Java Moss is an aquarium plant that has a low light requirement. You can check out this guide at Aquarium Blueprints to see how you can grow this plant without using any fish tank lights a tall.
Our Experience with Java Moss
Java Moss has been growing in our tanks for over a decade. Despite starting out with just a small portion, the plant eventually expanded to all over our 55-gallon aquarium and is also growing rapidly in our 20-gallon one as well.
The moss was able to grow even though we never installed a light fixture to our aquariums.
Tips for Growing Java Moss without Lights
1. The first step to growing this plant without any fish tank light is to make sure that your tank is getting just enough ambient room lighting.
We placed our tanks directly under a mounted room light. These tanks are also next to the window, where the sun provides indirect lighting through the blinders.
With that said, you probably don’t need to put your tank directly underneath the room lights or close to the window in order to get your plant to grow. You just have to make sure that the room doesn’t completely remain pitched dark all day long.
2. More importantly, you should make sure that you have enough fertilizers for your Java Moss. If you have enough bioload in your tank, then the organic wastes should be more than enough for the plant.
If the wastes produce by your fish isn’t enough, then you can try using a liquid supplement. When we were having problems trying to grow out our Java Moss, we used Seachem Flourish to improve its growth rate.
To learn more about Flourish, you can take a look at our detailed review for the supplement.
3. We also noticed that our plant will grow out faster when it isn’t being completely tied down to a rock, wood or décor. If possible, we suggest that you let the stringy moss flow freely to see if you can get it to grow without using any dedicated aquarium lights.
4. Furthermore, Java Moss prefer some water flow.
Therefore, you can try increasing the flow rate of your filter and/or air stone. You can also try placing the plant closer to these devices to see if you get better results.
5. If you just added the plant to your fish tank, then it may take some time for it to get used to your water parameters. Thus, it may not only take several months for it to start growing but some parts of it may die off early on.
In this case, you simply need to have some patience and give the Java Moss a few months to establish itself in your tank water.
6. There is also a possibility that other plants in the same tank may be out-competing the Java Moss and, as a result, is taking up all the nutrients.
To stop this from happening, you can try re-homing the other plants for now if possible.
Once you see that the Java Moss start to grow out more, then you can try putting the other plants in the same tank to see if you can get a better balance when it comes to plant growth.
