Will This Be Enough?

[Montydog]

Hey all..!

I have a 90L tank- 2X18 w lights, no co2, Eco complete substrate, carbon and and liquid fertilizer!

Ok so my question is will this be enough to grow a nice hairgrass carpet? Any things upgraded or needed??
Thanks!

 

[StandbySetting]

It may work, but growth wont be very compact and it'll probably be a little leggy, you could use different plants to achieve a similar effect, for example there are many mosses that would work, if you want a hair grass carpet, it would be best to use CO2.

 

[Montydog]

Co2 is to expensive for me...): but would it help if I upgraded the lights?
Thanks

 

[StandbySetting]

No - there are 3 fundamental pieces to the 'growing plants jigsaw' Light, CO2 and other nutrients, light is the limiting factor so it controls all other variables, the more light you put over the tank the more CO2 and other nutrients the plants will require due to the higher rate of photosynthesis, so simply adding more light wont do anything, it'll probably do more harm than good with you not adding CO2.

 

[Montydog]

Hmmm, could I try out a DIY co2 system?

 

[StandbySetting]

Yes, be sure to check out Supercoley1's guide, it's not perfect and fluctuating levels of CO2 can cause algae.

 

[Montydog]

Thanks for all your advise!

 

[PDSimon]

You can grow it without co2, it takes ages with or without co2, the only difference I noticed was that it was more compact when co2 was introduced...but it still carpets nicely without the co2 from my experience! It prefers light spots so if there are plants overcrowding it, it will prefer the spots where there is more light....so you can alter the scape to help it grow.

 

[Montydog]

thanks!

 

[mini_matt]

Even if your dosing carbon? Like flourish excel? I thought it was supposed to be as good as having co2?

 

[ian]

No, it isn't as good as pressurised C02.You can't beat the real thing. Its a bit like saying, ''I thought this Audi was supposed to be as good as this Aston Martin''. Seachem will also tell you this on their website. They state if pressurised C02 is a 10, then Liquid carbon will be a 7. Saying that, Excel/Easycarbo are really good products.

 

[mini_matt]

Hahaha fair enough, im looking into it