[Fishstery]

Bare with me as I'm new to the forum! I recently set up a 5 gallon shallow pond style scape for my betta. This is my first go-round with emersed growth and while I've had a bit of success, I'm learning some things through trial and error. First off, I have plants that are taller than the top of the tank, so there's no way for me to keep any humidity. I'm using high light that is LED and suspended about 8 inches above the top of the tank. I have a piece of driftwood which portions stick completely out of the water. I superglue previously submerged bucephalandra and then tissue culture Christmas moss. Misted it about 8-10 times a day but after 2 days the moss and buce have completely dried up. I keep misting daily in hopes some tiny bit managed to survive under the dried stuff and maybe it will spring back. However, if it doesn't, can anyone give me some advice on what to do here? Or suggest some other emersed plants I can try to superglue to the wood? There's no way to bring water up to what I glue here, so it's completely aired out until I mist. I was thinking about trying tissue culture buce to see if that might work better, or is anubias easier to grow completely dry? Do you know of any other moss/moss-like plants to glue where the Christmas moss was? Do you think tearing up a wabi kusa ball and gluing that to the wood first then gluing something to it may work better? Thank you in advance!

 

[ichthyogeek]

Like...a mini fog machine maybe? Or maybe some way of dripping water onto them so they're constantly moist using airline tubing?

I wonder if something like spanish moss or moses you might find on rocks/wood would be a better fit than aquatic mosses.

 

[Fishstery]

Like...a mini fog machine maybe? Or maybe some way of dripping water onto them so they're constantly moist using airline tubing?

I wonder if something like spanish moss or moses you might find on rocks/wood would be a better fit than aquatic mosses.

I have a fogger but the ones you submerge in the water aren't meant to run constantly. I usually only use it for pictures and such. It's a small thank without room for another water pump in the submerged area, so I think a drip system is also out of the question. I considered some moss cultivated locally in the wild but have no idea how to "sanitize" it to avoid bringing pests into my emersed plants, if such a thing even exists? I've never tried to use plants I found outside in a tank before so maybe someone else can chime in on if they have before. I can even search terrestrial mosses and see if someone is selling something like that on etsy I suppose.

 

[brendon-]

ADA makes a product called Terra Tape you may want to look up that basically acts like a wick that sucks up water above the water line. So the idea would be that you wrap it around a piece of wood or whatever, like a bandage, wherever you plan on planting the moss above the water line, Then attach your moss on top of with with a thread. I'm sure this can be DIY'ed with some other sort of material, but it's an interesting principle. It's sort've how their Terra base works as well. I'm sure you would have to still occasionally spray it, but as long as your light isn't too close singeing your moss, this should definitely help keep it moist in between. As for what the best moss would be, I'm not sure.

 

[Fishstery]

ADA makes a product called Terra Tape you may want to look up that basically acts like a wick that sucks up water above the water line. So the idea would be that you wrap it around a piece of wood or whatever, like a bandage, wherever you plan on planting the moss above the water line, Then attach your moss on top of with with a thread. I'm sure this can be DIY'ed with some other sort of material, but it's an interesting principle. It's sort've how their Terra base works as well. I'm sure you would have to still occasionally spray it, but as long as your light isn't too close singeing your moss, this should definitely help keep it moist in between. As for what the best moss would be, I'm not sure.

Wow I never heard of that before thank you! What a great suggestion. I'll look in to that for sure

 

[JmBrown89]

Like...a mini fog machine maybe? Or maybe some way of dripping water onto them so they're constantly moist using airline tubing?

I wonder if something like spanish moss or moses you might find on rocks/wood would be a better fit than aquatic mosses.

It seems to me that it is not worth taking the risk and looking for moss in the usual way. It seems to me that this is unsafe. We cannot be sure that there will be no harmful substances in it, and this will be a threat.

 

[evil8]

I superglue previously submerged bucephalandra and then tissue culture Christmas moss. Misted it about 8-10 times a day but after 2 days the moss and buce have completely dried up. I keep misting daily in hopes some tiny bit managed to survive under the dried stuff and maybe it will spring back. However, if it doesn't, can anyone give me some advice on what to do here? Or suggest some other emersed plants I can try to superglue to the wood? There's no way to bring water up to what I glue here, so it's completely aired out until I mist. I was thinking about trying tissue culture buce to see if that might work better, or is anubias easier to grow completely dry? Do you know of any other moss/moss-like plants to glue where the Christmas moss was? Do you think tearing up a wabi kusa ball and gluing that to the wood first then gluing something to it may work better? Thank you in advance!

I just pulled a 6g out to re-start a similar project. Buce, Anubias and other epiphyte plants I believe need to have the roots in the water. I'm not sure about the moss. As far as I can tell wet moss will stay green, non-wet moss will brown and die off. I'm planning on doing some more research on this though and may just use some ground moss for portions of wood out of water on my build.

 

[Fishstery]

I just pulled a 6g out to re-start a similar project. Buce, Anubias and other epiphyte plants I believe need to have the roots in the water. I'm not sure about the moss. As far as I can tell wet moss will stay green, non-wet moss will brown and die off. I'm planning on doing some more research on this though and may just use some ground moss for portions of wood out of water on my build.

Apparently that is only true for terrestrial mosses. Terrestrial mosses will go "dormant" without water and will turn brown but rejuvenate when wet. Aquatic mosses will only thrive if kept in high humidity, granted there are some exceptions I believe it can work if you "train" the moss to be low humidity. To achieve this you need to start with it in a high humidity setting and slowly over a period of time transfer it through different stages of less humidity and work your way up to an open air container which takes time and patience. I actually ordered terrestrial moss on etsy labeled as "fern moss" which is cultivated here in PA but the seller takes the time to throughly handle it to clean it and get rid of pests. According to her this moss will work well with little to no humidity and daily misting and spreads pretty quickly under good conditions. It also attaches itself to wood much better and quicker than aquatic mosses eliminating the need to use superglue if you can manage not to disturb it long enough. I'll update this when I get the moss and get it put on the wood. I also bought terra tape which was a wonderful suggestion from the other member, it's intriguing and I may try it with anubias nana petite tissue culture to see if the water retention lasts long enough to keep the roots wet.

 

[evil8]

Apparently that is only true for terrestrial mosses. Terrestrial mosses will go "dormant" without water and will turn brown but rejuvenate when wet. Aquatic mosses will only thrive if kept in high humidity, granted there are some exceptions I believe it can work if you "train" the moss to be low humidity. To achieve this you need to start with it in a high humidity setting and slowly over a period of time transfer it through different stages of less humidity and work your way up to an open air container which takes time and patience. I actually ordered terrestrial moss on etsy labeled as "fern moss" which is cultivated here in PA but the seller takes the time to throughly handle it to clean it and get rid of pests. According to her this moss will work well with little to no humidity and daily misting and spreads pretty quickly under good conditions. It also attaches itself to wood much better and quicker than aquatic mosses eliminating the need to use superglue if you can manage not to disturb it long enough. I'll update this when I get the moss and get it put on the wood. I also bought terra tape which was a wonderful suggestion from the other member, it's intriguing and I may try it with anubias nana petite tissue culture to see if the water retention lasts long enough to keep the roots wet.

Please let me know how well this works! You should DM me about the etsy seller too. I have 2 projects in the works where I want to add mosses. Thanks!