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Hey folks, I'm looking for opinions on a couple of things I haven't tried before. I'm setting up a new twenty gallon long tank for breeding fish, and am looking for decorations. I'm interested in driftwood and some type of moss plant to make things look nice.

There's a stringy moss ball (Chladophora aegagropila) at work which I'll pick up just for fun, but I don't care much for the look. Mainly what I like is Christmas moss and possibly weeping moss, which I have seen mentioned before. Is there much of a difference between the two plants, besides price and looks? Is Christmas moss easy to mold according to desire? I will probably stick some pieces on the driftwood and more of it somewhere else in the tank. There will be about 1.8 watts per gallon (two bulb strip light) on this shallow tank, so hopefully that will be fine. The substrate is sand, and no ferts or CO2 will be added.

As for driftwood, I was checking out FloridaDriftwood.com because I'd seen it before. They sell driftwood pieces which supposedly don't contain tannins, so that would be pretty convenient. Has anyone tried the site or their products before? If it isn't recommended, I'll probably just get some DW from a local store, and unattach it from the slate base.

Thanks for any input.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Myself I prefer the driftwood from Hagen's Geosystems line, the tannins are actually beneficial in a breeding tank depending on what you're breeding. Tetras need them, some cichlids (the river ones like kribs) also benefit from them. And the Geosystems line is available in most pet stores now, infact the starter kits are more affordable than the regular waterhome line and have most of the same stuff and a few extras.

"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus

Sir,

How about something like this?

The tank in the picture is a 20G Long, has 2wpg, and Xmas moss on driftwood. Here is the link to the full log, it brings you to page two where the changes towards the current layout are displayed.

Let me know if you need more info,

Ingo

Attached Image:

20G Long QT Tank

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I was thinking something like this:



I know everyone envies my Paint skills, but I'm not available for lessons. Anyhoo. The red splotches are Anubias, the browns each represent a piece of driftwood, the green blobs are moss balls, and the glaring bright green sticks probably represent some kind of more grasslike Anubias. Maybe Anubias afzeli, I think it stays fairly short.

The way I imagine it right now, the two driftwood hunks would form a sort of arch with an overhang above, and would be covered with moss. The Anubias would be near the back of the tank, with the grasslike species framing the wood. The moss balls will help take up empty space.

That's asking a lot of a breeding tank, so we'll see how far I go. I'll slope the sand up towards the back to give the Anubias rhizomes more space, as the sand is spread very thin. Sound workable?

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

There's no real difference in requirements with the various mosses. They are all pretty easy. Xmas may prefer a bit more light then others but if it's on driftwood it's going to be close to the light anyway.

The only thing Mosses are finnicky about is temperature. Keep it below 28oC and they'll be fine.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Xmas moss looks best at a lower temp then the other mosses. At 78F it prob won't be too 'piney' as it is, but will look more like regular java.

Crank that up to 80-84F breeding/egg hatching temps and you have some yucky stringy looking xmas moss. Kinda defeats the purpose. For a warmer breeding tank I'd recommend regular java moss (the most hardy) or go with weeping. Weeping moss would look awesome on the driftwood (as can regular, but the weeping has delicate fronds that bend downward and can really turn a piece of driftwood into a showpiece) And agreeing with Bensaf, the closer that weeping moss is to the light, the happier it will be.

"Is Christmas moss easy to mold according to desire?"
Yup, as is any moss. Tie it where you want it, let it take over the object and grow out a bit, then shape it with trimming.

Excellent questions btw.
Peace,
Da


The Amazon Nut...

Sounds good. Since the fish species I'll probably end up with prefers warm temps for breeding, I'll dump the Christmass moss idea and look into the weeping stuff. If anything, I can at least buy Java moss, it's easy enough to get ahold of. Not quite sure how the rest of the plants will go, but I'm hoping that Anubias won't mind the shallow sand. If they do, then I'll have to get more creative. Maybe throw some gray slate in somewhere.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."