Species of Moss: Which Is Most Suitable?

[mark4785]

My question is simply, what species of moss will grow in the following aquarium conditions:

PH: 6.6
Temperature: 27 degrees C
Lighting: 2x24w T5 HO 'life-glo' lights (Amazon frogbit segregate light source from water).
Dosing: EI-dosing; approximately 10ppm of nitrate and 2ppm of Phosphate added Mon,Wed,Fri. 10ml of TPN added Tue,Thur,Sat.
co2: Yes; Dennerle comfort range.

I have tried Riccia Fluitians and they turn brown and do not grow whatsoever.

Aquarium pictures:

 

[mark4785]

Any suggestions? :?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I like Amazon Frogbit, but looking at the pictures I think you may have over done it a bit and it is blocking all the light from the plants below. I'd try thinning it out a bit, probably down to 1/2 coverage, and try an easy moss like the true Java Moss (Taxiphyllum barbieri), youi can start by super-gluing it to the rocks if you don't want to add any wood, or you can leave it as an unattached mass, although it will eventually attach to anything that its rhizoids come into prolonged contact with.

cheers Darrrel

 

[mark4785]

Thank you for the suggestion!

I will definitely go for that sort of moss. I'm going to try and source more powerful T5 lights to see if this improves things; if that fails I'll remove some of the Frogbit.

 

[chilled84]

That happened to me with the frogbit yrs ago, lol. Become overun and couldnt even sell it fast enought lol, Everyone on here ended up with it, I had to waste hand fulls of it to the bin lol. Bugger of a plant once going, Great amonia indicator tho as the fluffy bits dont grow well in high amonia. I think anyway. Correct me if im wrong.

 

[mark4785]

That happened to me with the frogbit yrs ago, lol. Become overun and couldnt even sell it fast enought lol, Everyone on here ended up with it, I had to waste hand fulls of it to the bin lol. Bugger of a plant once going, Great amonia indicator tho as the fluffy bits dont grow well in high amonia. I think anyway. Correct me if im wrong.

I wouldn't know how to correct you as I'm not a scientist lol. I have seen the fluffy white strands that stick out horizontally from the root structure and I've never questioned why they only appear on a handful rather than all of them. As a guess I'd say the larger leafy one's with a lot of foilage and in the most light will form the fluffy bits for the purpose of drawing in as much nutrients as possible to continue growing; this makes logical sense to me but I don't know what type of nutrient they are relying on.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Great ammonia indicator though as the fluffy bits don't grow well in high ammonia. I think anyway. Correct me if im wrong.

No, you are right, I've found that both Nile Cabbage (Pistia) and Amazon Frogbit (Limnobium) shows a similar response to the level of nutrients in the water column, with low nutrient levels producing relatively smaller leaf rosettes, but fantastic large and "frilly" roots.

The classic work on the function of root hairs was actually done using Limnobium as the trial organism.
Gilroy, S. & Jones, D. (2000) "Through form to function: root hair development and nutrient uptake "
Trends in Plant Science 5:2 pp 56-60

Abstract:

Root hairs project from the surface of the root to aid nutrient and water uptake and to anchor the plant in the soil. Their formation involves the precise control of cell fate and localized cell growth. We are now beginning to unravel the complexities of the molecular interactions that underlie this developmental regulation. In addition, after years of speculation, nutrient transport by root hairs has been demonstrated clearly at the physiological and molecular level, with evidence for root hairs being intense sites of H+-ATPase activity and involved in the uptake of Ca2+, K+, NH4+, NO3-’, Mn2+, Zn2+, Cl-’ and H2PO4-.

cheers Darrel