First Time Planting 5.5 Gallon; Please Help

[AnimalKrazed]

Hi all, pleased to join this part of the forum. This is the first time I have tried for plants in the aquarium, so I am sticking with relatively easy/low light plants. I figure I will post what plants I have added to the tank before asking for your advice. Currently I have stocked my aquarium with two marimo moss balls, which have been in for nine days so far.

Five days ago I got myself a Banana Lily plant that is doing great so far (it's budded off two new leaves so far in my tank and starting a third I think), and seven strands of Bacopa that all came together. The Bacopa is something I have been struggling with keeping in the sand, but I did see white rootlets starting to grow and bright green on the top most leaves on the planted portions of some of the strands when I cleaned the tank today. Do you guys have any advice for keeping the trouble making strands in the sand? I'm beginning to think that maybe I should just tie down a couple of the strands to a chunk of driftwood and bury that in the sand.

I run the 5.5 gallon with a ReefSun 10w light. It was the closest I could get to the two watts per gallon advised by the threads I found here. I also got myself a fertilizer today, Flourish Comprehensive Supplement, because I want to make sure that the tank does well. This looked like the most all purpose of all the ferts at the LFS for a water gardener NEWB like me. If you want to know more about the tank itself, here is a link to a thread I have on it.

Today I got myself a little bundle of Java Moss. It was in a 1-2-Grow container and I figured that must be doing well since all I could see was the green of the moss from my position looking down into the cup. I brought it home and now I don't think it was doing too well, since it was yellowing at the bottom of the strands. When I looked it up online, I am seeing that everyone agrees that yellowing is a really bad sign in Java Moss. Here is a picture.

Do you guys think that the moss is salvageable? I read on a couple threads that if I separated the green portions from the yellow bits that the green would grow it back. Could I do that with this?

Thanks for reading through all of this. Any help that you can provide me is appreciated.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Hi all, pleased to join this part of the forum. This is the first time I have tried for plants in the aquarium, so I am sticking with relatively easy/low light plants. I figure I will post what plants I have added to the tank before asking for your advice. Currently I have stocked my aquarium with two marimo moss balls, which have been in for nine days so far.

Five days ago I got myself a Banana Lily plant that is doing great so far (it's budded off two new leaves so far in my tank and starting a third I think), and seven strands of Bacopa that all came together. The Bacopa is something I have been struggling with keeping in the sand, but I did see white rootlets starting to grow and bright green on the top most leaves on the planted portions of some of the strands when I cleaned the tank today. Do you guys have any advice for keeping the trouble making strands in the sand? I'm beginning to think that maybe I should just tie down a couple of the strands to a chunk of driftwood and bury that in the sand.

I run the 5.5 gallon with a ReefSun 10w light. It was the closest I could get to the two watts per gallon advised by the threads I found here. I also got myself a fertilizer today, Flourish Comprehensive Supplement, because I want to make sure that the tank does well. This looked like the most all purpose of all the ferts at the LFS for a water gardener NEWB like me. If you want to know more about the tank itself, here is a link to a thread I have on it.

Today I got myself a little bundle of Java Moss. It was in a 1-2-Grow container and I figured that must be doing well since all I could see was the green of the moss from my position looking down into the cup. I brought it home and now I don't think it was doing too well, since it was yellowing at the bottom of the strands. When I looked it up online, I am seeing that everyone agrees that yellowing is a really bad sign in Java Moss. Here is a picture.

Do you guys think that the moss is salvageable? I read on a couple threads that if I separated the green portions from the yellow bits that the green would grow it back. Could I do that with this?

Thanks for reading through all of this. Any help that you can provide me is appreciated.

Java grows like a weed. If you have any smaller bits that are green you can just sit them in a container on a window sil and they will grow out. I brought a cupful ages ago and just have it in my goldfish tank in a small container under the a single t5 light and it's tripled in size. Just make sure u pull it out and move it around to stop it from getting to thick or the undersides will die out.

Same goes for when it's in a tank. Don't let the top get too thick or it will block the light for the under side and start to die. I'd remove any yellow bits

 

[AnimalKrazed]

Java grows like a weed. If you have any smaller bits that are green you can just sit them in a container on a window sil and they will grow out. I brought a cupful ages ago and just have it in my goldfish tank in a small container under the a single t5 light and it's tripled in size. Just make sure u pull it out and move it around to stop it from getting to thick or the undersides will die out.

Same goes for when it's in a tank. Don't let the top get too thick or it will block the light for the under side and start to die. I'd remove any yellow bits

Thanks for the advice. I have pulled it all out and did some snipping. After the snipping, I moved it over to a gallon thing of water over by a window. The gallon has a small LED light beaming on it constantly, which I think might help. Not entirely sure that having the LED on it 24/7 will help with growing the Java Moss out or not, I am assuming it will but if not I'll just turn it off. It's currently just sitting, temp wise, at 74 degrees F, but since I just moved it over to the window I'm expecting that temp will have dropped by morning. It already is starting to look healthier.

Thanks again for the advice Bert2oo1.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Thanks for the advice. I have pulled it all out and did some snipping. After the snipping, I moved it over to a gallon thing of water over by a window. The gallon has a small LED light beaming on it constantly, which I think might help. Not entirely sure that having the LED on it 24/7 will help with growing the Java Moss out or not, I am assuming it will but if not I'll just turn it off. It's currently just sitting, temp wise, at 74 degrees F, but since I just moved it over to the window I'm expecting that temp will have dropped by morning. It already is starting to look healthier.

Thanks again for the advice Bert2oo1.

Yea temp isn't overly important (as long as it's not ice cold) people say Java actually grows better in cold water! Can't confirm that tho. As for light I'd give it some darkness just to keep the algae away

 

[Reykur]

From my experience and research, I've found my java moss has grown a ton in a week. I have a 5 gallon tank and the java moss has been growing like crazy, even 2 inch strands that fell off are now almost 6 inches long. I have not used any fertilizers or co2.
If you do have the moss on a windowsill setup, I advise either taking the light off of it (if it gets natural sunlight) or putting it somewhere where you can control a photoperiod which will allow the plant to grow properly. And make sure to change the water every day. The moss seems to grow fastest in colder water. I had my water at 80f for a few days and it didn't grow at all, in fact it seemed to have melted a little. But now my water is about 58f (turned off my heater since I only have snails and plants atm) and my moss has grown noticeably.

That moss will be hard to save. Moss does best when anchored to a surface in your tank, and if you have some fishing line laying around, you could tie it down to something in your tank and let the green bits grow naturally from those points. I killed some marimo moss balls on accident by sticking them in a tuperware container on my windowsill for 2 days before my tank arrives. I would buy some new java moss instead, I bought from plantdrafts (found on etsy) and my java moss was in great condition for the most part. Just a bit of melt from cold weather.