Java Moss turning Brown

[marisullivan]

I have several tanks and have java moss in most of them. My most "planted" tank - my baby - is a 40gal. live bearer tank. I have several water sprite and java fern in it - that are in the subtrate and java moss just floating. My java moss is in this tank is turning brown. I leave the lights on for 8 hours a day, clean my tank every other Saturday and dose it with excel 1x a week. To no avail. It is so brown and I have researched and tried what I feel is everything.

I dosed it with 1x Excel and 10x Water for about 4 min. to get rid of algae.
I have tried to move it out of the light a little and put it under the baby hideout - nothing.
I had a diy co2 on the tank but took it off - since this is a more natural ecological tank - or so that is what I was going for.
I tried pushing a little of the java moss in the subtrate - as a friend recommended - to let it get some of the nutrients from the poo in the subtrate - again....nothing.

Any suggestions at this point are very helpful.

oh - I have the standard lighting - as I heard it was a "low light" plant - and grows anywhere (except here).
My temp stays at 80F.

Thank you - M.

 

[HN1]

Have you taken it out and thoroughly rinsed it? You can also use a gravel vac to clean it, but that takes some practice.

IME, Java moss is one of the best mechanical medias there are. It traps leftover food, detritus, etc. that can adversely affect it.

 

[Lowryder]

Excel should be dosed everyother day. Also, are you using any other ferts?

 

[marisullivan]

HN1 - I took it out and did an excel rinse of 1 excel to 10 of water. Left in their for 3 minutes and put it back in tank.

Lowryder - I am putting in excel 2x a week - with no other ferts. I was trying to do a "natural ecological" tank by using the fish poo to fertilize the plants.

 

[An t-iasg]

You may consider trying another variety of aquatic moss. I gave up on java moss after I experienced the same thing - I noticed that my java moss clump was mostly brown/black strands, and I have pressurized CO2. Taiwan moss looks like java moss and stays a lot greener. It grows faster too, but that could be due to my CO2. Fissidens moss is another nice variety.

 

[BlackMagic]

there 2 type of java moss if im not wrong ... one that can live under water n not turn brown, some can live under water but not for long, will turn brown ... thats y always be careful when buying java moss or underwater plant.

try giving it some iron ...

 

[Crepe]

Actually java moss has two stages: emersed and submerged. Let it go brown, it should resend shoots and become once again green. If not, you haven't lost anything but some java moss. There is only one species of "Java Moss" a true moss. There are however a huge selection of mosses that will survive under water that are deemed as varieties of java moss which are in fact different species entirely: Flam moss, willow moss, taiwan or christmas moss etc. And then there is Fissidens which in my opinion is way too expensive and hard to get compared to similar looking mosses such as christmas moss.

 

[marisullivan]

I have been adding iron to my water 2x a week, have a diy co2, and have been told the following may be my problem:
Lights should be left on 8 hours per day,
Too much food being fed
Clean tank 1x a month vs the current 2x
Water temp maybe too high

Any thoughts on those suggestions?

 

[HN1]

I have been adding iron to my water 2x a week, have a diy co2, and have been told the following may be my problem:
Lights should be left on 8 hours per day,
Too much food being fed
Clean tank 1x a month vs the current 2x
Water temp maybe too high

Any thoughts on those suggestions?

Personally I think most of that is hogwash. Lights on for 8 hours and watch your feeding, yes. Cut down on cleaning, no. I'd say weekly to every 10 days is better. What is the water temp? We have moss flourishing in tanks kept at 82.

 

[marisullivan]

HN1 - my water temp is right around the 80-82 mark, since I have livebearer babies. I clean my tanks every other week. I thought about replacing the light - as it is the original one, but was told if I looked at a bulb replacement of T5 - that more than likely the T5 bulb would not work in a standard fixture / hood. I am beginning to think I am one of the few people that just can't do plants or maybe I am trying too hard....

 

[HN1]

HN1 - my water temp is right around the 80-82 mark, since I have livebearer babies. I clean my tanks every other week. I thought about replacing the light - as it is the original one, but was told if I looked at a bulb replacement of T5 - that more than likely the T5 bulb would not work in a standard fixture / hood. I am beginning to think I am one of the few people that just can't do plants or maybe I am trying too hard....

If your bulb is old, you may have your culprit there. A T5 light won't fit a "standard" (T8 ) hood, but the T8 bulb can be replaced and they will suffer from spectrum shift. I'd start with the light and see where you go from there. Just an FYI- fry need even cleaner water than adult fish generally speaking. Most of our fry tanks get 2-3x weekly changes. What do you do when you "clean" the tank? I think you'll be fine with plants. Once you get the initial hang of it, you'll be trimming excess before ya know it!

 

[marisullivan]

HN1 -
You give me Hope! LOL!
When I clean this particular tank - I take out about 1/3 water from the mid - high water range. I not only have java moss but also duck week, some floating water sprite and also planted java fern and planted water sprite. So I don't clean in the gravel.

I was wondering too if the filtration system was a culprit - I have a small / medium size one that fits on the back of my tank. I have read that the flow of water could irritate plants as well?!?? Not sure how much of that is true..

Should I just purchase a standard bulb that fits into my hood or look at a specific wattage, as everyone I have talked too said it should not be this hard (only for yours truly).

If your bulb is old, you may have your culprit there. A T5 light won't fit a "standard" (T8 ) hood, but the T8 bulb can be replaced and they will suffer from spectrum shift. I'd start with the light and see where you go from there. Just an FYI- fry need even cleaner water than adult fish generally speaking. Most of our fry tanks get 2-3x weekly changes. What do you do when you "clean" the tank? I think you'll be fine with plants. Once you get the initial hang of it, you'll be trimming excess before ya know it!

 

[BlackMagic]

my moss and other plants do fine, the only plants dying on me r my guppy grass.
also lately my duckweed been turning white. i get all kinda comment.
some say to much light, some say not enough iron, some say need higher light.
some say, b4 the light is to close.

i just order 5oz of duckweed, so imma do some testing and see whats my problem is.

 

[marisullivan]

so here is my update: I got a new light for my 40gal planted tank. I took out the old brown java moss - some of which felt like pinestraw - and put it in a bucket by my backdoor and dosed with flourish (which has high iron). My back door gets lots of indirect sunlight. If it greens up - yeah, if not bye bye java moss. I got an iron testing kit and found my iron was at .25 - so I dosed my tank with flourish to try to bring it up to .50 - 1.0. I attempted to purchase some tabs for my water sprite and java fern - but walked out the store without them (yep, I am that smart.....not). So tomorrow - since hubby is off for the long holiday weekend - he is going to pick them up for me.
Will keep you posted about moss - hopefully, I am headed in the right direction.
(Keep on....keeping on)

 

[Crepe]

I would say those plants don't need the root tabs. They are ferns and feed from the water column. I would just keep up with the seachem liquids.

 

[marisullivan]

Here is an update: reshaped my whole tank. Layered seachem fluorite then subtrate. Planted a couple plants that I salvaged from old tank and started dosing every other day with flourish. Tossed out brown moss and added diy c02 - couple days into this, so will have to see how this goes. I just need to add more plants and hopefully I can successfully have a planted tank.

 

[HN1]

Wow! Sounds like major progress. Great job! Where are the pics?