# Java moss emersed problem



## Joseph Elliott

I am having a little bit of difficulty with my emersed java moss. A little background first I guess, I had the java moss in a low light tank that wasn't doing much and when I broke it down I decided to try java moss emersed. At the beginning of February I placed the moss sparingly across damp potting soil and it took off for the first 3 weeks or so, great growth and covered the containers I was in. At that point I decided to split it up one container into a bunch of small deli cups and placed some into one of my terrariums. 

The moss didnt do much after that, growth has been very slight and some of the cultures look like they are dying off including spots in the terrarium and spots in the second original container. The original container is a large rubbermaid with cling wrap over most of the top to allow high humidity and some air exchange, the terrarium is an old glass fish tank with cling wrap over top to hold humidity with a couple holes poked in it (the other plants are doing awesome in it - ferns, ivy, palms etc), and the deli cups were sealed and then a few holes added with a pin. 

Yesterday i used a soldering iron and put a decent sized hole in each of the deli cups since I figured that CO2 is probably my limiting factor. The lighting hasnt changed since I am using the same lights that I started the original cultrue with and the deli cups are the same distance away.

What confuses me is that if CO2 is the limiting factor then why am I having trouble with the original container and the terrarium? Both of those have ventilation and decent air exchange. The sections that are dying are small - about an inch across.

Could it be a fertilizer issue? I wouldn't think so since the moss was growing with significantly less nutrients in the fish tank.

Any ideas would be appreciated.
Joseph


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## davemonkey

What about nutrition? Any chance the moss absorbed the available nutrients off the soil surface that it was in contact with and no it is just hungry? Also, in emersed culture, there is always the possibility of fungal attacks on plants/moss.


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## barclaya

some of my plant the leaf going brown/ dirty like. and when I touch/scrub it with my finger it smell like dirty filter floss. it infected my rotala wallichii( the bottom part look dirty unhealthy) , water sprite, baby tear dwarf and more. any body know, what is the cause?


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## Joseph Elliott

I'm not sure it may just be hungry, should I mix up a batch of ferts at full strength or heavily diluted? It could be fungal but I havent noticed any fungi.


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## Joseph Elliott

Update, feeding only created an algae bloom, I tried different levels of air exchange, some had the lids completely removed and then varying degrees down to a single hole in the side of the container, no visible difference in growth. In fact growth has stopped completely. Today I am changing out the lights to a bulb with a different spectrum to see if that makes a difference. Any other suggestions?

Pictures to give you an idea


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## Joseph Elliott

Could the cause of my stunted moss growth be temperature? The basement has a constant ambient temp of 62F, when the lights are on the temp of the containers is about 70F. Does java moss have a preferred temperature range?


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## kerokero

What is the temp of the containers themselves? It may be as simple as putting those containers on heat mats. My terrestrially grown mosses are in tanks ranging in the lower 70s to low 80s - ranges you're talking about would definitely stunt the growth. These guys grow in almost any light, so I doubt that's the issue because they just aren't that picky.

When I get the semi-aquatic mosses to acclimate to a terrarium setting I usually put them in a container where the substrate is a little lower at one end. I then take the water level up to the substrate level, so that the lowest side is basically a shallow pond. I'll put the clump of moss at the water's edge so that there are a good number of strands wicking lots of water to the strands out of the water. The wet strands wick to the rest of the clump, so the whole clump stays happy, and it will start spreading like crazy.

Having the whole clump just sitting out of water has produced poor results for me, and starting them straight on a muddy substrate also has as well - not that I've not gotten it to do that in terrariums, but I usually started it elsewhere and it spread there in it's attempt at tank domination! Oddly enough the best growth results have been on rocks, driftwood, and gravel substrates. I've also had luck recently with growing it over aquasoil as a start, it seems to like the substrates that allow some air/water flow when really getting established. I give patches of java/taiwan/peacock moss to friends for poison frog tanks and tell them to just put it in aquasoil side down


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