The beauty of Riccia fluitans can be seen when there is enough CO2 supply and bright light to the water until its saturation. We can see oxygen bubbles (from small until big bubbles of O2) on the Riccia leavesī tips. One interesting thing is that when you use different types of light bulb, the green colour of Riccia are much different in the appearance. I tied Riccia to stones and put several ones in an aquarium of 125x62x65 cm lighted with a metal halide lamp of 150 W, and others in an aquarium of 60x30x36 cm lighted with 2 compact PL-L (compact PL Long comes from Philips) of 36 W. Under PL-L, the green colour stands out very beautifully with many big O2 bubbles topping all around the Riccia tips; while under the metal halide lamp, the colour is rather subdued with smaller O2 bubbles. However, since Riccia tends to float to the water surface after it is mature (around 3 - 4 weeks, depends on light, nutritient and CO2 supply), we should be patient to take out the floating Riccia almost daily, and re-tie it again to the stone. Contributed by Wirya
Name: Riccia fluitans (Crystalwort)
Origin: Cosmopolitan
care: medium
Substrate: None
Lighting: Bright