Why is My Java Moss Always Ugly, Dirty, and Foul?

[hydra]

I have had it for about 4-5 years, in two of my heavily planted tanks.
Over the years I've had algae blooms, cyanobacteria, and all the other unavoidable plagues, but in general, and particularly as of late, my tanks are very clean and beautiful.
Except for that damn moss.
First of all, it came with the extra bonus gift of hair algae. It took forever to eradicate that. But even with the hair algae gone and the rest of the tanks sparkling clean, it always looks dark, black/brown, dirty, fuzzy, and gunky.
It has NEVER had that bright green beautiful branching look it's supposed to have.
The tips grow out bright green and healthy, but after 1/4" it gets all gunky.
Do I have some rare undesirable strain?
Do I have an algae that only grows in Java moss?
Would Flourish Excel help?

[mistahoo]

How long do you have your lights on? Dosing any nutrients? Any livestock?

[hydra]

My lighting can be a bit random. I just turn them off whenever I go to bed.
I just started using liquid fertilizer, but like I said, it's been a problem for years.
Small fish have come and gone. One tank is usually a little over-stocked, the other is usually under-stocked.
filtration is more than double on both tanks.

[hydra]

I just took a very close look at the moss with my new glasses.
I'm beginning to suspect black beard algae.
And that damn string algae appears to be making an encore.

[troy tucker]

You need to put your lights on a timer. You can get one at wal-mart for about $5.00 Cut back on the time your lights are on. algae needs light. I have my planted tank with 4hrs. on 1hr. off and 4hrs. on giving the plants the light they need but not giving the algae enough light to grow.

[mistahoo]

+1 for a timer. It's cheap and helps keep algae at bay. Set them up for about 8 hrs. I tend to break my photo period to 4hr on, 2 hr off, 4 hr on with a low-med light setup. If you start dosing, make sure you keep dosing accurate and at the same time each day. Algae takes advantage of two things: extra light and an unbalance of nutrients (macros and micros). Which essentially is an excess of nutrients.

[hydra]

If algae needs so much light, why is it so easy to grow?
I mean, you start out with a cheap basic setup and buy low-light beginner plants.
As you get more into it, you get better stronger lights so you can grow the cooler plants, right?
So why does algae seem to grow just as easily in low-light newbie tanks as it does in bright high-tech tanks, yet everybody says lowering the light is the silver bullet?
You must be right. Everybody agrees. It just doesn't make sense to me.

[Roshan8768]

It's about having enough plants to outcompete the algae and balancing light, nutrients, and CO2 to allow them to do so in both cases.

For the most part, especially in newish tanks you need these things for plants to do well.

Med-High light:
1. A large plant mass i.e. 50-75% of your tank's volume needs to be filled with fast growing plants.
2. Dose excel or set up CO2 & do water changes to manage initial algae.
3. Slowly transition to the more desirable plant species instead of the weeds you have while keeping an eye out for algae.
4. As time passes and depending on how fast your plants grow, you will need to dose essential nutrients that are used up after the initial bank of these nutrients from the substrate have been used up.

Low light:
1. Start with a short photoperiod 4 hrs ish and then ramp up to a maximum of 8 over several weeks keeping an eye out for algae.
2.If you have algae issues, shorten photoperiod and either physically remove it from the system or add fish, shrimp, snails that will clean it up.
3. If algae issues persist, up your waterchange schedule to manage your nutrient levels.

[Roshan8768]

As several people have mentioned above, algae thrives when there is instability in your system, i.e. a changing photoperiod, super high nutrients, highly fluctuating CO2 levels, etc. In stable appropriate conditions ALL plants will outcompete algae. You need to do all that you can to get to this point. As I mentioned above, the path to get there can be slightly different depending on your lighting and CO2 situation.

Remember manage 3 variables: light, CO2, and nutrients to find the sweet spot. Based on what you have told us, the easiest thing for you to do to find greater stability is shorten your photoperiod and put it on a timer. Let me know if this still doesn't make sense.

[mistahoo]

Remember manage 3 variables: light, CO2, and nutrients to find the sweet spot. Based on what you have told us, the easiest thing for you to do to find greater stability is shorten your photoperiod and put it on a timer. Let me know if this still doesn't make sense.

Exactly. In reality it's all boils down to an imbalance of something which allows algae to take advantage and thrive. It may be lights not being on a cycle, excess nutrients, lack of core macro nutrients, excess CO2, lack of CO2, etc. The only way to know if you're lacking or in excess of is to have a routine for lighting and dosing. Also, what kind of plants you're growing play a big role in determining what kind of nutrients you may need to add (i.e. iron, phosphorus, potassium).

[hydra]

3. Slowly transition to the more desirable plant species instead of the weeds you have while keeping an eye out for algae..

Weeds. lol I wouldn't know anything about "aquarium weeds".
By the way, is anybody interested in a monster Java fern and some corkscrew vals? I'm trying to make room for some anubias. Wink-wink

[hydra]

I've certainly had more than my share of instabilities in my tanks lately! Jeeze! I was just coasting along so nicely for so long, then BAM!
I switched to LEDs, sold over half the fish, then started a major aquascape redesign,.... in one tank.
Then, in the tank with the gnarly moss, well,.. two words- ALWAYS QUARANTINE.
I picked up a strain of ich that was so resilient, by the time I was thru nuking it, it took about 75% of the fish and plants with it. Never saw anything like it in 30yrs of fish keeping.
But the weird thing is that this dark mushy dirty Java moss has been like this for years, thru stable times as well as chaotic, and whatever it has has never effected anything else.
At least not until I just recently tried liquid fertilizer.
I seem to have angered it.
No more ferts for THAT tank.
And yes, the balancing thing makes sense. I forgot about that.
I usually just fill a tank with water and plants and it more or less balances itself eventually, so I never thought about it much.
These recent upheavals are taking me back to Basic Aquaria 101.
Thanks for all the help everybody.
I'll put it on a timer and try some Flourish Excel.

[ptran]

Weeds. lol I wouldn't know anything about "aquarium weeds".
By the way, is anybody interested in a monster Java fern and some corkscrew vals? I'm trying to make room for some anubias. Wink-wink

PM me on the Java fern and corkscrew please. Thanks

[mistahoo]

Also some mosses and plants tends to "melt" when excel is first added. Give it some time and it'll bounce right back

[troy tucker]

if you need some anubias? I have some. 2 types.

The one thing you could do with the moss is to pull it out and throw it away.