Fissidens Fontanus + CO2? - Aquarium Advice

J-Aqua · 10-24-2007, 10:41 AM

Hello,

I will be shortly getting my hands on 3 portions of Fissidens Fontanus (on its way to my doorstep). The fissidens will be attached to 3 peices of driftwood.

My question is I want these plants to really flourish, grow heardy, and quickly would CO2 be necessity to do so? Or would I be waisting money with adding CO2?

Lighting is a Coralife 135watt 50/50 CP flourescent. I know that fissidens do fine in low lighted conditions, but grow very slow. Would CO2 help in this situation.

If you do recommend that I add CO2 what would you recommend, and at how much? Should I test for dissolved carbon dioxide in my water?

Not sure if you need it, but my pH is at a stable 7.5.
Thanks!

J

**Purrbox** · 10-24-2007, 11:18 AM

If you've got other plants in the aquarium that are growing fine without CO2 which have similiar lighting requirements, then the CO2 wouldn't be strictly necessary. On the other hand it has been shown that adding CO2 will do more to improve the growth of plants than bumping your lighting up one level, so while not strictly necessary you may enjoy the increased health and growth that you would see with all of your plants.

What size tank are you talking about? That would make your lighting more relavant as well as making CO2 recommendations easier.

J-Aqua · 10-24-2007, 12:24 PM

Thanks purrbox, and sorry about not being specific. Its a standard 75 gal aquarium. Only live plants would be the fissidens.

Thanks again.

**Purrbox** · 10-24-2007, 05:56 PM

I would expect that this would be enough light to keep most mosses alive, but I think you're right that it probably won't spread very fast. CO2 would be helpful, but probably not strictly necessary.

If you do decide you want to give CO2 a try, since you're dealing with a 75 gallon about the only thing I would recommend is pressurized CO2. Any other CO2 options would either be too expensive or too difficult to get good steady CO2 levels. With only the moss your tank would much too susceptible to nutrient imbalances, and the moss could become quickly over run with algae if there are problems.

I'd definately suggest putting in some good fast growing stem plants while you get the aquarium established and are growing in the moss. This will help prevent other problems. After the aquarium has been running at least a couple of months and the moss has grown in to your likings, you could start slowly removing the stem plants.

J-Aqua · 10-25-2007, 12:46 AM

Thanks again for the reply

The tank has been up and running since the middle of March 07. I have no algae in tank except some small amount in small parts; However, my bristle nose does a very goo job.

In addition I have a UV sterilizer thats ran at night (12hrs) that will least kill any free floating diatoms....

J

**Purrbox** · 10-25-2007, 09:47 AM

Sounds like you're pretty well set then. Time to start trying things and deciding what you want to do long term. I'd probably give it at least a month without CO2 to see how it's going to grow for you, and then make a decision as to whether you want to improve growth or not. This will give the moss time to adapt to your tank for a couple of weeks, and then a couple more weeks to see how well it will grow in your aquarium.

J-Aqua · 10-25-2007, 11:36 AM

Sounds good! I'll post some pics as soon as I get them attached with fishing line and ready to go. Thanks for the advice purrbox.

J

J-Aqua · 10-31-2007, 01:40 PM

Hello,

Here are a couple pics...

Close up..

Now some questions. Some of the leaves are a little on the brown side. Is this normal for the plants are getting use to my water parameters? pH is 7.6 , ammonia 0ppm, nitrite 0ppm and nitrate 5ppm.

This is w/o CO2 and with the ligthing mentioned above! Let me know, thxs
J

**Purrbox** · 10-31-2007, 04:05 PM

It's normal to see some browning on this plant from the stress of shipping. Generally I recommend floating mosses until it greens up if it's looking a bit worse for the wear after shipping. In the pictures yours looks like it arrived in pretty good shape, so I'd just give it some time to adapt. As long as it's only brown in a few spots and not spreading rapidly, it should be fine.

J-Aqua · 10-31-2007, 06:14 PM

Thanks purrbox,

There's only one portion thats a light brownish color, the rest are green as could be. There's only a frew that look a little brown, but everything else is as green as the picture. That's a current picture and you can't reall even see it. You have to look very very close to notice.

When it arrived nothing was brown all green. Arrived very good from coming from the european area. Shipping was free to!

How long do you think it will take to root to the driftwood? Also, will some of the brown areas come off? Or should I trim them off?

Thanks
J