Hairgrass Is Looking Miserable

[chrisdoesntmiss]

I am having a few quibbles with my hairgrass. Some of it is growing really, really well and new buds are forming pretty much every day, the height of the plant it also increasing. However some of the stalks are turning a very pale brown colour and look as it they are dying.

Anyone got an answers.




As you can see, some look perfect and others half dead

 

[fishbone]

I had the same happen with mine. i don't thikn it was getting enough light (deep tank, low light) so moved it to my shallower tank which is much higher light and it's doing really well. I also rinsed it off in a bucket of tank water to remove any algea and trimmed away the really dead bits. gave it a hair cut once it was replanted.

Hopefully someone on here can be a little less vague than me. I tend to plant by trial and error, if it won't grow it gets moved elsewhere!

 

[Themuleous]

Hair grass is a tricky one. It seems to be quite demanding light and CO2 wise. Would think it could be a lack of both in your tank.

Sam

 

[chrisdoesntmiss]

I thought it could be but my C02 level is up at 25ppm and my lighting is just over 4WPG (Overkill but the algea growth is non existent due to the rate of plant growth)

Everything else is growing well, strangely apart from the indian fern that is located next to it. It seems rather slow compared to everything else.

Chris

 

[Themuleous]

Oh right, what substrate do you have? You dosing much ferts and trace?

 

[chrisdoesntmiss]

I am using a pure aquarium peat substrate with the Tetra AquaPride Fertiliser. The trace i am recieving from the water changes.

Chris

 

[Themuleous]

Tricky one what lighting tubes you got?

 

[chrisdoesntmiss]

There are currently;

2x Sunglo 4200k
2x Powerglo 18000k

The combined wattage is 111

 

[mlawson]

I experienced a similar problem with my Hairgrass. I found that the original plant I planted went brown and yellow and stopped growing. From these plants new ones grew and they were in perfect health.

 

[chrisdoesntmiss]

Excellent point mlawson. As with things like saggittaria it looses a few leaves when it is moved. It could be possible that hairgrass does the same thing. The plant is still growing as out of the browned buds plantlets are growing. I shall jsut replant the newbies and remove the old dead looking stems not producing.

Chris

 

[Themuleous]

It could well be that!

Sam

 

[voo]

Just be careful with the indian fern. If it blocks the light to the hairgrass, the hairgrass wont grow. I have both hairgrass and indian fern in my tank too. It doesnt grow at all where it's shaded because of the indian fern covering the water surface.

good luck with it though. My kuhli loaches keep getting stuck in the roots. They're like worms in grass

 

[chrisdoesntmiss]

Thanks for your help guys.

Just out of interest does your indian fern Pearl (produce oxygen bubbles of the surface of the leaves)

 

[voo]

My indian fern has never pearled, even though the riccia and java fern both do.

Thanks for your help guys.

Just out of interest does your indian fern Pearl (produce oxygen bubbles of the surface of the leaves)

 

[King's_Blend]

Where did you buy your hairgrass from? I found lots of nurserys grow it emerged and it will die off when it goes into your tank. Just wait awhile it will adapt and grow back, at least thats what mine did.