful keeping native species on the longterm. Take for example Fontinalys antypirectica, a moss that can be found in our rivers. I can grow it successfully in my tanks but it only flourishes in the winter months (I don't use heaters in my tanks) when the average temperature of the tank is 18-21ºC... if the temperature is higher the moss survive but it is clearly its worst moment. It actually happens with tropical mosses, they grow much better at cooler temperatures.

Jordi

 

[Jamie McGrath]

nice work.

 

[Elliot Downs]

Very interested to see how this turns out!

 

[carlw]

 

[carlw]

Just an update a week later of the various mosses I got from my local river. Although it has been cold in the river the mosses have been in the tank now for a week at 21 degrees Celsius and many are showing signs of growth!, particularly the small plant near the bottom center of the attached image. Im wondering if im going to have to give them some kind of feed/nutrients at some point although many are still on the same rocks I picked them up attached to.

my plan is to leave it for perhaps a few more weeks to see how it goes remove it and rearrange how I want it with a few nooks and crannies, etc.

I think ill remove a buckets worth of water and replace it today also.

I hope it all lives!