ELEOCHARIS ACICULARIS MINI (Expectations)

[Nathanh2150]

Hi All,
I have had elecharis acicularis mini in my aquarium now for the past 5-6 months and noticed it’s not been colouring up it’s sending out baby runners and spreading around the tank but it’s just not as vivid as I was hoping it was going to be it’s more brown green. Once a week I have started trimming to encourage new growth as I am well aware it takes a wile to carpet but Yh it’s just not what I thought it would be. They all have a healthy root structure and seem to be thriving but just the colour is a bit disappointing. I have been adding tropica root tabs and also tropica plant food the green liquid one squirt a day in my aquascaper 900. I also have a inline co2 defuser connected to my oase thermo biomaster 600. The light I have for the aquarium is a twinstar 900s on an automatic dimmer co2 comes on at 4am-9pm light comes on 8am-10pm but it’s hardly on between 7pm-10pm as it’s on the lowest setting of power.temperature of the tank is around 25-26c

any help and advice would be amazing
I have added photos to show what I mean in the colour but please take note my phone has enhanced the vivid green but it’s not as green as it’s showing if that makes sense haha

 

[Nathanh2150]

I have also added a video to help

 

[dcurzon]

looks like diatoms forming on the leaves. Get some algae eaters in there, check/improve flow. Any co2?

 

[Nathanh2150]

I currently do have 5 otocinclus catfish also 1 bulldog pleco and 6 Sterbai cory (Corydoras sterbai)
And yes co2 is running in the aquarium

may I ask what diatoms are 🙃

 

[mort]

I agree with dcurzon, you can see its on the older leaves with the new growth green. You might not have a lot of light but it's a very long photoperiod. 6 hours is a good base level.
You have quite a high biomass of fish, nice rainbows by the way, but a relative low plant mass. It can be really hard to manage tanks with such few plants.

 

[Nathanh2150]

So would it be wise to purchase some more grass? And is there anything apart from the lighting that needs to be adjusted?

 

[Christel]

Give 12 hours light, not 6 hours, that's the average lighting in the nature. This Eleocharis is a shade plant. Crossocheilus oblongus is a fantastic algae eater. Perhaps this helps.

 

[Nathanh2150]

how many would you recommend to add to the tank of the Crossocheilus oblongus ? As I don’t want too many clean up crew tbf 🙃