important update Please note that since writing this topic nearly 2.5 years ago i have heard from a number of members that certain burrowing fish have managed to get caught in the hairnet used with this method, occasionally with tragic consequences. I personally have not had this problem even with a common plec in there through out but please be careful as i would not want any of you to lose fish as a result of my advice. in the most part as long as the net is tight enough you should be fine, leave it baggy and obviously inquisitive fish may get caught up in it.....anyway read on if you wish to continue.

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Hi Everyone, i've had a number of PM's regarding how to grow and attach riccia to slate or bogwood in the aquarium following the recent TFF riccia epidemic.

I thought i'd write an easy to follow, step by step guide.

FOR JAVA MOSS FOLLOW THE STEPS HERE FROM "8" ONWARDS, PICS AT THE END

Pseud's Guide to Making a Moss Wall - http://www.fishforums.net/content/Plants-and-Planted-Tanks/126491/Step-By-Step-Guide-To-A-Moss-Wall/

When you purchase your riccia (dwarf riccia or Riccia Fluitians) it will come in either a plastic tub, plastic zip lock bag or on a piece of mesh. quite daunting at first as most people look at their little batch and think "what on earth do i do with it now"

for id purposes dwarf riccia is on the left, riccia fluitians is on the right


basically follow the following steps:

1- do a decent water change (around 30-50%) and refill adding fertiliser (but not over recommended optimum dosage, avoid that extra bit for luck)

2- remove the riccia from the tub/bag or mesh (no problem if you have to break it up in the process) and place it in a tub of aquarium water. Then break up all the clumps of matted riccia into seperate plantlets.

3- with a piece of airline tube make a loop and float it in your tank (at least 10 inches across) or use a plastic tub with a transparent lid

4- place the separated riccia pieces inside the "floating fence" or tub (filled with tank water) making sure it isn't matted together.

5- leave for a week without touching anything. it will get a bit messy with some bits escaping from the fence. just scoop them up and put back inside. if your using a tub this wont be a problem

6- fill a bucket with warm tap water and take out all the riccia in the tank placing it in the bucket. (noticing you now have twice as much riccia than a week ago!!)

7- swish it all around to get out any debris and separate the matted bits again.

you now have a few options.

riccia on slate, wood, or plastic mesh

depending on the choice above you can use a transparent nylon hairnet, cotton thread or fishing line to tie it on.

a hairnet is by far the best and easiest to work with so long as it fits over the object.

i have used a plastic mesh with a hairnet.



now is a good time to place the mesh or slate in the tank to see how it will look, get the size right and visualise the finished piece.



8- lay your riccia on the object everywhere that will have direct light. ie not underneath or behind. This is where it can all go wrong, put to much on and the bottom layer will not get enough light and die in a few weeks time leading to the "carpet" breaking free of the net and making a hell of a mess. place enough riccia on the wood,slate or mesh so you have a thin layer, you should just be able to see the wood/slate beneath it.

as i have riccia coming out of my ears i have used as much as possible in mine, this is about the limit, any more and it will not go to plan.







9- place the hairnet over the top and wrap cotton thread around a few times and tie off making sure the netting is pulled tight against the mesh/slate. leave it loose and you will have a flat slate tile for example with a dome of riccia on top rather than a flat carpet (remember it floats)



10- as long as there is light directly on the riccia you can place the object anywhere you like. The closer to the light, the more it will pearl. (ie usefull for a cave roof)


the blue bits from the mesh will be concealed when the riccia starts to grow.

i have used riccis fluitians for the mesh piece, and have used dwarf riccia for a few more slate covered pieces

finished effect (but needs to grow out a little)



You will notice after a week or so the riccia will grow over the netting and start to break off and float to the surface, this should provide a continuous harvest of fresh riccia so long as you clear the surface riccia every couple of weeks.

after 1 week

side view

after 3 weeks


full tank shot



if you do not remove this floating riccia often enough the blanket effect on the surface will cut off the light to the whole tank killing everything. keep an eye on it trust me!!

Keep co2 as close to 30ppm as possible, this is one plant that will survive without co2 but will never reach it's full potential (the pearl carpet effect) without it.

For the cotton thread/fishing line method just tie on one end and wrap it round every direction till the riccia is secure.
the problem is when it grows the whole lot comes free and makes a hell of a mess. riccia does not have roots so will never attach itself to anything.

Here are a few more pictures of my riccia, all held down with hairnets.





and under moonlight



Please dont be nervous of riccia, as you can see from the steps above the process is simple. With the correct lighting and co2 anyone can create a lovely bubbling carpet for their tank within 2 weeks.

You will rarely find Riccia available at the LFS, the easiest source to obtain it from is mail order suppliers such as Greenline or Java.

Java Moss (pics - step by step)







updated pictures after 6 weeks growth





full tank shot


the moss will branch upwards (towards the light) in about a month this will look like a lawn of grass. all you have to do is give it a quick haircut every month or so to keep it neat. this will work fine in tanks as low as 1 WPG with no CO2 although it will obvoiusly grow more readily with co2 and higher light

i will update this when mine has grown a little


Good luck with your tanks and dont forget to post pictures in the members picture section.

Jimbooo

ps: as this post has now had over 2000 views i'll assume it has been of use to a few of you out there. i'd be really grateful if you'd put a reply on the end of this thread once you've created your carpet giving some feedback of your little project. if i can improve this post in any way i will. thanks, james

This post has been edited by jimbooo: Nov 7 2007, 08:39 PM

Great guide Jimbooo.

Note to other members - if there's enough interest in this then I may pin it. Give us your feedback.

great guide jimboo! Thats another job on the 'to do' list!

(my vote goes to pinning it!)

Please pin this. I got all excited today when I finally had the time to start my airline tubing bit then realised the tubing I have was nowhere near enough and the bits i did have was kind of warped. By that time all the places that sel airline around here had closed so looks like the project starts tomorrow.

Probably just as well as I need to make more CO2 mix and do a water change

Thanks jimboo

Excellent job mate! Fantastic pics too! Stunning shots! IM impressed! A pinned article for sure!

Please pin it ! It's most certainly worth it !

I've pinned and left this topic open for replies.

I'm glad your all finding it usefull, yeah my first pin

Just a tip, or maybe something wrong with what I did, but I couldn't manage to get the airline to stay upright in the water so I used a breeding net (which, due to fry all the tie I have a lot of).....

Thanks very much Jimboo. I've just ordered some Riccia so this will come in very helpful.

Haha......fame at last jimbooo.....bet you never thought it would be riccia that would propel you to these dizzy heights

Great post, definatly worthly of a pinned topic, because that plant sure is popular.

Hi.

Must say thanks. I've ALWAYS wondered how people got nice uniform carpets in finely controlled areas and now I have my answer. Do you have recent pics of both types?

Also, how fast does your java moss grow? I started with a very small portion that I got somehow (i didn't buy it and I have no idea how I got it anymore). It was just enough to wrap around an eight inch stick tied down with thread. It wasn't originally spread out from the stick much, but now (finally) it's growing quite a bit faster. My guess is that it has (or at least seems to have) an exponential type growth. Once the few pieces I had started branching, those branches branched, and now it's growing marvelously. I've never trimmed it in the 8 months. Can I expect its growth rate to keep increasing as it gets bigger?

Thanks,

-Ian

Hi Ezrock, thanks for the comment.

all those pics were taken about 2 weeks ago (recently edited this thread with those pics). i will post updated ones in a month or so when the tank has filled out again. as with the java moss.

you are correct about the java moss. couldn't have put it better myself. it starts off slow and gets faster as time goes on. the slate pieces at the end of this post have not grown much at all in the 2 weeks they have been in there but the strands are starting to branch. should fill out a lot more in another 2 weeks or so.

i'll keep this post updated as time goes on.

thanks again for your comments, it's always nice to know i've helped someone.

James

Hey jimbooo!


As you can see, my orginal grouping is growing so well, i was able to create a new bunch to the left of it! But the orginal bunch looks like its needing some clipping



How do you maintain your Riccia?
Just give it a haircut?
Do you take it out before the haircut so the clippings are not all over the place? heh



Thanks!
Walt

Hi Walt,

is yours dwarf riccia or fluitians, i cant really see from the pic?

with fluitians you can literally give it a haircut. pull the slate out and put it in a filled sink. chop away and collect the floaty bits from the sink (much easier than in the tank). try to chop it as low as possible in one go rather than choping 2ml off then another 2ml etc.. if the clippings are too short you wont be able to make anything out of them for a while.

then plop back in the tank.


dwarf riccia is a case of pull apart and start again i'm afraid. check out my rio 180 journal for pics of my last riccia redoing session, what a pain in the butt, but the finished tank looks much better (will do in a few weeks when it's grown out again anyway)

does that help mate?

on the speed of growth front that big matt of riccia on the blue mesh earlier in this post all grew from a tiny 5cm x 5cm baggie i bought from greenline for £3.50 about 8 months ago.

all the dwarf riccia in both the 60 and 180 came from 4 pots the same as in the pic below. £5 a pot.

i must have well over £150 worth at that price by now. it's all grown from the original batch. (and i've given tonnes away as well!!)


This post has been edited by jimbooo: Dec 1 2005, 01:43 PM

Must say that your tanks look amazing jim. I am about to try this technique out myself, but have a few questions.

Im trying to anchor some moss (unknown variant - grows well) to some peices of driftwood that ive bought. I got a clump about half the size of a clenched fist and am wondering whether I split it into 3 clumps or many many strands to cover the 3 peices of wood. Also, ive got some mesh that was bought from the local hardware store. Colours were either white or black so I took white because of the sand. Its thicker than the pics you have posted and am wondering whether this will show over time?

Cheers. Great job once again.

This post has been edited by Incitic: Dec 4 2005, 05:00 AM

hi there, sorry for the delay, been busy at work.

it really depends what kind of moss you have, there are rather a few. unless it's something out of the ordinary the above method will work for most mosses, generally the thinner you spread it at the beginning the better it will look when it's grown out. one layer is usually enough, dont pile moss on top of moss then throw a hairnet over the top. the moss at the bottom will be shaded by the stuff on top, as they are generally slow growers you want as much light to hit the individual plantlets as possible.

be patient though, that java moss on slate in the pics above has only just started to grow upwards about 6 weeks after planting.