The Puffer Forum

Hey everyone, I was hoping to add some new plants to my aquarium to help out my Puffer 8 and his stress.

WPG is 1.0+ for Java Moss, my tank setup is old so I don't know how much watts are in my light, what do I do?
((They shine a white light if that helps..at all))

How do you place on your Java Moss roots onto rocks/driftwood?
((I was guessing rubberbands))

Further Questions Will Be Posted.

Java moss is really easy to grow. You can attach it with fishing line, or rubber bands, or whatever works really.

It won't do very well in brackish water though. Anything over 1.005 is pretty hard on any plant.

http://www.tropica.com Check that site out.

Oh really? This website told me that Java Moss or Java Fern would do well in brackish because its a VERY hardy plant.

-_-" Guess I was wrong?

Java moss and Java fern do better than most, it is true, but not even they will survive past a certain point.

If you go to that tropica website, and go to advanced search, you can look for plants that "accept brackish water" under the keywords drop down. It'll give you a short list. You may have some success with these plants, but again, nothing will survive in mid to high brackish for very long.

Many have had decent success with some species at the 1.005ish range, but not much beyond.

Sadly, some web sites and most LFS' consider a tank with any salt whatsoever--whether aquarium salt or marine mix--to be BW.

I read many earlier posts where folks wanted to try various FW plants in BW conditions and I eventually decided to do a small test using java moss. I took a healthy and dark green mass out of my snail tank and gradually raised the SG over a period of 6 weeks. Granted, 6 weeks might have been too quick and I only did one test under low wattage PC lighting, but the java moss was clearly affected by the time the SG was up to 1.006 and I doubt that it would have lasted long under those conditions. YMMV though.

I have had very good results with very realistic plastic and silk plants though, under all lighting conditions and from FW all the way to full SW. No growth at all (other than algae coatings at times) but no wilting or browning of the leaves at all!

Personaly, I think that the only plant that will properly survive in brackish water is Java Fern.

IMHO & IME anyone who posts that this that or the other FW plant does "well in brackish water" and does not specify what the density was, or how long the plant survived or if it grew at all is wasting my time and giving out easily misunderstood and mileading information. It is one of my pet peeves and a hot button issue for me.

Just as with folks who have a spoonful or two of salt in their tank and call it BW.

GIGO. arnton :6:

GIGO?

My SG is 1.005 and have had the Java Fern for around 5 months.

Raph, is it growing in there too?

Sorry, GIGO = Garbage In, Garbage Out.

Well my SG is 1.001 so... You guys think I should attempt to plant the plant in my tank?

How high do you plan to take your SG in the near future?

Not that high, since I have a Dragon Goby that needs low SG.

So.... I don't plan on buying anything this week except for light bulbs for my hood.

Well you might have decent luck if you keep your SG to around 1.004 - 1.005. That may be a level that would satisfy the figure 8, the goby, and the plants. I dunno if anything would thrive particularly well, but it should be reasonable for all of them. I'd also raise it extremely slowly. If 0.002 per week is the norm, try 0.001 per month.