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Re: Fastening Riccia to Plastic Mesh
The needlepoint method you describe seems to have
worked very well for you.
This has probably been described before, but what I do
is use the plastic mesh that is used for bags of
onions. This mesh is actually tubular, so that riccia
can be inserted inside of the mesh. When this mesh is
laid down in the tank, there is both a layer below and
above the riccia. The advantage to this is that you
don't need a nice mat of riccia that may take time to
cultivate. Instead you can use non-intercalated
riccia. Having the riccia inside of this tubular mesh
helps stabilize it and keep it in place as you
physically place the riccia on the aquarium floor.
One can either tuck in the edges of the mesh under the
substrate, or use small stones to weigh down the
riccia (my preference). Overtime, these stones will
disappear as the riccia grows upward.
As an interesting sidepoint regarding the two
different forms of riccia--I started with the bright
green floating riccia, but there must have been a
minute amount of the dark green sinking riccia
included (either that or the riccia itself may have
changed form). Anyway, with months of trimming, the
dark green riccia has proliferated in my riccia mat, I
believe, for the simple reason that when I trim, the
bright green riccia floats to the top and the dark
green riccia is distributed in little bits across the
bottom of my tank. I'm not yet sure what to make of
this asthetically, as the jury is still out.
Another small suggestion: curved scissors are
wonderful for trimming riccia. I use the surgical
variety. I never remove my riccia mat from my tank.
Just the thought of doing that every week makes me cringe.
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