Hemianthus callitrichoides

Re: Hemianthus callitrichoides

It has grown like a weed for me, much like pearl grass does, not quite as easy, but not too far off either.

CO2/nutrients/light, seesm like you have that based on the other plants.

So the substrate is all that's left and planting methods.
ADA aqua soil really makes growing this plant very easy.

If anyone has their heart set on a nice HC lawn, use this, it'll save you time and frustration, I'm not saying you cannot have a nice rug of it without ADA AS, but it does make growing it downright easy.

I've done well with Onyx sand also.
I've never tried it in Flourite nor EC.
It did poorly in Flora base.
It grows very well emersed and on floating sponges.

I suggest separating the individual strands into 1-1.5" long single stems and angeling them into the substrate so that only about the top 3-4 leaves show, 80% or so of the stem is deep in the substrate, this wikll prevent the stems from floating out later and allow the plant to root.

From there it's easy.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

Re: Hemianthus callitrichoides

Nothing special nutrient wise.
You do not need to trim it nearly as much as gloss and it's less prone to turning yellow if you do not keep on things. Makes a nicer dense rug than gloss. Much nicer IMO than Gloss.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

Re: Hemianthus callitrichoides

Here's a 20 gal tank witha rug starting after about 4 weeks. *8 weeks produced a rug 1" deep. You can mow it easier than Gloss and it always sells better than gloss.

L. pantanal, the red weed, R wallichii off the side, R macrandra, Eustralis, HC, downoni, some rare crypts buried in there, Tonia, Erio's, L. cuba etc

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

Re: Hemianthus callitrichoides

The tank is about 20 years old.
I have two 20 gals that I've done test on and are about to be retired permanently.

I'm switching to scape size tanks now.
20's are okay, but I like 75 gal range and large cubes.

The tank is just a quick pic, but it has all these weeds folks claim are soooo hard to grow and must have this or that and must be only grown in a certain way etc.

I use EI on this tank, it never has any algae, uses ADA soil, has a higher fish load than what you see, 110w on a 20 gal tank, CO2 mist via an ADA diffuser.
No heater. Via Aqua 200 gal/hr canister.

I cut the tap with 75% RO, this gives me about KH3, GH of 5, I add GH booster at 1/4 teaspoon after the water change.

Nothing special, nothing that complicated, no secrets.

Tanks that grow the hard weeds so easily like this confirm my hypothesis time and time again about water column nutrients and ADA soil, about what is helping certain species do better under certain conditions etc.

It's very easy to understand what is going on once you are able to achieve excellent growth and have that as your standard.
Then when you do something ifferent, you can compare and see if the trade off is worth it to you.


Regards,
Tom Barr