Dwarf hair grass not growing

[Numero111]

I have dwarf hair grass in a 30 gallon and its not doing so well, but it's doing awesome in my 3 gallon. I even have co2 and a fertilizer it is in sand and slightly shaded by duck weed please help.

[Tetranerd]

How much light is getting to the grass

[Complexity]

slightly shaded by duck weed please help.

This is likely the first thing I'd target. Dwarf hairgrass requires bright light so any shading will negatively affect its growth. If the light isn't bright enough to begin with or there's sufficient duckweed to block a lot of the light, then the hairgrass simply isn't getting enough light. The remedy is, of course, to remove the duckweed.

[Numero111]

I am removing the duckweed cause it also clogs up my filter.

[IvanSanchez]

WPG? What's the color temp? What do you mean by fertilizer(Macro/Micro? or excel?)

I successfully grow HC and DHG in sand but have tons of light, co2 and Macro/micro everyday.

[CRUSHER]

I'd be careful with the fertilizer... or find an organic fertilizer... like fish poop or keep some crawfish in there for a while or shrimp... they will tend it and fertilize it for you

[Numero111]

I use micro (nutrafin plant gro) with a t8 17 watts 10,000k and you use fertilizer ever day? What did you use and wouldn't that harm the fish? What type of shrimp should I use because my serpae tetras ate some rcs i put in. Are dwarf baby tears easier to grow?

[wesleydnunder]

Amano shrimp will eat algae and provide minimal bioload. Your fish will do more towards providing plant nutrients in the form of eventual nitrates...not sure what a crawfish will provide.

10000K is a little toward the blue spectrum. I'd look for lamps with a color temp btween 5000K and 8000K, which should provide more red peaks and green peaks. +1 on gettin' rid of the duckweed.

Aquarium fertilizer.com sells a dry fert mix called PMDD with CSM+B. It's cheap and will last you a long time. The amount you dose will have a lot to do with the plant mass in the tank. Aside from the DHG, how heavily planted is the tank and with what plants?

Mark

[Numero111]

i would say its decently heavily planted:2 amazon swords, 3 wisteria, cabomba, dwarf hair grass, anubias nana, bacopa, moss ball, and i believe java fern all in a 30 gallon.

[IvanSanchez]

I hate to be the one to say it but 17watts in a 30gal is no where near enough light for DHG. I'd stick to low tech and cut the co2. It looks to me that the majority of your plants could benefit more from root tab fertilizer and excel dosing. (But that's my opinion)

Like Wesleydnunder mentioned, Dry fertilizer is cheap and easy to make and it provides you with NPK (Macro) and Micro mixes (CSM+B) But would only be worth buying if you are going high tech (~3watts per gallon, ~30ppm of CO2 and Dry Ferts: Macros one day/Micro the other.)

I use micro (nutrafin plant gro) with a t8 17 watts 10,000k and you use fertilizer ever day? What did you use and wouldn't that harm the fish? What type of shrimp should I use because my serpae tetras ate some rcs i put in. Are dwarf baby tears easier to grow?

[IvanSanchez]

As for the types of fish that are compatible with ornamental shrimp....
It depends on whether there's enough hiding places for the shrimp to hide. The litmus test of fish to shrimp safeness is best applied to "How big is the mouth of the fish!"
The fish I KNOW are shrimp friendly are small tetras (Ruby, ember) micro rasboras, Oto Catfish, Pygmy, habrosus or hastatus corys. And i'll only go so far as to say they won't harm adult shrimp, but baby shrimp aren't so lucky sometimes.

[CRUSHER]

I use micro (nutrafin plant gro) with a t8 17 watts 10,000k and you use fertilizer ever day? What did you use and wouldn't that harm the fish? What type of shrimp should I use because my serpae tetras ate some rcs i put in. Are dwarf baby tears easier to grow?

if you have fish or crustations, they will provide quite a bit of useful nutrients for the plants. lighting i would use ABP3 3 Cluster AquaBar... but if you order something like that it will run you around $250.00... or you could get something like a T5 HO... example is a 36", the place i get my lights from has shorter ones also... www.lightyourreptiles.comThese are the nicest T-5 HO Units I could find at a reasonable price. LightYourReptiles.com is proud to be able to offer them. **Don't be fooled when shopping around! DeepBlue Professional also makes NO (Nominal Output) T-5 units that cost less, but give off approximately 35-40% LESS light. With the HO units, you get what you pay for...MORE LUMENS.** For vivarium use, they put out excellent light for growing plants. Note: They are shipped from the manufacturer with a 10K Daylight and an actinic bulb for reef tanks. It is highly recommended the actinic bulb be swapped out for a full spectrum daylight bulb if you are using them on a vivarium or freshwater tank.

[Numero111]

ive noticed that my plants even though growing well detach from the substrate because of the base seeming to fall apart and im guessing the root tabs would help?

[Numero111]

wow i thought my light was great and it was the best one for planted tanks my lfs had and they had many display tanks that were heavily planted with co2 in the store

[IvanSanchez]

I have not used tabs for DHG but I was suggesting using them for your swords and anubias. One reason why your plants might be detaching could be that the sand isn't heavy enough to keep your bigger plants (swords cabomba, bacopa ect.) rooted.

Another reason might be the lack of nutrients. Like wesleydnunder said, I don't know what fish or crawfish will do nutrient wise.... the most they'll provide is ammonia and nitrites. That's no where close to being beneficial in a tank with CO2. If you're going to get more light (ect 1.5wpg or higher) then look into dry fertilizer from greenleafaquariums or aquarium fertilizer.com. Also if you want to go the easier, more expensive way seachem makes Macro and Micro fertilizer in bottled liquid. You'll be wanting to get N,P,K(Nitrogen, Phosphorus,Potassium)and Micro(the rest of the nutrients mixed into one batch)

Just remember, Adding CO2 + Light will make your plants process their nutrient intake a lot faster aka faster growth. The less light +CO2 the less your nutrients will deplete. The more CO2 + Light the faster your plants take in nutrients.

Here's good reading.

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/plants/balanced.php