Ground covering plants

[gustavo85]

How do you guys make Riccia, star moss and all those plants grow in the substrate? I love how they look and would like to try it some day!

 

[gustavo85]

I've heard about wire mesh...but is there something cheaper? if not, where do I buy the wire mesh?

 

[jake gillespie]

i use fishing line, just tie it down until it grabs on and then cut its bonds

 

[gustavo85]

i use fishing line, just tie it down until it grabs on and then cut its bonds

On the substrate?! How?

 

[gustavo85]

Also, additional to what to use to plant these on the substrate (as ground), which plant/moss would be better/easier to keep (low light, low maintenance)?

 

[tekonus]

I actually just picked up some java moss for my new 33g long tank with playsand substrate, so I am a little curious of this myself.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

riccia wont grow on the substrate. its a floating plant. the best you can hope for is to tie it down for a month or so before it floats back up. you can use tooling look in the fabric section somewhere its white and its like a net.

 

[tanker]

Riccia and Java moss does not stay on the substrate.

 

[DAVIDFBT]

I've heard of tying it down to small slabs of slate about 3 inches wide. make about 20 of those, lay them down on the sunstrate and you have a java moss or riccia ground cover until the riccia floats away or the java moss gets too long. I've heard that christmas or peacock moss is better for this method though.

 

[NickD]

The mesh can be bought at arts and crafts stores such as Michaels here in the states. Look in the needlepoint section of the store. There are other similar materials which can be bought at hardware stores. This also works with Java moss. Here a link I found.

http://www.aquamoss.net/How%20to%20create%20a%20moss%20wall/How%20to%20create%20a%20moss%20wall.htm