Ricca Fluitans

[Super_Blueberry]

So a few years ago I had some Ricca Fluitans in my tank, and they grew great. Had them 'attached' to stones with mesh and it held them fine for awhile. Then the carpet that was on top of the mesh essentially peeled off the stone and floated to the surface. I figured it was just the lower level not getting enough light and dying, leaving nothing attached to the mesh to hold it down. I tried a few different ways to control this, and unfortunately ended up killing most of it. What little survived, over the past year or so, has floated and re-grown to a useable amount, so I attached it to another stone in the same manner as I did originally.

My question is how do I keep this from peeling off again? Is it just a matter of keeping it trimmed short? Or will those lower pieces die anyway as part of its life cycle?

 

[wildroseofky]

I hope someone has some good advice because I have tried everything. I wanted to use the riccia for a sod roof effect on a little house I made. I tried tying it down onto plastic canvas first. It just peeled away. So I tried putting another piece of plastic canvas on top of that and sandwiching it. Worked for awhile and then it came off again. The bottom layer keeps dying even when I keep it trimmed short. It would be nice to know how others have managed this.

 

[aqua_chem]

Riccia is a not a rooting plant. It is in fact a naturally floating plant that we tie to things because we think it looks pretty. It will never naturally root to anything.

 

[Aquatic_Adam]

As Aqua has so eloquently put it. It will never stay rooted to a piece of decoration, as it does not make roots. People have it on the lower levels of the aquarium by keeping it meshed down at all times. Sometimes it grows lush enough to cover up the mesh.

 

[Super_Blueberry]

I realize it won't root, that's why I have it under the mesh. It's just how do I keep the layer under the mesh from dying?

 

[Aquatic_Adam]

What kind of lighting are you using? I've always had trouble with Riccia. Generally I use medium lighting and parts of Riccia get stranded in the lower strata of the tank and die/cause algae.

 

[Super_Blueberry]

240 watts t12no on a 100g. 22" substrate to light. On split photo-period, 4.5 hr on, 5 off, 4.5 hr on. Pressurized co2, pps pro ferts.

The ricca is growing great. It's just the peel back in a couple weeks I'd like to avoid

 

[aqua_chem]

Is it actually dying or is it just coming up on its own? Riccia is such a prolific pearler that sometimes it will literally rip itself off of it's meshwork due to its buoyancy. Do you have a picture of what it's doing?

Along what I said, it's not going to root, so most of the time you can only trim it a few times before you need to remesh the whole thing. It's about as high maintenance as they come and makes a mess while you're at it.

 

[Super_Blueberry]

I assumed it was dying/melting/decaying because when it peeled up there was nothing under the mesh, yet the mesh has no issues holding it down when I first 'plant' it. It hasn't started to peel yet, I was just trying to get ahead of the game this time around. To give you an idea of the holes in the mesh, it's a slightly stretched cut-up loofa. It also never pearled in the last tank, so there wasn't any extreme buoyancy then, though it shows signs of pearling in this tank.

 

[aqua_chem]

If it's dying, you would expect to see dead plant matter still attached to the clump that came up. If it's ripping up because of buoyancy, then you probably wouldn't see anything.

How long had it been tied down, and had you ever trimmed it?

 

[Aqualady40]

I am seeing the same thing...I am using it on mesh and rocks with hairnet....it seems it has almost completely crawled out of the hairnet since it has gotten thicker and is a full mat....a lil tug/snag and the whole thing will be floating

 

[Super_Blueberry]

This time it has only been set up a couple weeks and hasn't had any problems yet.

The last time it was tied down it would take 4-6 weeks for it to begin to peel , and no I never tried trimming it before.

When I first put it under the mesh , it wasn't horribly thick. I'd say that I could only see 85-90% of the rock thru the ricca. I'm thinking this time as it starts to peel, I'll take the whole clump (1/2"-3/4" thick) and put a second layer of mesh over it. Maybe then it will hold better as there will be at least 400% more ricca held down then the original amount.

 

[aqua_chem]

This time it has only been set up a couple weeks and hasn't had any problems yet. The last time it was tied down it would take 4-6 weeks for it to begin to peel , and no I never tried trimming it before. When I first put it under the mesh , it wasn't horribly thick. I'd say that I could only see 85-90% of the rock thru the ricca. I'm thinking this time as it starts to peel, I'll take the whole clump (1/2"-3/4" thick) and put a second layer of mesh over it. Maybe then it will hold better as there will be at least 400% more ricca held down then the original amount.

Sounds like a good game plan. Let us know how it goes.