no more recent photo yet ...
but the past few month one can refer to my website,,,,

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Here's my riccia tank... still under construction...

Attached Images

	RicciaTank01.jpg (98.1 KB, 71 views)
	RicciaTank02.jpg (83.6 KB, 73 views)

Nice... you tied them on rock or flattened with wire mesh or something? or mix up all together (tie on rock/wood/flattened/press with sands)

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How old is this tank ruslan? Looks like it's smothering the blyxas. You've riccia coming out of your ears .

The riccia at the front (up to where the blyxa is) are sandwiched in plastic mesh weighed with pebbles underneath. However, the pebbles I used was not heavy enough and if the rock is not there, there is enough bubbles to make the riccia float. Instead of one large 'sandwich', there are actually 4 smaller pieces for easier maintenance.

The ones at the back are tied onto pebbles using fishing line.

It's been about a month since it was drastically rescaped where I removed most of the stem plants. I probably have enough riccia to fully cover a 4 footer now...

What a nice riccia tank I always wish to have!!
How do you make them so happy until they pearl so much? Also, how do you maintain them whem the grow too long out the mesh?
My riccia is pearling too, but only to 5% of your rate hehe.
Also, I am lost in how to maintain them in a good manner, as now my way is to retie them whenever they grow too long and about to float....
Hope to learn from you 'The Art of Riccia Maintaining'....

Riccia can be an extremely fast grower and produce lots of oxygen bubbles under the right conditions. You need high light (I am using two 36 W PLL tubes on my 2 foot tank, thats 4+ Watts per gallon), CO2 and maintain adequate fertilizer levels. I am dosing something like 10 - 15 ppm of NO3 and 1 - 1.5 ppm of PO4 daily on this tank.

Maintenance is to trim the top once in a while to ensure they don't get too long. Since they are quite dense, they have less of a tendency to break away. If you want thick riccia mats, make sure you weigh it down with something substantial... some of mine are ready to take off, mesh, pebbles and all!

Algae will also grow in between the riccia so you have to monitor the situation so it does not get out of hand.

I have 22w of light for my 5gallon tank, which come close to ~4w/gallon... maybe my light is "Made in China' PL type, so the spectrum are not dense enough .

I put in JBL Floropol Liq Fert too. I put in 1ml every alternate day as the instruction said 5ml can treat 20litter, but never mention on the dosage frequency. So I assume it is for every week. My tank is about 20litter/5gallon, so I put in 1ml evey alternal day, and 2ml on Sunday after the 10& water change. My DIY CO2 could be a bit tricky.. for the first few days, the bubble rate is good, but after the 5th day, it come to slower, and kind of 'sleep' in the 10th day....Also, I believe my water temp is not cool enough, it stay at around 30c in the afternoon, and 29 during nite time. I think that why my xmas moss turned to brown and die off .

About triming the riccia close to their mat, which means we cut off the young growing tallies, right? Will the old tallies look as green as the young one down near to the mat? When I look at my, those old tallies that close to the mat has a brown yellow color(maybe lack of light), and they are not in a healthy green color. That's why every time when the riccia grow too long, I just cut off the young tallies, and retie them again, and throw the old out away. Some of the old tallies which attached close to the rock(I just mosqito net to tie the riccia to the rock) seems die off too when I cut off the old mat for retie. Am I tie them too tight or what?
Humm.. seems still long way to get a perfect riccia carpet....

Try getting some brighter lighting. Brighter lighting will produce more dense growth and the light will also be able to penetrate deeper into the mat, keeping it healthy. This will reduce the amount of retying you need to do...

Riccia is quite tolerant of higher temperatures (and may even grow faster) so I wouldn't worry about that unless you have other sensitive species.