[kivyee]

Just about to get this going...Going to try dsm to carpet montecarlo in the foreground. Also DSM for mosses on the cliffs. Hoping to flood in a month or so.
Initial set up...Like the gravel?
Just my budget "power sand" 🙂.

Ready to DSM! Starting that tonight

 

[kivyee]

Ok, so phase 2 is finally complete. Lots of pics - moss I applied by chopping into super fine pieces (fast moving scissors in a cup with a small amount of water and some moss). No way I'm putting that in the blender, though it did smell like it would make a great "green juice". The christmas moss was in slightly larger chunks so I just grabbed a bunch with my tweezers and put in on the rocks. The fissidens was much finer so I used a syringe to apply it, letting it flow down the rock face and catch on to the rough spots. Finally made sure there's enough water that the substrate was soaked but not pooling, and covered with cling wrap.
Ready to start


Chopped up christmas moss


Mosses applied - fissidens on left and christmas on right


Syringe application of fissidens


Ready to be sealed! Fingers crossed - I added Monte Carlo to carpet the foreground and some pearl weed along the cliff face.

 

[kivyee]

OK, finally time for an update. This is day 20 in my DSM. Been spraying water from a mister as many times a day as I remember...The moss is on rocks so I try to keep it moist. The Christmas moss has been growing and now the fissidens is finally showing some growth. MC carpet has been expanding now a little quicker.

The mister I have is really fine, so I haven't had any issues with too much water accumulating. Have a trip coming up though so I hope my neighbour can help me continue my DSM....Debating between that and flooding but the moss looks so close to really taking off now....

 

[Otocinclus]

If it was me, I'd probably flood right before you go on your trip. This stuff has been dry starting for almost 4 weeks and I find moss attaches pretty darn quick. It's a lot easier than to explain to your neighbour why you need this moss of rocks missed multiple times per day 😛

 

[kivyee]

Heh yeah, I was looking forward to the confused look - "you want me to do what?" and then the "Why?"

 

[Andrei_ierdnA]

What happened to this tank?
I see it's been about a year since your last update. Hopefully your neighbor didn't end up ruining it while you were away. :bigsmile:

 

[kivyee]

Sorry missed this message - The carpet worked super well - I'm pretty impressed with how it looks in a low-tech tank - unfortunately the moss didn't grow as it should - this is the tank now - in desperate need of a trim...