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E. parvula not carpeting

Joined
7 Jan 2021
Messages
146
Location
Nottingham, England
I planted some E. parvula 2-3 weeks ago now I think? It seems to be growing upwards and for the most part is healthy, but it doesn't seem to be carpeting at all. It doesn't help that I'm struggling to keep it rooted down during water changes.

Tank is a Fluval Spec V, new type with stronger light and also a reflector I designed, with Tropica soil substrate.. Water's changed 50% week, no CO2 injection, dosing of TNC complete though not very regularly - I imagine neither of those things is really helping, going to try dose TNC complete more routinely.

Any other ideas? Pic below. Ignore the before/after on the below picture, they're the same time point, this was just a picture I posted elsewhere to show the difference the reflector makes. If anyone has a 3D printer and would like to see the reflector design I've uploaded it here.


grass.PNG
 
It can take a few weeks to get established, get adapted to your tank and develop a good root system. After that it starts to spread.
 
So it's been a month and it still looks like garbage and won't root, even despite CO2 now being injected. I change the water as gently as possible and the grass just floats up, then presumably I am back to square one. The hydrocotyl just seems to be shrinking as well. The tank is having quite a nasty brown algae outbreak (not really well pictured as it was taken post-WC) which is probably not helping either.

Any tips? You all make it look so easy :(
 

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Two months now, it hadn't progressed at all from my last post. I had to take 80% of the water out today due to temporarily moving the tank, and when I poured it back in (as gently as possible) virtually all of the grass just floated up to the surface in chunks, so it clearly hasn't rooted at all.

Can anyone clue me in here, how on Earth do you get this stuff to carpet? :(
 
Tbh your lighting looks a bit weak for a carpeting plant. I'd just ditch the hair grass and focus on the traditional low tech plants you already have.
 
Tbh your lighting looks a bit weak for a carpeting plant. I'd just ditch the hair grass and focus on the traditional low tech plants you already have.

It did look a bit on the weak side to me too, but it's a stock Spec V light, and I've seen loads of people managing to get a carpet going in a Spec V with a stock light.
 
It did look a bit on the weak side to me too, but it's a stock Spec V light, and I've seen loads of people managing to get a carpet going in a Spec V with a stock light.

You'd need to really run the CO2 quite high to compensate for the light imo. But that seems a bit incongruent with the theme you are going for with the Betta and the low tech plants. It also helps to have high flow with carpeting plants for them to get access to nutrients and CO2. But high flow is bad for your betta who is a poor swimmer. That's why bettas are better suited to a low-tech tank with little flow and slow-growing plants. At the moment the needs of your hair grass are competing with the needs of your betta and other plants.
 
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