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I was able to get a moss covered rock from a fellow Opae Ula rancher that was growing in their Opae Ula tank.
And I am thankful. They post here sometimes.
Anyway. We all know about the Hair Macro Algae some people have. You can see it in the back of my picture.
But I think they have found another type of moss that will thrive in our brackish tanks.
I bet they can market it, if they can get it to spread to new rocks.
I took a picture of the rock that is covered with the moss, that seems to grow over surfaces.
I am planning to get a bag of lava rock and see if I can cut small pieces of the moss and tie them to the surface and get them to grow over the rock.
Anyone have a better idea of how to do it?
I wonder what type of algae, or moss it is?

Looks like a normal marimo, what is your salinity?

odin wrote: ↑28 Oct 2020 19:20 Looks like a normal marimo, what is your salinity?

1.013, but it is growing on a rock.
I never had marimo balls before, are they growing on rocks?

Interesting. If it is covering a rock it would be something new. Regular marimos usually don't grow on rocks. The one I tried yellowed and slowly died.

Shrimpkeeper wrote: ↑31 Oct 2020 20:54 Interesting. If it is covering a rock it would be something new. Regular marimos usually don't grow on rocks. The one I tried yellowed and slowly died.

I am going to try to take some off of the rock and see if I can get it t attache and cover other rocks or items.
It will take some time, but I will try to take pictures.

It was almost impossible to get the moss off of the lava rock. It was growing into the rock. I tried to scrape some off. I am not sure if it will grow from what I scraped off. I tried to press it into holes in a new clean lava rock. When I put it in the aquarium half of it floated off, but half stayed where I put it. We shall see, growth will be slow, if at all.
I had just bought a kit to help care for a planted tank. It had long tweezers in it. I used it to position the rock and try to reposition some of the moss that floated off.
We shall see...

Good luck and keep us up to date!


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Experiment with it. There's so little plants available for brackish. Curious to see if it will spread or regrow

Vorteil wrote: ↑06 Nov 2020 21:37 Experiment with it. There's so little plants available for brackish. Curious to see if it will spread or regrow

First test was a failure, not because the plants died though. The Opae Ula ate every piece I trimmed off and put on the rock!
I will set up a tank just to experiment with the surface algae. I am surprised they ate it all in just a couple of days.
I guess they ate it because I cut it loose. Not sure?

I just bought a bag of lava rocks from Lowes.
I will boil them and put them in a shallow tank of brackish water and see if I can get the new surface algae to propogate.
Any advice on things to try are welcomed.
I have a Tilapia tank and every week the nitrite get high before I do a 70% water change. I will use water from the tank before a water change to make the water brackish water from. That should give the algae plenty of nutrients. I am thinking about blowing bubbles into it through a straw every day. It won't put much CO2 in the water, but it will add a little.
Or, I can take sugar water in a bottle inoculated with brewer's yeast and let the CO2 produces bubble through a stone.
Input is welcomed. I am dissappointed the shrimp consumed mt experiment!