[jbrady33]

Hello All,

A couple of questions about Fissidens:

1. Here is a picture of a patch of fissidens that is finally growing for me (was pretty dormant/recovering for a while), once it started it really seems to be going nicely. What are the antler like growths sticking up, part of the fissidens? a different plant that hitch-hiked along?

2. Since it seems Fissidens can grow emersed (and it is what I happened to have on hand) I tied all the scraps I had left to a piece of that black hobby/craft plastic grid and made a spillway for my HOB. Working nicely as a "flow buffer" already (was a bit to much current for a shrimp tank), but do yo uthink the fissidens will grow a nice little display this way, or would another moss/ricca be better suited. (Just please don't say java - still picking threads of that from everywhere, rates right up there with duckweed to me!) :smile:

no growth time yet, just put it together yesterday

 

[pwolfe]

the antler looking plant might be riccia. You'll have to learn to love it. Your chances of removing it permanently are pretty slim.

 

[h4n]

ya the antler things is ricca, and it looks like it have a piece of round pellia on the bottom two.
I would remove both before it to late and invade on your fissiden.

 

[jbrady33]

I have been pulling the subwass/round pellia out for a while now, it seems to grow enough to always be in the way but not enough for a dense little display

I picked out the ricca with tweezers, put it on the edge of the spillway - maybe I can grow a mat there.

 

[Trail_Mix]

Any updates? You should definitely be able to grow the fissidens and riccia on that spillway, in fact they should grow much better than in the tank I'd imagine! If they are partially sticking out of the water, then they will be able to take advantage of the much higher concentrations of CO2 in the air, which mosses really benefit from, (I know, riccia is a liverwort). Personally, I think this is a great idea, and was actually thinking of trying something like this myself, which is how I ended up on this page! I think they will really take off and look great! And with the constant flow of water over them, they should have access to plenty of nutrients. How are you going to seperate the fissidens and riccia though? I think it would be cool if you made a little "delta" where the spillway goes into, and it washes over before going into the tank, that would be more or less level with the water's surface. Then you could expand this idea! There are some mosses and liverworts circulating that really do not do well submerged long-term, but would really benefit from a set-up like this I'd imagine.

 

[jbrady33]

Sure, here's an update! Riccia outgrow fissidens by a landslide, so it is winning the spillway. Not going to fight it, let it grow It also seems to form it's own 'delta'.

I trimmed about 3/8" (1 cm) off either side of my plastic grid spillway, otherwise I had no surface movement at all. A good thing if you want to really tone down a powerful filter - but I needed a little something. Don't have to throttle the speed anymore either, have it wide open.

took the top cover completely off and planted that with a piece of black foam (the thin stuff meant for a Marineland canister). the level is just right that the foam is half submerged - so I put a few clippings of african violet and 2 terrestrial mosses from my yard, we'll see what they do!

 

[acitydweller]

nice work on the filter. riccia is a beatiful plant if left to grow undisturbed.