# 24 hr light/CO2 for moss?



## lawngnome (Aug 27, 2006)

I am planning on setting up a crs tank with lots of species of moss. I want the moss to grow out as much as possible before i add crs, so is it ok if i leave the lights and co2 on 24/7?


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

You might get some algae growing since moss grows relatively slow. I'd do maybe 16 hours on, 8 hours off.


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## Troy McClure (Aug 3, 2005)

I only have the light on my shrimp tank for 6 hours and my moss grows very fast (relative to moss growth rates.) The folks at the SWOAPE meeting this past Saturday can attest to the large amount of moss I brought. The tank is just a standard 10gal leader with 36W, no CO2, no water changes, only daily Excel and Flourish. When the same tank was over at my parent's house, there was no Excel or Flouish, and the lights might have only been on for 5 hours a day. The moss still grew exceptionally well. While I can't back it up scientifically, my experiences as of the past year have lead me to believe a longer photoperiod is not beneficial. If anything, you are going to have an algae outbreak like you wouldn't believe.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I 2nd Troy McClure's experience w/ moss and algae.


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## Burks (May 25, 2006)

I also heard moss grows faster at lower temperatures as well. It may be worth dropping the temp until you are ready to put the shrimp in.

Can't back it up but I will be trying this some time next year to just see how much of a difference it really makes.


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

I'll second that algae (thread) will dominate the moss. I tried this before once thinking the same thing, and wanting faster moss growth. 13 watts of light in a nano, on 24/7, moss floating. I think I had more thread algae than Java moss after 1 week.

-John N.


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## Troy McClure (Aug 3, 2005)

Burks said:


> I also heard moss grows faster at lower temperatures as well. It may be worth dropping the temp until you are ready to put the shrimp in.
> 
> Can't back it up but I will be trying this some time next year to just see how much of a difference it really makes.


Ah yes, I forgot about this. I don't use a heater either. I keep my house steady at 72*, so I don't use a heater on any of my tanks except the discus tank. I do have some spare heaters in case of an ick outbreak, but in 10+ years of fish keeping, I've never had that problem. One problem I had when I was still living at my parent's house was their stingy use of the air condition during the summer. As much as I complained, my tanks were often around 82*, sometimes higher, and some of my mosses died off, which then sparked lots of thread algae... I love central HVAC.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Yep, definitely noticed a difference with weeping/Taiwan/x-mass/java moss in respect to temperature.

Above 80 F they all seem to stagnate and die off. 67-75F is the temp that I saw the best moss growth.


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