I can't get dwarf hair grass to grow. I can't get anything to form a carpet which is really my goal but this time I wanted to give it a full effort with something easy to increase my chance of success. This is the second time I've planted a ton of DHG only to have it all whither away. So I keep thinking I must be overlooking something obvious, or I must be making some major fundamental mistake to have such consistent horrible results. Thus, I hate to even ask the question here 'cause I feel like I've read all the usual answers already but I'm desperate now and I need someone to tell me why I'm failing so miserably.
My aquarium: It's a 110gal tall (48"x18"x30"high) I have a concrete background that takes up a lot of space and I keep the water level a few inches low so the total system water volume is about 80gal.
Lighting: I'm using a nova fixture (crappy / no reflectors) with two T5HO bulbs (a plant grow bulb & a 10,000k bulb) fixture sits right on top of the aquarium.
Substrate: Seachem black flourite sand, 2-3" deep
Filtration: Closed loop canister style. It's a major (high quality) DIY job with about 15gpm of flow or 11-12 turn-overs per hour. I don't do water changes per-se. I have a constant-drip system that flows carbon-filtered tap water into the aquarium at about 40gal / week. The aquarium has an overflow plumbed to a drain.
Water temp: is kept at 81*F and far as I can tell stays there very consistently. (+- .5*F)
Ferts: I've been testing the macro-nutrient levels directly with a spectrophotometer and they have never been limiting. If anything they've been on the high side, especially the nitrates. I dose micros (CSM+B) when the iron residual tests low.
CO2: I'm at the max that my fish can take and I have reasonable confidence based on my pH meter that the CO2 level is steady & consistent at that level for the entire 10hr photo period. I say that because I've kept a close eye on the pH reading all day most days and the pH fluctuates between 6.47-6.55. Any lower then 6.50 and my fish reliably show clear signs of stress. CO2 is turned off when the lights go out & back on several hours before the lights come on.
I also dose twice the recommended daily amount of Excel. In the past I've also dosed twice the recommended daily amount of Florin Axis (a non-glutaraldehyde carbon supplement) I've been out of Axis for several weeks though.
Algae: It's on the rocks & glass but not on the DHG. I can tell that I'm very close to the proper CO2 threshold when the algae (bba & green dust) starts going away after a few days or so but if I forget to dose excel for a day or two the algae comes right back. The long-term average is that algae is growing though. It's not going away. Again, it's not on the DHG.
Livestock: A blue peacock cichlid, a few mollys, a couple silver dollars, a big ghost knife, a guppy, a few gouramis, and a couple severums. I'm aware that the fish do pick at any & all plants I've tried to grow it's not usually severe enough to prevent a healthy plant's growth. In this specific case I'm confident that if the DHG would just grow it would easily out-pace the fish.
Plants: After a bunch of failed half-assed attempts to get a carpet plant growing I got tired of my non-scaped mish-mesh of plants & ripped everything out. I decided to just focus on a carpet & then come back for the other plants later. I bought a very nice five square inches of DHG (parvula) from another forum member, separated it into 2-3 plantlet bunches and was able to cover most of the substrate in my aquarium with plantlets spaced about every half inch in more or less a grid pattern. After a couple weeks I noticed the original blades of grass dieing off and new ones very slowly taking their place but the net-growth has been negative over the last month and a half. Of the original plantings there are maybe 25% still showing signs of life. Much of the substrate that had been planted with DHG is now completely bare.
Known Challenges: I have a very tall tank (30") and I don't have a PAR meter. So I can't be certain about my light level at the substrate. From what I've been able to find here & on other forums I'm somewhere in the "medium light" range but it will always be a difficult balance to find in a tank this tall.
So what the heck am I missing? Any ideas? If I had the money I'd offer to fly Tom out to Baltimore for a couple days to get a set of first hand experienced eyes on my setup but that's not going to happen.
Thanks for taking the time folks.
My aquarium: It's a 110gal tall (48"x18"x30"high) I have a concrete background that takes up a lot of space and I keep the water level a few inches low so the total system water volume is about 80gal.
Lighting: I'm using a nova fixture (crappy / no reflectors) with two T5HO bulbs (a plant grow bulb & a 10,000k bulb) fixture sits right on top of the aquarium.
Substrate: Seachem black flourite sand, 2-3" deep
Filtration: Closed loop canister style. It's a major (high quality) DIY job with about 15gpm of flow or 11-12 turn-overs per hour. I don't do water changes per-se. I have a constant-drip system that flows carbon-filtered tap water into the aquarium at about 40gal / week. The aquarium has an overflow plumbed to a drain.
Water temp: is kept at 81*F and far as I can tell stays there very consistently. (+- .5*F)
Ferts: I've been testing the macro-nutrient levels directly with a spectrophotometer and they have never been limiting. If anything they've been on the high side, especially the nitrates. I dose micros (CSM+B) when the iron residual tests low.
CO2: I'm at the max that my fish can take and I have reasonable confidence based on my pH meter that the CO2 level is steady & consistent at that level for the entire 10hr photo period. I say that because I've kept a close eye on the pH reading all day most days and the pH fluctuates between 6.47-6.55. Any lower then 6.50 and my fish reliably show clear signs of stress. CO2 is turned off when the lights go out & back on several hours before the lights come on.
I also dose twice the recommended daily amount of Excel. In the past I've also dosed twice the recommended daily amount of Florin Axis (a non-glutaraldehyde carbon supplement) I've been out of Axis for several weeks though.
Algae: It's on the rocks & glass but not on the DHG. I can tell that I'm very close to the proper CO2 threshold when the algae (bba & green dust) starts going away after a few days or so but if I forget to dose excel for a day or two the algae comes right back. The long-term average is that algae is growing though. It's not going away. Again, it's not on the DHG.
Livestock: A blue peacock cichlid, a few mollys, a couple silver dollars, a big ghost knife, a guppy, a few gouramis, and a couple severums. I'm aware that the fish do pick at any & all plants I've tried to grow it's not usually severe enough to prevent a healthy plant's growth. In this specific case I'm confident that if the DHG would just grow it would easily out-pace the fish.
Plants: After a bunch of failed half-assed attempts to get a carpet plant growing I got tired of my non-scaped mish-mesh of plants & ripped everything out. I decided to just focus on a carpet & then come back for the other plants later. I bought a very nice five square inches of DHG (parvula) from another forum member, separated it into 2-3 plantlet bunches and was able to cover most of the substrate in my aquarium with plantlets spaced about every half inch in more or less a grid pattern. After a couple weeks I noticed the original blades of grass dieing off and new ones very slowly taking their place but the net-growth has been negative over the last month and a half. Of the original plantings there are maybe 25% still showing signs of life. Much of the substrate that had been planted with DHG is now completely bare.
Known Challenges: I have a very tall tank (30") and I don't have a PAR meter. So I can't be certain about my light level at the substrate. From what I've been able to find here & on other forums I'm somewhere in the "medium light" range but it will always be a difficult balance to find in a tank this tall.
So what the heck am I missing? Any ideas? If I had the money I'd offer to fly Tom out to Baltimore for a couple days to get a set of first hand experienced eyes on my setup but that's not going to happen.
Thanks for taking the time folks.
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