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Anyone have long lasting HC carpet?

R

RisingSun

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18 May 2015
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According to Viktor, "whatever you do with HC, this has a lifecycle of 7-8 month in a high energy setup. So replanting required after that" (http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/...icranthemum-sp-monte-carlo.30987/#post-326397).

This is disheartening as it takes me a month or two just to get a carpet going + lots of time spent replanting uprooted pieces. Has anyone been able to keep an HC carpet going for a year or two?

I might just switch to monte carlo immediately if HC is such a maintenance nightmare.
 
I had the same issue and apparently it's because it gets too bushy and blocks out the light at the lower regions. This causes it either to rot and algae will start growing over it or the top part loses its grip and sections will lift up.

But I have seen very thick and healthy carpets which have definitely been there for longer than 7 mnths.

So, I think you need high light and strong flow to make sure the lower parts get sufficient nutrition and that will determine how thick you can grow the carpet. Then when it reaches that thickness it's important to trim it.

I wouldn't let that discourage you though.
 
Yeah I've heard a lot of people say "keep it trimmed low". I don't mind keeping it trimmed low, but Viktor made it sound like even if you do that, it'll still uproot after 7-8 months.

Thanks for the bringing up that you've seen carpets that have lasted longer than 7 months. Hopefully more people will chime in with their long lasting HC carpet stories.
 
I believe one of Mark Evan's journals has some good commentary on HC
 
I'm very interested in this, because my HC carpet is about 5 months old.

I was assuming there'd come a time when I have to prune it back hard to rejuvenate it - or will that simply kill it?
 
I have some HC growing in high tech very close to the surface, it anchored itself with little pieces into the moss submersed i left it there, the most of it goes emersed. No substrate provided. At one time it exploded emersed and stays lush and green already over a year now. What grows submersed just melts off after a while and i see healthy little patches of HC with roots floating on everywhere in the tank. It probably is also a propagation strategy of this plant. Anyway all that grows in my case unforcefully submersed on it's own lets loose after a while. Even tho there is enough co2 and enough light. It can do what it likes i do not intervene and it obviously doesn't realy want to be submersed for ever.

What i had in the substrate i always struglled with and had to trim and replant constantly all year long.. This llittle plant is particularly light sensitive, it melts where it gets deprived from light. I recently did a 3 day black out to fight of some rizhoclonium outbrake.. Non of the HC in the substrate survived this ordeal, all is gone. And i have to start over if i want to.
DSCF6938.jpg
Anyway, seeing how it grows and what it needs the goal everybody wants to achieve with this plant is actualy working counter productive.. With keeping it submersed low and dense it's about inevitable there will be parts of the plant deprived from what it needs the most, light. And that's where the melt will kick in.. I guess for the people managing to keep this plant long term submered is a very intensive and constant trimming (replanting) regime.. 🙂

Monte carlo is much more resilient and less light sensitive and more suitable and less intensive maintenance for long term.
 
It's allready stated, but I'll happily do it again; TRIM, TRIM and TRIM again.. - and trim often....HC need and toletate very hard trimming, when growing as a carpet.
It's all about ensuring flow and light can reach everywhere in the plant-mass called a "carpet". Not really different from any other group of stem-plants.
The density and horizontal growth of a HC carpet is what makes it a bit more challenging. This is also what will trap some of the gasses, released from the plants in or under the carpet......being the reason for "pressing" by flat hand, to force this trapped gas out of the carpet. Both too thick plant-mass and trapped gas will ofcourse highly increase up-drift (leading to carpet float off).
- and before all those things become relevant.......the quite high requirements of HC must ofcourse be supplied to near perfection.

.........and finally answer to the original qurstion; YES, a HC carpet can be maintained for rather long time, by the above actions - which I agree are relatively time consuming - I've done it 😉😉
 
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This gives me hope. I can't seem to grow it well submersed. Emersed, well that's becoming too easy.
 
rebel said:
Emersed, well that's becoming too easy.
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Be happy about it.. 🙂 Then you'll always have enough to begin with. As Mick says, it's a constant battle against the odds.. Look up the youtube videos (trimming HC) whith the entire substrate covered with HC and how it looks after a trim, actualy rather awfull and then you'll have to wait for it to grow back again till it looks good and you're back to square one and have to make it look awfull again. 🙄 If you want it to be constantly beautifull, you'll have to neatly bonsai trim it very carefully and the more you have probably on a daily basis everyday another part of the tank.. A painstaking job keeping it perfect all the time.
 
Hi everyone! Yes, HC can be maintained without any replanting by frequent trimming; I had my HC carpet in my RIO 300 for 18 months, until an electricity failure while I was on vacation put a stop to it; I'll post some pictures when I get back home, I'm away for me work for a few days

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Eduard18 said:
Hi everyone! Yes, HC can be maintained without any replanting by frequent trimming; I had my HC carpet in my RIO 300 for 18 months, until an electricity failure while I was on vacation put a stop to it; I'll post some pictures when I get back home, I'm away for me work for a few days

Envoyé de mon SM-G935F en utilisant Tapatalk
Click to expand...
What was your routine/technique for trimming?
 
There wasn't any ; it was a feeling thing; during water change I used to press the HC carpet with the vacuum cleaner, if it tended to lift then it was the time for a heavy trim ; but I believe that a regular trimming, when it's about 2 cm thick it's the best option

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Thanks for the help everyone. I decided to order monte carlo as it seems to require less skill/maintenance. I already have some large patches of HC growing though, so hopefully the MC doesn't grow over the HC or anything.
 
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