# riccia growing



## fraser2009 (Jan 4, 2009)

hey 
i got a large lump of riccia today which i believe was grow in a fish tank so i was wondering for those who have grown it how did you help it get going.
Fraser


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

its is a plant that need a good ammount of light and needs to be moist all the time in order to flourish well. so if you hav ea pond or a spot in yoru tank that gets misted constantly or is moist more often then not i woudl put it there, it grows rather fast as well.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

Make sure it gets the best light you can give it. Without good light it wont flourish even if its wet


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

It also works really well on water features, including rock. See below:

Before:









After:


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## fraser2009 (Jan 4, 2009)

i have it in a my tank 13 inches away from the light source and the tank has a floor space of 24 inch by 24 and has 48 watts t5ho and i will be installing reflectors. the area has a mix of soil which is 1 part orcid bark, 1 part compost ad 1 part coco fiber round the pond area so it should hold moister well and ill mist the are extra.
do you think i will be ok ? 
plus what kind of growth rate should i expect ?


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

Keep it wet and it will go crazy, the above tank is about 4 months growth.


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## fraser2009 (Jan 4, 2009)

wow great tank how long did that take ?


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

see above. the tank is now being dried out for mantellas so the riccia is withering but i'm sure it will come back once i start the rainy season again. just keep it wet and bright and it will take over.


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## fraser2009 (Jan 4, 2009)

ah did not see the time frame looks great shame if it dies


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

Yeah, not a problem. I get so much growth in that tank that when something whithers another plant takes its place. Good times!


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## fraser2009 (Jan 4, 2009)

so what set up do you have on that tank what size is it and what light you got over it ?


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

29gallon with glass top and two 15W 24 inch fluorescents with color of 6500K.


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## fraser2009 (Jan 4, 2009)

right so thats about the same level im at thats good news.


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## Link3898 (Sep 18, 2008)

one thing i am trying is i had a spare 5 gal tank, but not enough riccia.. sooo... two 22oz bottles some fishtank air line a T connector and an airstone and two spiral flourescent lights later... i have a tank setup with a CO2 injection system for growing it... really really inexpensive and already only 3 days later the riccia is becoming more and more green and starting to grow and recover from being sat out on a peice of driftwood that wasnt getting misted enough...


(i can take some pics if this helps..)


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## kawickstrom (Oct 3, 2008)

Link3898 said:


> one thing i am trying is i had a spare 5 gal tank, but not enough riccia.. sooo... two 22oz bottles some fishtank air line a T connector and an airstone and two spiral flourescent lights later... i have a tank setup with a CO2 injection system for growing it... really really inexpensive and already only 3 days later the riccia is becoming more and more green and starting to grow and recover from being sat out on a peice of driftwood that wasnt getting misted enough...
> 
> 
> (i can take some pics if this helps..)


Yes please do.. You have me intrigued


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## Link3898 (Sep 18, 2008)

fraser2009 said:


> it grows very fast in aquariums floating if you want alot pump the tank with ferts and co2 you would have more than you will ever need


LMAO i just remembered this was your suggestion to me!!! LOL 

by the way.... lol.... it works very well! 




yeah sure thing Keith  i took some a couple hours ago, just gotta load them up...


-Keith


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## Link3898 (Sep 18, 2008)

ok so here is the DIY CO2 reactor that i threw together... took all of 5 minutes to make and works well, and is super inexpensive! (you may even have the supplies already) 

supplies:

2- 22 oz plastic bottles 
air line tubing
plastic airline T
airstone (or CO2 diffuser if you have one)
silicone
yeast 
sugar 
water

a yeast reactor is the same idea as brewing beer. the yeast converts carbohydrates (sugar in this case) into alcohol. as a result, CO2 is made as a byproduct from the yeast, just like the carbonation in beer. so then by using the airline you can direct that CO2 into your aquarium.
heres the ingredients list

per 20 oz pop bottle:
1.5 cups water
.5 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon yeast (yeast has to be hydrated first. mix it in a small amount of leucwarm water, then let it sit for 10 minutes)

Mix the sugar and water until its dissolved, then add the hydrated yeast mixture then pour into the empty bottle screw on the lid and your good to go! this needs to be changed every month or so or the alcohol builds up and kills the yeast...





































heres one patch of riccia i chose for this experiment before (three days ago) obviously not happy










and now here several days later (duno which one it is they expanded and such)



















oh and i put the airstone right under the intake of a small powerhead to help distribute and hopefully dissolve the CO2 more











that peice of wood i threw in there because i figgured it couldnt hurt to have some tannins in the water.. which obviously this peice was loaded full of


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## fraser2009 (Jan 4, 2009)

hm intresting im on a mobile but cant wait to get to a pc and see your pics. I have a couple aquariums i could use .they are high light


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## Link3898 (Sep 18, 2008)

one thing i want to add... make sure the air tubing is as short inside the bottle cap as possible... IF the yeast foams up and gets pushed out the airline into the tank it may kill things... this has never happened to me but some people have had a bottle fall over and such and it killed everything so make sure the bottles cant fall over (expecially if you have cats as they will find it) and make sure the tubing doesnt distend into the bottle more than say 1cm keeping the liquid at least a couple or more inches away from the tubing... you can see in my pics there is no air tube inside the bottle showing..


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## Delgado (Oct 8, 2008)

If you can be bothered with the extra complexity, one way of building in a failsafe for foaming yeast is to feed your output pipe into a second sealed bottle half full of clean water. The pipe coming from your mixture bottle should be long enough to go under the water level and the output pipe going to the tank opens into the airspace above. That way any fermenting products getting out of the first bottle are caufght in the water and only the CO2 makes it through to the tank. 

I used to do this for a while in a fishtank I had set up as it was pretty hard to judge how much the mixture was going to foam...you'd think it was ok but then the room would warm up a bit and it would go mad.

Just thinking - would it help to have an upended plastic tray or something above the airstone just to catch the CO2 to increase surface area contact with the water and exposure time to improve absorption rate perhaps?


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## Link3898 (Sep 18, 2008)

i was actually thinking about drilling a hole in a plastic test tube putting the airstone inside the tube(upended underwater) then running more airline from that to an aqualifter pump and then back to the tank through about 3-4 feet more airline wound in a tight spiral (mostly to save space) and then having the return from the aqualifter be dumped right by the powerhead to again help distribute it around the tank.

was that to confusing??


i like your idea with the clean water chamber, great info!


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## fraser2009 (Jan 4, 2009)

you would be better making a diy difuser out of a bottle or old gravel vac


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## Link3898 (Sep 18, 2008)

yeah... i actually have a glass diffuser with a ceramic plate layin around somewhere, i just like to experiment with things


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## Delgado (Oct 8, 2008)

Or (and I know this isn't in the spirit of DIY) you could just buy a diffuser, I just checked and they're quite inexpensive compared to what I was expecting - found one on ebay for about £6-7. It obviously doesn't matter how the CO2 is produced but I think maximising the gas exchange is going to be the key to getting noticable results 

Edit: sorry you beat me to it with your post

Interesting project, I'm looking into getting some riccia going too so I'm keen to see how it goes


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## fraser2009 (Jan 4, 2009)

yeah im the same lol i have all the kit around for a pressurised system just never set it up


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## kawickstrom (Oct 3, 2008)

Wow Keith that looks easy. I will definitely try this as I am going to be needing a lot of ricca soon. 

It's just regular activated yeast right?


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

Keith, that CO2 system woudl work better if you place seran wrap over the tank so you would trap the co2 in it.


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## fraser2009 (Jan 4, 2009)

wit h the co2 from yeat there is mixes using jello and a small spoon of bicarbonat soda and you can get up to a month a bottle


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## McBobs (Apr 26, 2007)

This might be a dumb question, but what about using very small amounts of dry ice maybe once a day to release CO2 into the aquarium? 

-Matt


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## ahinkle (Oct 15, 2007)

This is really weird but I started to do the same type of setup for riccia today without looking for this post first. 

One exception is that I am using a glass jar with a sturdy plastic lid, I am using glass to make it more eco friendly in the long run. 

I am excited to see some results like link posted.
Thanks for reinforcing that the idea would work.


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## markbudde (Jan 4, 2008)

McBobs said:


> This might be a dumb question, but what about using very small amounts of dry ice maybe once a day to release CO2 into the aquarium?
> 
> -Matt


This would work fine, but requires you gettign dry ice every day. In that case, why not just get a tank of compressed CO2?

And just so everyone knows, CO2 is WAY more soluble in water than is oxygen.


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## McBobs (Apr 26, 2007)

Thats exactly what I'll do then. Im gonna get a CO2 cartridge for BB guns, rubber band a black cat to it, light it, and drop it in the tank! Instant water dissolved CO2! Problem solved! 

-Matt


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## Link3898 (Sep 18, 2008)

just be sure to dodge those flying peices of broken glass... then remember to duck again as the remenants of the cartrige come wizzing by as well 

not that a black cat would really even dent the CO2 cartrige... the tank on the other hand may be cracked lol



about covering the tank, i have some scrap peices of glass that would overhang the tank a bit but they would cover the entire top, so i will find them and thow them up there and see what happens


i have a recycle bin thats in our garage so i am just using the bottles from there and tossin them back in when they are no longer usable




so far i have noticed a huge difference... i have another patch growing upstairs in my black ghost knife tank (floating as well) and there is no CO2 just a powerhead and HOB filter.. that patch doesnt look nearly as healthy and hasnt really grown much in several weeks.. and its inches below the light so that shouldnt be the problem


interesting stuff!


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## fraser2009 (Jan 4, 2009)

just looking to see if any of you have updates on your riccia growing attempts id love to see them.
Fraser


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