Jellopuddinpop
Active Member
Hi everyone,
In my new build, I’m planning on using a lot of epiphytes and mosses. I’m looking for some tips and tricks to controlling moss, or any other feedback you might have that would help.
For some background, some plants I got from a different hobbyist must have had some Christmas Moss on it (maybe Peacock?), and it managed to take root on my tank. I had originally thought that it was some kind of cladophora, so I physically tore out as much as I could, spot treated with Excel, and moved on. Within a couple of months, it had popped up EVERYWHERE. I went so far as to pull every plant from the tank, clean them all off, scrub every rock with a toothbrush, and replant, and it came back stronger than ever. This is one of the primary reasons for the full teardown and re-scape I’m doing. The only culprits that could carry this moss to the new build would be the filters, and I’m replumbing all of my hoses and pipes to try to reduce that exposure as well. This is all out war!!
With all of that said, I would really like to have moss on a few of these branches in strategic places. I came up with a plan for trimming, where I will run a small canister filter and attach the inlet to a pair of scissors. The filter will suck up any pieces of moss as they’re cut, so that should help prevent it from spreading. Other than that, how do you stop moss from slowly invading the rest of the tank? It feels like once it’s worked its way into some little crack or crevice, it’s in there for good.
Here’s the question… to those of you who keep moss in your tanks, is this just a fact of life that you have to deal with? How do you keep moss from overrunning the tank?
In my new build, I’m planning on using a lot of epiphytes and mosses. I’m looking for some tips and tricks to controlling moss, or any other feedback you might have that would help.
For some background, some plants I got from a different hobbyist must have had some Christmas Moss on it (maybe Peacock?), and it managed to take root on my tank. I had originally thought that it was some kind of cladophora, so I physically tore out as much as I could, spot treated with Excel, and moved on. Within a couple of months, it had popped up EVERYWHERE. I went so far as to pull every plant from the tank, clean them all off, scrub every rock with a toothbrush, and replant, and it came back stronger than ever. This is one of the primary reasons for the full teardown and re-scape I’m doing. The only culprits that could carry this moss to the new build would be the filters, and I’m replumbing all of my hoses and pipes to try to reduce that exposure as well. This is all out war!!
With all of that said, I would really like to have moss on a few of these branches in strategic places. I came up with a plan for trimming, where I will run a small canister filter and attach the inlet to a pair of scissors. The filter will suck up any pieces of moss as they’re cut, so that should help prevent it from spreading. Other than that, how do you stop moss from slowly invading the rest of the tank? It feels like once it’s worked its way into some little crack or crevice, it’s in there for good.
Here’s the question… to those of you who keep moss in your tanks, is this just a fact of life that you have to deal with? How do you keep moss from overrunning the tank?
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