I don’t know why I didn’t really think of this earlier – but Sphagnum moss has a natural ability to acidify water. We all know that peat moss (granulated) has the ability, albeit short lived, to lower the pH down to the 4′s. What about LIVE moss? A little reseach online shows promising articles. Live Sphagnum removes nutrients from water, to the point of water quality being like distilled water. It also actively remove Ca++ ions and releases H+ ions, acidifying the water down to the 3′s and 4′s. Best of all – it grows well in the conditions we want for our blackwater crypts! A few months ago, I’d taken a few handfuls from a bale of long fiber sphagnum – dead as can be. I soaked it in water, then layed it out in a tray with a dome. Humidity quickly rose to 100%. There was no standing water per say – but everything was sopping wet. I put the tray under a flourecent light fixture, and soon the dead moss started taking on a greenish hue. A few weeks later – I could make out little green heads of live sphagnum starting to grow. A few months later – I had a huge mat of live sphagnum! I’ve taken this matt and broken it into several segments, and stuffed it into my crypt tank, in between the pots of crypts, with the moss just above the water level. We’ll see what happens! I’ll record the TDS and pH of the water as it exists right now in that setup and report back. Hopes are high.
Sphagnum sp.
– August 27, 2008Posted in: Culture Info, Experiment, Observations
Hello Ghazanfar, I missed your post for few months, great thing reading you again.
This is a really interesting thread. I think you know about my ‘researching’ about live moss culturing with java one and so. But the problem with this moss is the pH, a bit high for those sensitive plant from the swamp forest.
I will follow your conclusion about this theme.
Good to hear from you again Xema. You’ve been MIA! So far the pH
has dropped down from the low 5′s
to the low 4′s. Only time will tell how this works in the long run.
The frog and plant world yet again mingle, I use it in my tadpole tanks that prefer the lower pH.
I’ve had so much of my LFS (long fiber sphagnum, not local fish store!) come to life that when growing some of my micro mini plants I’ve had to start boiling it before use to make sure it won’t come back to life and strangle the poor things! Usually the high quality New Zealand stuff will come back readily… lower quality stuff may not, and comes with a lot of detritus in it, and usually turns green from algae, not growing moss! Ew… keep an eye on your smaller plants.
Using live sphagnum (bought that way, not brought back to life) is a recent trend in the frog world… doesn’t make sense to me. The dry stuff adapts better than the live stuff (grown in full sun and doesn’t take light level change well) and doesn’t harbor a bunch of unwanted pests. As long as you get the high quality stuff and have some patience…
Sphagnum and wild almond leaves make for very happy low pH loving tadpoles
Can we see pics of you mossed set up in the future?
Hey Ghazanfar, are you still using live Sphagnum in your Black water set up? I added some to my BW setup which we collected here in TX. Since adding it C elliptica in this tank has melted. This is probably due to further drop in pH.
Did you experience this with any crypts in your set up?
I ended up removing it all, but it did work quite well for me. Water would remain very soft and acidic. Any change in the water chemistry, even water height seems to distress C. elliptica. Some crypts are unfazed, but C. elliptica in particular seems pretty sensitive to changes. It’ll come back…
Thanks. Yes , I had slightly increased the water level couple of days back drowing a few leaves of C elliptica.