Thanks for pointing that out Vaughn. I was just worried from your GW/BBA experience with your tank with the 2x20 W CFLs and excel dosing. I'll be doing exactly the same and I really don't wanna risk algae. Do you think the light wasn't to blame in your tank?

Also anyone have any idea what I should do regarding trimming the hairgrass right now in its emersed state?

Well here is my final update regarding my efforts growing Dwarf Hairgrass emersed:

Over head shot of tank 6 weeks ago:



Overhead shot of the tank today:




All-in-all I'm pretty happy with how things went. The hairgrass did grow quite tall once I upgraded my lights to 2x20 Watt CFLs. I think I'd have had better spread if I had given haircuts more often, but cleaning the bits of cut hairgrass in emersed tanks is really painful and I chose to be lazy and just not give any haircuts.

I'm waiting for a bunch of plants to come in in the next couple of days and then I'm going to fill the tank up and see how things go.

Hi have just also tried to grow HC emerged .. some pics.

1.


Shot with QV-R61 at 2008-06-15

2.

Shot with QV-R61 at 2008-06-15

3.

Shot with QV-R61 at 2008-06-16

4.

Shot with QV-R61 at 2008-06-16

Very impressive! It will be interesting to see how these do once flooded. Right now they really look good.

Once most of the foreground plants root well, they will take off like mad submersed, their growth is less in the emerged state, but the actual growth, dry weight biomass is little less submersed.

I have a tank with DSM Hair grass outside growing like mad.


Regards,
Tom Barr

Hi folks,
my first post
I am very interested in setting up a new tank with dsm. But somehow I am not sure how to handle it. The layout will be way higher at the back. So it wont be possible to keep the soil from drying out from front to back. What can I do? Does the moisture in the air do the job?

Cheers
Axel

Hoppy, the hairgrass is doing amazingly well just like Tom mentions above. With excel and 30 WPG of CFL (which is pretty low. I had to swap out the 40 W CFL when I had BGA) the hairgrass is doing very well and sending runners all over the place. The only problem is that I don't know how to get it to send the runners under the ground. Almost 40-50% of the runners are being sent over the substrate surface. I'll update with new pics once I'm done with a new round of planting and some maintenance work on the tank.

The other problem is that the black sand is a little light and doesn't seem to weight the hairgrass down too well. This makes combing it out hard and messy. I'm having quite a bit of trouble in trying to keep the hairgrass portions clean.

Also I had a question regarding hairgrass in the planted tank. It is beginning to send runners to the far back of the tank where I intend to plant some stem plants/possibly blyxa later on. Do I need to aggressively pull the hairgrass out and cut the runners or will the stem plants be able to do fine with all the hairgrass in the back?

I have never succeeded with hairgrass, always planted submersed, so I have very limited experience with it. My experience with another carpet plant, Hygrophila "Porto Velho", is that it will take over every square inch of the substrate, then start climbing up over itself and the other plants, unless you keep it pruned back.

Hey,

I have an existing tank with plants and fish, and would like to add an HC carpet.

I am strongly considering using the emersed method, but I don't have a spare tank with lights.

Can I use household lights for this method? If so, which ones would you suggest?

Also, what can I expect when transplanting the carpet grown by the emmersed method into my existing tank?

Thanks!!!

I've been reading this forum topic on this technique and got inspired. I only wish I had known about this emersed technique before I started my planted tank.

The question I'd like to propose is: Are there are any good techniques out there for transplanting emersed HC into a tank that's already filled up and planted?

I'm attempting to try it with a little custom setup. I don't have any spare tanks to use, so I tried something that utilized my current lights and tank water. I would be very interested in hearing from people who have successfully tried this technique for a tank that is already filled and what process you used.

Here's my setup. I don't know if it will work or not but I'm optimistic. The plan is once they're grown in and well rooted I'll transplant the whole thing to the tank. The netting is suppose to help me retain the gravel while I place it in the tank. I normally have a sheet of plastic covering the cups for humidity and moisture but I took them off to take the picture.



Here are the tank specs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SIZE: 28 US gal. Bowfront. 19" (W) x 24" (H) x 12" (D)

LIGHTING: 2x65W CF 6500K, although I only use 1 of the bulbs for now run 10 hours/day. 2.3W/gal.

CO2: Pressurized. I'm kind of winging it right now. I haven't invested in a drop checker yet. I'm using ADA 30mm beetle ceramic diffuser and ADA basic bubble counter. I'm getting about 168 bpm. I don't know if it's too much or too little but I'm closely monitoring my fish, plants, and algae. I have the system on a timer and have it come on 1 hr. before the lights come on and off 30 min. before the lights turn off.

FILTER: Eheim ECCO 2232

SUBSTRATE: Combination of Eco-Complete and ADA Aquasoil Powder

MISC: Powerhead that sits above the CO2 forcing water down onto the front of the tank. The idea being that the CO2 will be circulated with the water down to the lower tank area. 160W heater maintaining about 80 deg. F.

DOSE: EI

Saturday, Monday, Wednesday
1/4tsp NO3
1/16 tsp KH2PO4
1/16 tsp K2SO4

Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday
10mL Flourish Trace (Recommended Dosage)

Everyday
5 mL Excel

Friday
50% water change + 15mL Excel
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I haven't done a whole lot of scaping. I do a little here and there to keep it looking nice. I'm just letting it grow in at this point and playing with different plants.


The HC:


I'm trying this technique with Lilaeopsis 'Mauritius' also:


I'm doing the hairgrass the old fashion way:


I'd also appreciate any comments on my dosing strategy and setup. I know I'm missing a few things here and there (I'm working up to it). If there's anything obvious that I'm missing, I'd welcome the suggestions. A million thanks for this great website and resource.

Regards,
Fellow Aquarium Plant Enthusiast