Wanted (CPT) Smallish plants

My dwarf hairgrass is doing just fine without CO2 and have about 0.8W/L T5 lights on them. Flourite substrate.
Started making shoots 3 weeks after being planted.

 

Vis - mine started to shoot 2 days after being planted - i am slowly removing it all from my tank as it just takes over.

You want the plants to thrive then you need to spend the dosh on the lights and CO2

 

O I was not saying it was growing wild, just answered the question if you can keep it alive and growing without CO2

Can you post pic of that? just want to see how dense it gets.

If the health allows it

 

theres a photo or 2 in my tank thread but its mostly removed now with the chain swords taking over

 

Nirv... Go check out Henk's tank...

Firstly, fish do not put out nearly enough CO2... yes they are breathing, but if you look at what the plants actually NEED, they are barely scraping the barrel. If your plants are pearling at night when you turn the lights out, then you have enough CO2.

"Normal" aquarium lighting will not suffice for hairgrass.

"normal" substrate/gravel will not suffice for hairgrass.

It need HIGH (as in a $hitload) of light, LOTS (as in PLENTY) of CO2 and good (as is EXPENSIVE) fertilizers under the gravel, and being fed to it in the water.

It will survive in "normal" conditions.... but will not be Hairgrass as in growing all over the tank and talking over!

 

Yeah, checked his tank, really really nice job!

What do you mean by "pearling"? My Java ferns are almost growing out of the water, Amazon swordplants are thriving and no CO2, so it must be some plants that need extra but not all.

Since my original question was about what would be recommended for hairgrass, I think my question has been answered, thank you.

 

Henk, how do you think it'll do in my tank? Know that I'm currently upgrading the lights, but the one side of the tank gets direct sunlight for about 2hours in the afternoon (from about 3-5). I dose with Flourish excel, have the pfp mix under my substrate and I dose with the Prof. ferts.
Also looking to buy that little CO2 kit I've seen in the LFS (want to find out more first though)

 

pearling - producing of O2 bubbles on the plants

Linxie - it will be fine. the Excel adds a carbon molocule to the water - just watch out - its highly toxic for the fish

 

Ah thanks Henk. I've only ever seen that on very fast growing plants like Cabomba, Java moss and the like. I wonder if that is observed at night in nature? Sorry if I'm derailing though, just an interesting direction for the discussion to me.

 

Thanks Henk, I dose once a week only the recommended amount (sometimes I forget to dose)

I'll keep an eye on the fish though.

 

What I'm referring to was when Zoom said "pearling at night"... which was why I was confused. I've obviously observed it during the daytime and under heavy lighting, but pearling at night is what I'm asking about.

Yeah std 4 or 5 for me...

 

Zoom was being sarcastic.... ie if you fish makes so much CO2 that the plants are forced to photosynthese then you are ok.... otherwise get CO2

 

Aha thanks, lol. Thought that sounded a bit weird. Just imagine the fish load needed to pull that one off

 

Nirv you do know that you are sinking in the ranks here VERY quickly for a new guy....

 

Henk I appreciate you've been here a lot longer than me and are obviously dedicated and experienced. But that comment was unnecessary and I was willing to stop the derailing of this thread, even though I learnt something about the requirements of hairgrass that I did not know previously, and we are all here to learn and give information.

I would have liked to maybe get some hairgrass from you but with my tanks in their current state of disarray as they are moved means I won't be able to cater for its needs at this stage. I'm glad to know that people are providing these things because I don't see many interesting plants types where I currently look, and would love to grow some different types.

 

+1

 

Question, how? If you're going to say that type of thing, you need to back it up. Earlier in the thread you tell him to "tone down", yet when he asks, you don't respond? Maybe I missed it. I don't like the way he was treated.

 

Go read his other posts and you will get it. he has cuased bit of a drama with PMs/msn/skype etc going ape.... 45 posts on the day of joining.... read more and post valid/factual posts

 

Oh the amount of posts in one day? Sorry I did not realise that you were linked to so many threads via the notifications - I tend not to make use of notifications outside of forums.

I was just quite happy to have found a SA forum and found a few areas where I thought my input could help, not realising how much I was adding to the forum. I can see how it can be irritating.

 

Fair enough. He obviously didn't realize about notifications (I had no idea!) and was simply excited. That is understandable. Why aren't we complaining about the "Completely off topic" thread? surely that stuff is much less relevant than what Nirv is posting? It's updated almost as often....