# Planted Tanks > Plant Talk > Aquatic Moss Club >  Growing Mosses emersed

## timebomb

Hi, everyone,

Actually, I didn't want to write about this so early as I'm not sure if it works. But for the sake of my good friend, Daphne Freeman who's trying something similar too, I'm putting up this topic for discussion. 

I'm trying to grow 3 types of mosses, Erect, Christmas and Java in emersed form. It's actually quite easy to grow them emersed if there's a constant supply of water to keep them moist, as in what I did with the Christmas Moss in my terrarium tank. Over there, the moss is simply draped over a piece of driftwood that has 4 holes drilled into it. Inside these holes are airline tubings feeding water to the moss. The tubings are connected to a powerhead hidden inside the filter compartment. 

But it can be quite a bit of work to rig up the powerhead to the tubings and then to the holes in the driftwood. It also requires a lot of space. So I'm trying something different and I think it may work. 

I'm using simple plastic containers. Inside I have peat moss, the kind we used to incubate our killifish eggs. I don't add a lot of water to the containers but just enough to keep the peat moist. I put the moss on top of the peat and keep the container tightly closed. I then placed the containers somewhere in my balcony where they can get some light.

If it works, it's going to be a zero-maintenance thing. I won't have to water the mosses as the water cannot escape from the air-tight containers. The moss needs no fertiliser as they are undemanding plants. There's no need for CO2 too as they are grown emersed. It's something like a greenhouse effect, if I'm not wrong.

Here are some pictures:











As you can see from the last picture, there's a lot of condensation in the plastic containers. The picture was taken a few hours after I put on the lids.

By the way, I just learnt from David Grim that the word "emersed" should be spelt with one "m" and not 2 as I've always thought.

Loh K L

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## hwchoy

I never noticed you spelling it with two "m"s.

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## discusdave

And the only reason I knew that was that Daphne asked for clarification on the spelling, so I looked it up for her. :-)

I think the error is very common because the other term we hobbyists use is "immersed" growth, of course meaning under water. We probably just assume the opposite has two "m"s in it as well.

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## discusdave

Kwek Leong,
That will be great if it works. My thought is: where will the moss get the CO2 it needs to grow? I guess regular opening/closing of the containers could do that. If it uses all the CO2 up in an airtight container, then would it stop growing?

What about a couple small pinholes on the sides to facilitate gas exchange? The plants will produce O2 in the container, but they will need to get rid of it. With a couple small holes, diffusion would bring in new CO2 and vent O2 produced in the container. Tiny holes shouldn't dry out the containers very much at all.

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## gweesm1

> That will be great if it works. My thought is: where will the moss get the CO2 it needs to grow?......


Hi David,

Your concern (Low/No CO2) is valid. CO2 is one of the main components required for photosynthesis, once the CO2 is used up, the process stop.

This happens in tissue culture too, ex-plant in tissue culture make little used of CO2 as the air exchange is poor. In order to counter this, sucrose(sugar) is often used, thus the plants uses/draws energy from sucrose instead of depending on photosynthesis.

BTW, the moss will not die in KLs method, however the growth will be stun.

Regards,

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## FC

I think David's point is right too. I think having some holes at the side of the container and at the horizontal level between the peat and the top of the moss should be the best location. I guess it would keep the moisture and provide slow exchange of outside air (to get CO2).

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## timebomb

> I think the error is very common because the other term we hobbyists use is "immersed" growth, of course meaning under water.


Dave, 

Thanks for pointing this out. I'm always keen to learn a new word. The other word that puzzles me is "submersed". Before I became a hobbyist, the only other word I know that is used to describe something growing under water is "submerged". It took me some time to figure out "submersed" and why it's used more often than "submerged" or "immersed". Although all 3 words seem to have the exact same meanings, "submerged" seems to indicate that the condition is only temporary while "immersed" isn't popular probably because in its spoken form, it sounds like "emersed". It really can be hell for a listener to differentiate the words "emersed" and "immersed". They sound almost the same but mean exactly the opposite. 

Loh K L

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## tcy81

so do you sell yourr mosses ?
interested in your erect mosses

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## FC

tcy81,

Firstly, please read the new stickies.

Sad to say but sms form of words are commonly used and accepted in most local forums. If you see it in the right perspective, you will realised that such form of writings are distorting the language and make the sender looks weird and to certain extend childish. I mean, we have keyboard (unlike handphones) to use, why the need for short-typing? Strictly speaking, writing in this manner can sometime be seen as offensive/rude.

I hope you think about what I said. I would be delighted to see you correcting your own post.

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## JohnnyArgentina

Hi, let me introduce me. I'm a planted aquarium fan from Azul, Argentina. A few weeks ago I've collected a moss that grows here. It's a really too slow grower, so i want to try your method. Since the post is from february, i would apreciate to know the outcome of your experiment. Thank's and sorry for my bad english, greetings from the south, Juan.-

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## timebomb

> i would apreciate to know the outcome of your experiment. Juan.-


Welcome to the forum, Juan. You must be the first member here who's from Argentina. Don't worry about your English; we understand you perfectly. 

I'm afraid to say the experiment failed miserably. The mosses didn't grow in the air-tight containers. They didn't die either but nothing was happening. To grow mosses emersed, I think a better way would be to put them on a driftwood where they can be kept moist. I thought about creating a web page to describe how I do it but since you asked, I will put up the pictures here.

I have a piece of driftwood in my terrarium tank. It's quite large and I have 4 holes drilled into it, in strategic places. Here's how the driftwood looks with the airlines fed into the 4 holes.


The airlines are connected to a PVC pipe that has 4 holes drilled into it. Each hole is attached with a L-shaped gang valve. Here's how the pipe looks:


To keep the airlines from falling off, I use pins to hold them in position. 


The PVC pipe is fitted into the end of another pipe which is attached to a powerhead. 


Here's the overall view:


I simply draped the Erect Moss over the driftwood. That was about a month ago. Here's how it looked at that time:


Here's how it looks now:


Loh K L

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## vinz

I had a terrarium before and had moss growing emersed on the wet wood, without having to "irrigate" them. You can barely see them behind the Hydrocotyle leucocephala in this picture:


The tank is covered with the standard cover that comes with these tanks, but with the detachable portions (to allow installation of filter plumbing or HOB fitlers) removed. These holes were not utilised and left open for ventilation. I'ld say they took up about 10% of the total cover size.

The tank has a small internal filter (one of the Edens) that had its output diverted to produce surface agitation, and lighted with a 1ft pink FL.

The tank walls and wood are always wet from condensation. I guess the wood drew up some water as well. The moss grew pretty well and at some point after months, Riccia appear out of nowhere on the emersed moss. This tank gets ZERO supplementary fertilisation, not even root tabs or base fert. The only thing the moss could have been feeding on is the rotting wood. The Hydrocolyte was happy with newt waste and uneaten frozen blood worms (fed on alternate days).

This tank was on my desk in my old office which had air-con but wasn't cold (that location was near the windows and had a bunch of servers, 2 printers and a fridge in the vincinity). Any wood or plants left sitting in the open dried up quickly from the drier air-conditioned air.

I had other "terraiums" too that were covered and had partially emersed (or immersed, depending on your perspective :P ) driftwood. I never grew moss on those, but the wood were always wet without deliberate wetting. They all had about 5 to 10% of their covers ventilated, some with holes as wide as 1cm in diameter.

Anyway, I'm setting up another terrarium for my newts soon. This time I'm planning on irrigating the wood and was wondering how to hide the piping. I like KL's idea of drilling thru the wood (d'oh, why didn't I think of that!). However, after reviewing my old setups, I'm wondering if irrigation is necessary. The only reasons I can think of is that the wood in this new tank will be a lot taller then before, and I'll be growing bigger plants (Anubias and Microsorium) on the wood. Maybe I'll do a test and see whether the wood stays wet. Which reminds me, it's time to start soaking the wood!

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## Green Baron

Vincent,
Where did you buy your terrarium tank ? I am looking for one but so far I have not seen any at the LFSs I frequent.

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## vinz

I ordered a custom sized tank from Nature Aquarium to fit the wood I found. It's a "standard shaped" aquarium, i.e. all 4 walls are the same height to prevent the newts from climbing out.

If you mean the tanks with the short front and sloped sides, then try Eco-Culture. They have one as a display tank. They might be able to order one in for you.

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