• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

No Roots on HC

Mark Webb

Member
Joined
27 Nov 2008
Messages
365
I now have a lush carpet of Hemianthus Callitrichiodes in my 60 litre tank. However, there are very few roots on it and it keeps lifting away from the substrate. Does this suggest poor health of the plants? I dose 1ml TPN per day and CO² is always up on pale green. In the same tank my Blyxa all lifted away from the substrate and I have replanted.
 
Mark Webb said:
I now have a lush carpet of Hemianthus Callitrichiodes in my 60 litre tank. However, there are very few roots on it and it keeps lifting away from the substrate. Does this suggest poor health of the plants? I dose 1ml TPN per day and CO² is always up on pale green. In the same tank my Blyxa all lifted away from the substrate and I have replanted.


Mark

If the carpet of HC is lush green I cannot see that its fertz related, the roots on HC are very fine (cotton like threads) to stop it uprooting peg it down with green garden wire - cut the wire 2.5" long, form a hoop and push through the plant into the substrate - that would hold it down as for the blyxa not conversent with this plant but I would do the same - peg it down. As for the fertz - tropica state 5 mls per 50ltr of water assuming they mean per week, so you are not far off with what they state, personnel add another 1mls - what 1mls more should not cause a problem.

One more thing - substrate not compacted to much.

Regards
paul
 
It never occured to me to "staple" it down - brilliant idea!

I've used about 1.5cm of black Limpopo sand - it does root in that quite well. But I've found if you trim it quite harshly it seems to root better and you get less lifting - but it can look a bit patchy after a hard "prune".
 
what substrate are you using? I have found my blyxa slowly rises so it ends up floating just above the substrate, yet still anchored by it roots. I suspected it might be the lightness of my cat litter substrate
 
HC carpets need trimming, cutting down. If it gets over 2 cm thickness it is good to get trimmed. Other wise eventually when gets too thick the HC carpet will pull out of the substrate.
 
Back
Top