# Dwarf Hair Grass died!



## astroman (27 Aug 2012)

Hi there.
I have a Juwel Trigon 190 which is about 6 months old. It has about 5 plants in it and a number of various fish. The water quality is spot on. 
There is an Aquagro hobby Co2 kit and I try to keep the lights on about 8 to 9 hours per day.
Over the last few weeks there has been some brown furry stuff growing on the edge of the plant leaves (swords, pogostamon and dwarf hair grass ) and recently the grass has died and all but vanished!! 
I dose a couple of times a week with Aquanourish ferts. 
I was hoping to get a nice carpet of grass etc and also accidently pulled up one of the Pogostamon Helferi and there were hardly any roots. The Swords on the other hand are huge and growing really well, but getting some brown stuff on them. 
Please can anyone advise me on how to get rid of the brown fur and grow a plant carpet (not necessarily hair grass!!)

Many thanks
Tim


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## Nathaniel Whiteside (27 Aug 2012)

Hello Tim,

Pictures paint a thousand words, so if you can, then please get a photo up.

Do you have a Drop checker? If so do you keep it towards a very light green? 

We need to know your lighting stats too.
But I suspect that the plants are experiencing co2 deficiency in a tank thats lit 9 hours with, what I interpret to be a small sized co2 kit.

My advice, although blind, would be to cut your photoperiod back to 4-5 hours & to purchase or look at a larger co2 set capable of keeping up with your aquariums needs.

Cheers,


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## nry (27 Aug 2012)

Can you get any photo's?  Most likely algae, though that in itself won't kill plants.

Are you using the lights supplied with the tank?  Do you know what level of CO2 you are achieving with the AquaGro kit?


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## astroman (27 Aug 2012)

The lights are T5 which came new with the tank. 
The drop checker is now showing a mid green (grass like) colour. Is that ok?


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## tim (27 Aug 2012)

are you dosing just aqua nourish (micro) or the plus version as well  (for macros)


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## nry (27 Aug 2012)

Black brush/beard algae by the looks of things.  This is a good read:

http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm

Generally down to poor water circulation or fluctuating CO2 levels - how do you run your CO2?


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## astroman (27 Aug 2012)

Thanks for this nry. Looks like you could be right on the money.
My use of Co2 has been somewhat sporadic over the last few weeks as I ran out of it and removed the kit to clean it (I know, I am a bit of a plonker!) Its now back in the aquarium. I have been putting it on when I switch the lights on and set it to about 1 bubble every one to two seconds. 
Just been looking at getting one of these but it seems very expensive
http://www.swelluk.com/aquarium/co2-and ... et-72.html
I have also just bought a Fluval 306 external filter which i will be setting up this week. This will be a secondary filter system to back up the Bioflow 300 which came with the tank (and seems to be a bit inadequate for the number of fish and plants etc.)

Thanks
Tim


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## nry (27 Aug 2012)

There's your fluctuating CO2, though generally it is advised to put the CO2 on an hour or two before the lights to ensure the levels are sufficient as soon as the lights come on as CO2 takes a while to build up in the water column.

Cheapest way for CO2 is generally to use CO2 fire extinguishers (FE)- £25 for a 2kg or thereabouts, MUCH cheaper than the small bottles you have now and they last much longer.  Unsure if your setup can connect to a FE, otherwise a suitable regulator can be found reasonably cheaply on eBay (I have an UP dual gauge unit, I think it was £35 or so last year).  This also has a solenoid built in which is plugged into a normal electric plug timer socket.

I'd also knock the lighting period down - 6-7 hours is usually more than sufficient.


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## astroman (27 Aug 2012)

That a great help. Thanks for the info. 
I will reduce the lighting period and look at a decent CO2 system.
Cheers
Tim


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## nry (27 Aug 2012)

This is the one I have:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CO2-regulator ... 3a5e701777


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## astroman (3 Sep 2012)

Hi all. Just an update on my algae problem.
Since my last post i have put back my CO2 and instaled a secondary Flval 306 external filter. My aquarium looks awesome - crystal clear and really healthy. The down side was that I binned most of my existing algae covered plants and replaced them.
Thanks for all your help.
Tim


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