# DIY Moss Wall



## Mr_Pat

and the project begins.. its our 90 Gallon tetra/community tank.

I started with these as the base to my wall.. plastic mesh sheets found at Hobby Lobby <local hobby/craft store
Excuse the mess, it appears our almost 2 year old had a ball gettig into stuff before i got home from work tonight. 










they only had 2 of the larger size sheet or i would have done the whole thing with them. Currently i have 20 dollars into stuff from the hobby shop. but i have enough material i can do our 90 and still have a good amount left over for other misc plant projects such as moss pathways <as i have a sand top layer over our substrate there is nothing for moss to grab ahold of>

and this is where i left off for tonight.. that is 2/3 of the wall already. just need to finish the last section, add the moss and add my fabric mesh over it. I'll add more pics as i progress.










I'm sure it could be done cheaper still. as the fabric mesh i bought was $5 for a 25 yard X 6 inch roll and i bought 2 of them so there is half of my $20. the plastic mesh panels were 49 cents for the smaller one and 2 dollars for the bigger one. small one is 13.5 inches by 10.5 inches with 1/8th inch holes
big one 22 inches by 13.25 inches with 1/4 inch holes. so i could have saved some money by not buying the larger size and peiceing the smaller ones together but i liked the idea of larger panels <wish they would have had more than 2 >


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## bigcountry10

I'm really intrested to see how this goes/ is done, I kind of wanted to do some moss in my new tank but wasnt sure how, so im gonna pay close attention. where is the moss going to go, are you going to do the whole backdrop in moss or is it going to go on the floor of the tank ???


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## Summer

I'm excited about this, Pat. I think its going to look great!


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## Mr_Pat

Hiya Country. this is planned for the back wall of my already established tank. hence the odd shape on the bottom. I am planning on puttin a few holes in the wall and leaning the top side away from the back about an inch maybe 2 and hide filter intake tubes behind it . you could use the same idea for the floor of a tank. the only problem with doing the floor this way would probably be inaablity to contour it to the floor of you aquascaping on the bottom < unless you were doing a flat bottom or have the patience to sit and warm this stuff and shape it for what you want final outcome to look like>


LoLs Summer I sure hope it does. I'm using the Ricca that I picked up this weekend. So i have hopes that this is gona be cool looking. though if i get some Fissedens I'll try and add some of it to the wall too i think. a couple of bushes of that mixed among the Ricca on the wall at different heights i think would look cool


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## RonB

I like the ideal and may steel for my 15 gallon betta tank. Question if I put this in front of my HOB filter how much do you think it would restrict the filter?


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## Mr_Pat

I would leave some space between it and the pick up tube < same plan i have for it> and im also going to cut a couple holes so there are spots with nothing that way if fish get back there they can get out


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## snail

I like moss walls, look forward to see it with moss.


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## Mr_Pat

well the wall is on hold for a few days yet.. had some BBA in the tank we are killing off with Flourish Excel.. and my understanding is that Rica doesnt take kindly to sudden large doses of excel.. but i put a small test clump in the tan.. so as long as the test clump seems ok ill finish up and put this thing in the tank and i'll be sure to get some pics as i do so


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## whitetiger61

i think it will look great once it grows in..the only problem i see with pathways is your going to have to add small lead strips to the canvas to get it to stay on the bottom..especialy with riccia. I have several of these canvas's in my tank right now with xmas moss on them and they want to float..added really thin strips of lead from plants i have gotten and it did the trick..you need to video the trimming on that riccia the first time you trim it..your gonna have fun..lol
Looks like its going to look great bud..keep the pics coming..

Rick


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## Mr_Pat

LOLS Rick..... see now you and paula both have me rethinking this project.. but i came up with a solution. to do the wall in several sections im going to sew velcro <stiff side> to the frame at the top and then at about 3/4 the way down,, that way i can disconnect a section and pull it out .. trim it in a rubber made tote return it to its position.. yeah ill have to grab some plant weights frmo Fantastic fins to toss on the bottom edge for weight .. i knew that was gonna be an issue any way.. sooo here's some more pics of the "plastic canvas i picked up 




















and heres a small sample section i did to float some Ricca on the top of the tank














































and one of these times i need to remember to turn down image size n the camera lols


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## Mr_Pat

on another note im tearing my current start of the frame apart to incorporate the velcro. and doing it in sections .. im glad i read the thoughts about trimming before i was done with this lols.. sooo DIY Moss wall REV 2 coming right up......


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## Mr_Pat

forgot to put up side by side shots of the large and small panels i have found



















and close up of hole size... 1/4 inch on the big piece 1/8 on the smaller approximately since don't have anything to accurately measure atm


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## Meshuggahn

I am considering doing something like this for a smaller tank. Let me know how it goes with the HOB intake. And if you run into problems with fish getting in behind the wall or anything.


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## Mr_Pat

for my 90 im going to set it up for the wall to be behind the intake... and i plan on leaving a few holes so fish can get out from behind the wall if they do get back there.


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## whitetiger61

i did'nt do the wall but i did do the floor on one of my tanks with the java moss you gave me..check it out










and it took forever to do that and its still not done yet..center section is riccia between 2 pieces of canvass.once it grows in you wont see the canvass..still need to do back behind the tree with java moss as i have pleanty..lol..and the water is alot more clear than in that pic..

Rick


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## snail

looks nice


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## Mr_Pat

yep I got to see it first hand today while I was out at Ricks. It's looking great.. my Moss Wall project <along with all my projects> are currently on an indefinate emergency hold.. Life stepped in and gave me something bigger i have to work on. So If anyone else wants to pick this up and continue with it great.. if not i'll be back to finish it up soon i hope. I went to this place online to get "mosquito netting to use over my plants to hold them to the plastic canvas.


Mosquito Netting Fabric Material Sold By The Yard at SCS-Mall.com

a 6 foot by 6 foot square was 15 bucks shipped to me hence i have enough to do several projects.

the exact one i ordered was this one ... Grey color

bulk mosquito netting sold by the yard-www.scs-mall.com


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## whitetiger61

ahhh hell we will wait for you Pat..was good to see you again..and if youneed anything let me know..i will be there.

Rick


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## Mr_Pat

ok while i still currently cant get to finishing the wall itself. here is 21 days worth of growth on the small example piece pictured above.

Example start 










Current 21 days growing


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## snail

looks really nice


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## Cadiedid

Do you think a hair net would work as well as the mosquito netting for attaching riccia to things?


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## Mr_Pat

i dont see why not.. i used the mosquito netting because i was planing on working with a large area


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## whitetiger61

i use hairnets when i cover on rocks..if im covering large area i use canvass

Rick


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