Hi all,

I'm a long time fan of Lowyat (the building) and now a proud marimo owner. I've been away from Malaysia for 7 years but I manage to visit that place every time I come back xD

Anyway I just wanted to say thanks for making this thread, it's a great source of knowledge for me (and many others I'm sure), and to introduce my family.

This picture was taken a few days after one of my 2.5cm marimo "died" and fell apart. It endured three weeks in the postal system before arriving here, along with 10 other similar sized marimo that all got squashed and a little browned in the process.

I read everything I could find on the net before handling them, but nothing beats experience

In the interest of returning them to nice ball shapes, I was a little over-enthusiastic in rolling and squeezing them between my palms. The water came out brown the first 2-3 times, and then tufts of fur. Lots and lots of brown gunk floating around, even immediately after I changed the water and cleaned them.

After that I noticed two of them had "pacman'd" I quarantined and fridge spa'd one of them, but it was too late, it just kept falling apart. So I took the individual pieces and rolled them back together into nanos. They pearled and floated, then landed on top of each other.

Do you think they're trying to get back together?

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Added on August 9, 2012, 8:25 pm

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Added on August 9, 2012, 8:24 pmNah. It doesn't explain how my marimo can sink first, with no bubbles visible, then get crusted all over with bubbles, making it float to the top. If the air was inside the marimo in the first place, it would have floated first, then sank, right?

This post has been edited by Kaisergrendel: Aug 9 2012, 08:28 PM


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Really don't recommend it. From what I've seen/read it's very difficult to get the fibres to close back up.

Thanks!

Thanks!

Try hitting all the right conditions for the marimo; roughly 10C water (you can store some in the fridge), LOTS of light (I use a strong LED lamp that puts out very little heat), agitated water (I just shake the container or full blast tap water to get some air into it), and a pinch of salt.

This post has been edited by Kaisergrendel: Aug 11 2012, 12:17 AM

Hey, very low wattage, 2W if I remember correctly, but the beam is very narrow so most of it concentrates onto my tank. Pretty efficient. I can leave it on from day to night without worrying about the power bill.

Hey Fox, I think others will be able to answer the questions better than I can, but I have one piece of advice for you - start simple. Focus on giving your marimo the right kind of water and light first. The simplicity is the whole point with marimo! Unless you're an experienced aquarium owner, it's difficult to set up the right conditions for even just one type of organism. Put simply, if you decide to throw in more plants, fish, you're very likely to encounter deaths in the tank, which will then turn it into a very hostile environment for everything inside it unless you clean it up well. If you have experience or want to go ahead and try anyway, please ignore this ^^

But, based on what I've read:

2. Normal non-iodised salt will work. Leeyung says special "marimo salt" aren't anything special and just grossly marked up regular salt.
3. The fridge is for temperature, the darkness is to eliminate fast-growing unwanted algae that thrive on high amounts of light. Since the fast-growing algae have high metabolic rates, the lack of light will quickly kill them off, while the marimo is adapted to low light and grows very slowly. Use these parameters according to the state of your marimo.
4. Everywhere I've read says *any* artificial light will do, even your ceiling light. Just avoid direct sunlight, it's the #1 mistake owners seem to make. Whatever your light source, make sure it doesn't put out a lot of heat, or you could bake your marimo. Leeyung says high amounts of light encourages pearling.
6. Leeyung says use a filter, which cleans your water and incorporates fresh air into the water through agitation. The increased CO2 will encourage photosynthesis, which leads to more pearling and more rapid growth.

Good luck!

I would go with fluorescents or LED. I'm assuming you mean incandescents when you say "general lamp", which work by burning a filament to give off light. These are not good since they give off a good amount of infrared light (heat) that will affect the temperature of your water.

You know how plants are green? That means they reflect green light - meaning they don't absorb it and therefore don't need it. Knowing this, the best light for your marimo is actually light from the red and blue regions of the spectrum. Blue and red LED's will be the most efficient at providing the needed light, although it's not the most appealing.

You won't go wrong with white fluoro's or LED's really. You might consider the fact that fluoro's give off some UV light, but I doubt it's enough to harm most things.

Also, be aware that wattage is not a good indicator for lumens (amount of photon generation), since each lamp and each type of lamp has very different output characteristics. You will get a LOT more light from a 40 watt LED lamp compared to a 40 watt halogen, generally speaking.

Thanks for that! Show us your marimo when they arrive

I'm going out to buy a filter this weekend. A very low LPH one since there's nothing inside producing shit waste. Any tips?

This post has been edited by Kaisergrendel: Aug 16 2012, 07:25 PM

Please pardon the website, but I'm set on buying this HOB filter. I've seen many people recommend this brand above all others. Could be a bit pricey to pay in ringgit though

http://www.amazon.com/AquaClear-20-Power-F...s/dp/B000260FVG

The brand also sells all kinds of filter medium. I'm pretty comfortable with their range.

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Added on August 19, 2012, 12:29 amDamn, leeyung's marimo look flawless.

I tried to use gravel in my tank as well. After washing it for the 3rd time, I gave up. Just not worth the trouble, so now all that's in my tank is marimo and water, and I'm finding I quite like the look anyway. Makes cleaning easier too.

However, if you're set on using gravel, you could ask an aquarium shop to sell you existing gravel from their tanks. I did this once and boiled the gravel just to make sure I didn't import any nasties, and the water was clear.

This post has been edited by Kaisergrendel: Aug 19 2012, 12:29 AM

Sounds like nonsense to me. Activated carbon is a chemical filter, removes substances at a molecular level. It may remove some desirable stuff like fertilizer, medication, and nutrients for the bacteria, but it almost certainly won't directly affect bacteria or kill them all off.

Read here for more info: http://www.majesticaquariums.com.au/Articl...tails.aspx?p=91

I'm iffy about the need of beneficial bacteria for plain marimo tanks, but if you introduce fauna to it, then yes, the bacteria will process their waste and condition the water. Some filters will let you add biological filtering, which usually consists of porous ceramic beads that bacteria can grow on. This is the main stuff that houses bacteria in a filter assembly, although even foam can do the job.

This post has been edited by Kaisergrendel: Aug 19 2012, 02:07 PM

Aquatic organisms. Could have come from the marimo themselves if you boiled your gravel/coral stones. If they appear and persist, it means your water has enough biological matter to sustain them. Probably time for a water change? Make sure first though.

I got snails in one of my tanks from a single plant. They were too small to see when I got it, but they grew and grew O.o

This post has been edited by Kaisergrendel: Aug 23 2012, 08:58 PM

From what I've heard from a few owners, negligible effect. Keeping the water moving seems to work fine.

Your marimo are mis-focused, could you take the pic again?

I'm no expert but judging by the filaments they look real. Make sure after the bath, you give them reasonably aerated water, plenty of light, and cool water. If they pearl, it's a sure sign they're real. You can aerate water a little by putting some in a bottle and shaking vigorously.

Definitely the gravel. Nothing to do but to keep washing. Alternatively you can try cycling the water through the filter till it runs clear.

Domestic fridges should be between 4-10C max. Any warmer and you'll turn it into a garbage box

A warning to owners: Don't use soap to wash your tank xD I did it to my office marimos and they've gone quite pale and haven't pearled properly in awhile. Hopefully they haven't died on me yet O.O

Got pics? It's probably either bacteria or dead filaments O.O

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Added on September 6, 2012, 10:07 pmI have a problem with the salt-water ratio math. Let's say I have a 10L tank, and want to add 5% of the volume in salt to the water (as instructed in the FAQ). 5% of 10L is 500ml.

That's about two cans of coke worth of salt in roughly enough water to fill just under two soccer balls.

Can someone comment on this before I turn my tank into the Dead Sea?

This post has been edited by Kaisergrendel: Sep 6 2012, 10:07 PM

Oh sorry I didn't zoom in on the pic before. To me it looks like dead filaments. You can probably just trim it off if it really bothers you.

The FAQ states the amounts only in volume, not weight. Since salt is denser than water (unless really coarse), you can't assume 1ml of salt = 1 gram. Unless you've measured your own salt and arrived at that formula?

Did some quick research, seawater is generally around 3.5% or 35g/kg. Accounting for the lower density of medium/fine granulated salt, 5% salt in water will yield roughly the same salinity as seawater O.o

Just seems so strange dumping about half a kilo of salt into my tank xD

From what I read, Marimo's natural environment is brackish water - lake water mixed with seawater. Even though Lake Akan isn't salty anymore, apparently, it used to be.

Just what I read somewhere.

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Added on September 8, 2012, 3:50 pmNah, the concentration isn't high enough. Plenty of bacteria live in saline.

This post has been edited by Kaisergrendel: Sep 8 2012, 03:50 PM

Ah well if you're really careful I guess that's okay.

I think my marimo gone liao. Pretty sure you can guess which one it is xD


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These are actually 2cm ones if you couldn't tell.

Besides the big white one and the small white one, the others are actually doing quite well. The 1 month postage is mostly to blame for why they have brown spots. Getting better

I've just added them to a tank with a 3-stage filter and a small underwater pump to move the water around. I'm going to experiment with keeping them inside a continuous current and see how they do.

No joke about them not being that easy to keep. I guess it's relatively low maintenance AFTER you've learned to take care of them

It might be because of soap, but I also did place it in a window with only indirect sunlight. The first time I put it in the window with the same weather conditions, it was fine, and pearled like crazy. Second time is when I used soap, so soap is my main suspect. After that it slowly turned pale

This post has been edited by Kaisergrendel: Sep 9 2012, 09:56 PM

Very nice setup! What a comprehensive owner ^^

I think those are just inserted into some fine substrate, like sand. Or, you could stick them in hardening clay to give them a base. Just make sure the clay is not toxic!