Moss Balls

[eldomingo]

do moss balls reproduce? because i bought one a few weeks back for my 60l tank and i've noticed little balls of algae forming on the ends of my plants. should i leave it and see what happens or just get rid of it?

 

[smegforbrains]

Nothing to do with the moss balls bud. It's a natural occurrance in a planted tank.


Try removing the algae and getting another moss ball or two. Marimo work best as they are actually a form of algae themselves and eat up all the nutrients that other algae thrive on.

 

[aaronnorth]

Marimo work best as they are actually a form of algae themselves and eat up all the nutrients that other algae thrive on.

A moss ball is a moss ball (or rather an algae ball) they are all exactly the same (Cladophora aegagrophila), no matter what they are called!

 

[eldomingo]

cool, thanks for the advice. i'm guessing they're not reproducing then? i'm gunna get rid of it cos it looks nasty

 

[aaronnorth]

they sometimes split in half and it will then form 2 balls but the process takes ages.

 

[eldomingo]

oh cool i'm not aiming for them to split or whatever i just thought they might've been reproducing
thanks for all your help guys
x

 

[col748]

Sorry to hijack but........i'm interested in moss balls maybe helping out with algae as i have an algae problem.

Will they slow algae growth?

 

[aaronnorth]

moss balls grow that slow they hardly use anything, buy some elodea densa (pond weed) and put that in your tank.

check the algae guide in my sig for some more details.

 

[col748]

Yeah thanks i have read your algae guide a few times now, i think i have BGA . When i clean it out it comes back very quickly on gravel and spreads to glass, once it gets to glass its spreads all over.

I used to run co2 and have heavily planted tank, but since this happened i have stopped co2 and removed all plants they were to messy the algae.

I think i'm going to try a black out but my nitrates are low, how do i go about making them higher with potassium nitrate you mention? What levels do i want i have a 180l tank?

 

[aaronnorth]

yes potassium nitrate is correct. Aim for 20ppm, whatever size tank - 40g to 500ml of water and adding 10ml per 100L of water would give you a value of 5ppm.

If you want you could try to squirt the KNO3 directly onto the BGA using a syringe or pippette and it might kill it, otherwise it will have to be a blackout.

What is your turnover?

 

[col748]

Sorry i don't know what you mean by turnover? If its the times the full volume of tank water is filtered (guessing here) i have no idea, i never ever given it a though. Its a rio180 tank with standard internal juwel filter and power head i also run a Eheim wet and dry external filter a 2227 i think this can filter up 350l tanks.

 

[aaronnorth]

turnover = how many times the water in the tank is turned over, e.g.

100l tank with a 200l/ph filter = 2x turnover as the filter turns the 100l over every hour.

In a planted tank we aim for at least 10x turnover (which means 1800l/ph on your tank) to make sure that nutrients & CO2 are delivered to all parts of the tank and to minimize dead spots where algae, especially BGA can occur.