Hair Grass Maintenance

Tim Trabue

Junior Poster
Aug 20, 2011
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Hello All.....

How do you deal with "thatch" under a hair grass carpet? I have a dense carpet growing over about 60% of my tank in the foreground.

Three to four times a year I am on trips that extend two to three weeks... Everything but water changes are automated. During this time I continued with a slightly lower than normal EI with a dosing pump. When I get home the tank is a jungle... the HG grows three to four inches. I hack it back but over time I have settled on a height of about 1". Now when I clean it with a comb I continually snag it and uproot in the thatch.

What should be my target height for HG?
How much can I cut it back without killing it or take away the habitat for my shrimp?
Any easy way to thin it?

Thanks in advance...

Tim