Moss balls => Moss carpet?

[nothingtoreallygetfastfor 17]

Anyone have experience (or ideas) on how to fold out moss balls into a moss carpet? Supposedly this is possible, please tell me if I've been mislead.

I have a 45 US gallon tank, with two or three handfulls of river rocks, a PVC pipe, and 3 marimo moss balls on the bottom, no gravel or sand. The moss balls irritate me sometimes because I can't consistently make them stay centered in the bend of the pipe (or anywhere else), and I'd prefer to spread them out to cover the top of the PVC pipe and/or some of the river rocks.

-How do you spread out moss balls without breaking them into little pieces, is there a simple way?

-Would they even grow onto a smooth surface like river rocks, glass, or PVC?

-If so, how do I keep the future moss carpet from floating away during WCs until they become firmly established?

[Pearlscaleperfect 3,561]

Moss balls are extremely slow growing and not good candidates for carpeting at least from what I've read and seen!

[number20121 2,663]

From having an accident with one of my moss balls and the gravel vacuum, it seems if you gently pry it open, you can just carefully pull it out of the ball shape into some sort of uneven sheet. A few bits and pieces will probably come off.

I would then get some black thread and tie the moss sheet around the pvc pipe. Not sure if it will grow onto it, but you can always try to make the pipe's surface rough with some very coarse sand paper.

I have not done this myself, I am just speaking theoretical. No guarantee that it actually will work.

[Daniel 5,668]

Personally I wouldn't even attempt having a carpeting plant in a goldfish tank, chances are it will be eaten, or make water changes a nightmare (think trapped debris). If it were on the other hand a tropical tank, I'd go with HC (Hemianthus Callitrichoides), it's far easier to grow than glossostigma, and best of all, unlike moss balls it is relatively quick growing.

Edit: Whoops I completely misread the original post, I thought you meant as a ground covering.

I think if memory serves me right, Tithra tried something similar but with a moss wall; I don't think it worked out very well. If you have some flame moss it makes for great coverage, far better than a moss ball.

Edited September 17, 2012 by dan in aus

[nothingtoreallygetfastfor 17]

Hmm, flame moss sounds like it'd look better. I can keep the moss balls as balls. And I'd like to eventually have java ferns or something similar along the back. Thanks, everyone, for your input.