# Moss in decline. Help.



## Andrew M. (Aug 28, 2012)

Fissidens fontanus. Tips turning brown fast. No CO2 or ferts. Water is still cycling (ammonia 4ppm). Light 13 watt 6500K. Temperature 26 C. Some are growing on rocks; some growing on wire mesh/string on gravel. Light is on for 8 hours.
Moss on gravel is browning.

























Moss on rock is growing.







Both in same tank.


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## Livyding (Feb 6, 2013)

Moss relies on carbonate hardness to grow.. What's your KH reading?


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## Andrew M. (Aug 28, 2012)

I'm a bit new to this so I don't have a test for KH at the moment. Could it possibly be another factor?


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## Livyding (Feb 6, 2013)

I doubt it... Mosses and Java fern and Anubias and things like that are known to be "easy" to grow because most places in the world get their water from aquifers, meaning lots of dissolved minerals in the water. Our water is very soft cause it comes from water towers, so if you don't add any sort of calcium then you'll have a lot of trouble growing plants in general, but especially those that need a decent amount of KH to grow at all (the ones I mentioned above). 

If you don't have a test that's okay for now, just throw in a piece of coral, oyster shells, seashells, limestone, cuttlebone, eggshells (with the weird skin from the inside completely removed!) a pinch of baking soda, pinch of african cichlid salt, special "buffering" tonic from the pet shop etc... Any of those things will work just fine. You should notice an improvement practically overnight. 

Before you get fish though, you'll need to test your KH to make sure your water is safely buffered against PH swings. (at least 5-10 degrees kh which is still considered quite soft.. our water comes out of the tap at about 2 degrees which is VERY soft. )


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## Andrew M. (Aug 28, 2012)

The substrate that I have in my larger tank is practically all crushed coral...I'm guessing a big chunk will do? And how long do I leave it in there? Thanks for all the info btw.


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## Livyding (Feb 6, 2013)

Oh that's convenient. Well as long as there aren't any fish in the tank yet I guess you can just dump in a few pieces. The problem with that is that after a while the pieces will be covered in a slimy film, and the water won't actually touch the coral any more, so an easier way is to keep a little bag of coral inside your filter, and then just rinse it off with hot water every once in a while so that it doesn't get all slimy and stop working. 

I'd keep using it forever since that'll act as a PH buffer for you.. I guess the amount you keep will depend what kind of fish you want in there though. No problem BTW.


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