# Growing hairgrass emersed



## Italicus (23 Oct 2014)

Hello all

I decided to try the dry start with my new and first tank in UK, and would like some advice.

When will it be safe to say the eleocharis has adapted, and how long will it take before starting growing?

Cheers


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## Chris Jackson (23 Oct 2014)

Hi, 
With my latest "Island Shore" http://www.ukaps.org/forum/posts/372887/ scape I dry started Tropica 123 grow eleocharis for a week with plenty of light and it took really well, like remarkably well, far better than my previous submersed efforts. Enjoy


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## Italicus (24 Oct 2014)

Thank you, very nice read

Did your eleocharis all Bound up together? This is how it looks now in my tank


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## Chris Jackson (24 Oct 2014)

Cheers
Yep to some degree but if you gently tease the leaves apart with a soft brush/comb and fingers then the plants will be able to access more light and CO2 and so grow better. 

Just be patient...initially the plants are mostly growing roots so it looks like not much is happening. You might want to prune an inch or two off the leaves as well to promote growth and also help untangle things.


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## Italicus (24 Oct 2014)

I'll try to untangle them with my fingers and cut the top of it.

I think I just experienced the major downside with the biorb i'm using, i can only fit one hand in the tank...


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## Italicus (26 Oct 2014)

Can't untangle them, it just never happens.

On the plus side, some small plants are starting to grow, so I guess the eleocharis is starting to expand around. So I think it's safe to say that the first noticeable growth is after the first week


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## Italicus (28 Oct 2014)

Close up of some of the growing plants, they are doing quite well it seems. 
I was expecting the old leaves to move and standing up, but I guess being stuck to each other doesn't let them move. 

The new ones are growing properly


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## Chris Jackson (28 Oct 2014)

Looks like everything is doing very well then. You may find the old leaves don't do much and get a bit of algae when you fill up but this passes as new growth takes over


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## Italicus (28 Oct 2014)

I was actually thinking to cut them at some point.

I will not fill the aquarium until December or so, so by then I should have a good portion of new plants and I was thinking to cut the old leaves, to leave space to new plants.

Also, I can imagine the old leaves to look quite bad once the tank is filled.


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## Chris Jackson (28 Oct 2014)

Ah well that is outside my sphere of experience really. However at first thought, everything will be very well established by December which may mean that come fill up time that all the plants will have to adapt from emersed to submersed as established plants and so you may get a lot of leaf die back and lose some of the advantages of starting things off emersed?


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## Italicus (28 Oct 2014)

uhm, didn't think about that, i guess i need to read more about this


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## elettrone (3 Nov 2014)

I started eleocharis submersed, it was even in a bad shape as i got a 50% discount on the bulk, it took about 4 days to grow some roots,and adapt, yellowish leaves died and some of the old ones got a little algae but growths are now dominant with new sprouts everywhere after only 8 days. I have about 0.5 watts x liter(T5 tubes) with good reflectors, lot of pressurized CO2 and full ferts. I see no issues growing this plant submersed.



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## Italicus (3 Nov 2014)

I flooded the tank a couple of days ago, so far so good.

I never had any success with this plant, and I wanted to try DSM, so I thought, what not both?


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