Aquarium Moss Farming | Easy Mode

This is a quick film showing how I used a spare aquarium to grow out moss over 125 days doing nothing after setting it up. Always have clean moss on hand or sell it. It's always in demand.

[@fbasantajr]

Jeff, very slick, you are sharing a lot of helpful information, much appreciate. Thank you from NYC

[@jmaquascaping]

Thanks Frank! I appreciate you following along and all your support!

[@apolloblue21]

Cool Video! Multiple Question, What Type of Moss? How long is lighting period? Do you do any Water Changes, if so how often and how much (percent)? How do you manage algae?

[@jmaquascaping]

Thanks! Vesicularia ferriei 'Weeping Moss' 1-2 Grow Tropica TC. The lights were on for 6 hours per day. I didn't do any water changes but they certainly wouldn't hurt. But I did clean my filter monthly which took all of a minute each time to rinse the detritus out of the sponge. I manage the algae by preventing it in the first place by using tissue culture. And low light on a short duration of 6 hours and the light is raised above the tank to eliminate hot spots. There was no fertilization, but during the grow-out process, I raised 13 Espei fry in that tank adding food for them. Baby brine shrimp and the last few weeks flake food dust. So a minute amount of nutrients was added along the way that wasn't shown between the beginning and end videos. Hope that helps!

[@lawrencefisher865]

Awesomeness! Lovely presentation.

[@jmaquascaping]

Thank you kindly! The goal is too share and contribute to the aquascaping community. Let's keep building it stronger!

[@michaelrojas7240]

Extra like Jeff . Perhaps in a future video you tell us about the pipe shelves and how you furnished your gallery. Again thanks for the tip!

[@jmaquascaping]

You got it! I do get the shelf question often. Same with my aquarium stands. I'm way overdue for a tour of the room and all the stuff. I will move this up in priority. I am very particular in what I use and how I go about things and have perfected it all over many years. Thanks for the feedback it helps me keep going and shapes what I do next!

[@chelmsford6774]

That is so cool. I have stainless steel mesh and I throw tons of Moss in the compost. Thanks for sharing your idea Cheers!

[@jmaquascaping]

Yea share that stuff out and make a few dollars while you're at it! So many folks need clean moss.

[@FZAquascapeIdeas]

Good job Jeff, nice method!

[@jmaquascaping]

Appreciate it!

[@SimplyAquascaping]

Great video and fun tutorial! I might have to try this out for myself.

[@jmaquascaping]

Hey Thanks! Yea its always nice to have a moss farm so you have an easy clean source ready to go for that next project of yours!

[@darrenderousse4804]

Very cool idea Jeff 👍

[@jmaquascaping]

Thanks Darren!

[@jerryjobe1480]

Hey Jeff. Cool vid. All that moss you gave me at Aquashella is massive now. Its growing in my greenhouse! Hope youre doing well bud.

[@jmaquascaping]

Oh wow Im so glad you could use it. I definitely slept on it too long and I can't even imagine how much it is now.

[@Scaping_the_six]

Great video, I definitely need to try this

[@jmaquascaping]

Yes, you do. It's very handy to always have clean moss on hand for projects. Trying to get it seems to be hit or miss otherwise. And always miss for me when I absolutely need it.

[@firstclassfish01]

Hi Jeff, always enjoy your work. You mentioned in another comment you didn’t fertilize, but the video says to weekly. Also, if the idea is speed, why no co2? Thanks much, appreciated!

[@jmaquascaping]

Good point. Yea in the beginning before I had fish in there I did fertilize a small amount. Once I was feeding them I stopped. And yes CO2 absolutely would have accelerated growth. This was just to grow it out with minimal effort. Hope that helps.

[@larryjohnny]

How many water changes. I’d be farming hair algae if I did it that way.. but I’ll try it out.. thanks for the cool editing!

[@jmaquascaping]

Thank you. Yea the key is the light duration and intensity.

[@VuMinhQuan-md1yg]

How do you prevent hair algae

[@jmaquascaping]

I usually start with tissue culture moss especially if it's for a professional gig. But in this case, this was collected from my CandleLit Cove Paludarium and has been mixed with other plants from the Tropica nursery. I know there is algae in the Paludarium. Including small amounts of BBA and green fuzz. I think the biggest factor to keeping the algae in check is the lighting. The short duration under 6 hours, the low intensity and the light is raised up off the aquarium so there are no hot spots. Secondarily the lower temperature in the aquarium where it was in the mid to high 60 F. And lastly good flow from the hob. After harvesting I had no issues with algae popping up in the moss in the big tank under stronger lighting, but I think it's very important to note that aquarium and filter were matured. Thanks for the great question and watching the video!

[@heyderekp]

Wouldn't a lower water level and just an airstone work for circulation? I'm working on an emersed setup for moss that just spraying it once a day with water and keeping it humid seems to be working well.

[@jmaquascaping]

Yea it will work just fine. Interesting on the emersed setup. Ive never had much luck growing it out quickly like this will be interesting to see how it does.

[@providedjoker2649]

Just curious….how long do you keep the light on?? ….🤔🌱🌱🌱

[@jmaquascaping]

Great question. And here I thought I was thorough. I just double checked to make sure I give you the 100% for sure answer and the light is on for 10:00AM to 4:00pm with a 30 minute ramp up and down. So that would be 5 hours full and 1 hour ramping.

[@firstclassfish01]

Sorry, one more question. My moss always gets brown on the underside. Yours was so dense I’d expect it, couldn’t see in your video, but did you have that problem? If not how to solve it?

[@jmaquascaping]

Yep it will get brown on the bottom once it gets dense and thick. This batch was just starting to brown out. The only option is to harvest. Keep a bit and restart.

[@firstclassfish01]

@@jmaquascaping thanks for the replies. I guess that is one downside, needing to constantly redo it if trying to maintain a long term scape. I’ve noticed susswasertang doesn’t have this tendency, but a fern and not a moss and much different.

[@9704429]

wow looks awesome.....which moss is it brother,,,

[@jmaquascaping]

It is from a 1-2 Grow Tropica TC labeled as Vesicularia ferriei 'Weeping Moss'.