# Cyperus helferi and hardness...



## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Anybody out there successfully growing C. helferi with hard water? (kh >8 ) I really like this plant, but between the algae magnet that it is, and the fact that it seems to do well for me for a while, then seems to go into stasis or decline, it's getting frustrating. 

So any tips from folks who successfully grow this and don't use the ada substrates, will be appreciated. Thanks.


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## bigstick120 (Mar 8, 2005)

I never had it in water that hard but I have grown it well in plain gravel and eco complete. Collected some algae but I just pulled off the leaves. What I found was when the leaves started to collect algae they were dead at the base. Very brown and sometimes falling off but looked nice and green at the top.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

bigstick120 said:


> What I found was when the leaves started to collect algae they were dead at the base. Very brown and sometimes falling off but looked nice and green at the top.


I haven't had that experience. In my case the leaves start turning brown at the tops and work their way downward. I've been trimming them knowing that eventually the whole leaf will have to be cut off. That gets old quickly if you have a patch of them. In regards to algae, this is where I really realize the value of an sae or two. When I've grown the plant without sae's algae shows up a lot. In their presence, it's rare.


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## Navarro (Feb 12, 2004)

I have kepT the plant for many years with a KH of 10~13 with no problem. What I never do is to cut the leaf of a Cypherus helferii they don’t like it, remove one leaf at the time by reaching to the crown of the plant and pulling down to remove the whole leaf. Cypherus is a easy plant to grow even with low light! I have seen Jeff Senske’s tanks with low light before and the plant grows and pearls just fine. I can say the same for the most part. The algae problem if is not related to low co2 in your water probably means a heavy bio load. Add more filtration and keep up with your water changes and dose excel for 2 weeks and the bba will get reddish and shortly after die.
Cheers,
Navarro


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## Kelley (Aug 27, 2006)

I have not grown C. helferi, but I have made an interesting observation with Crypt. spiralis, another slow-growing, grassy plant. I noticed that no matter what I did, it collected nasty BBA and staghorn algae, even though the rest of my tank remained clean. Then I realized that the strong flow from my filter outtake was damaging the leaves and leaving them prone to algae attack. I redirected the flow and now the plants have been growing clean for several weeks. 

My water is very hard, BTW.


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## travis (Oct 5, 2004)

Bert,

I've kept C. helferi in hard water (12-14 dKH) and had similar issues with algae slowly killing the leaves. I suspect this was a bio-load issue because I have had not had any problems since upgrading my filtration, although it does seem to grow more slowly for me in hard water as opposed to soft water. And I completely agree with Luis, Cyperus leaves do not react well at all to being trimmed. It's best to just remove the entire leaf if there are problems.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Thanks to everyone who's replied. It's good to know hard water is not an issue with it.  I do have a fairly large bio-load in that tank, I will keep on top of water changes. It's difficult to access leaves at the base of the plants, especially in a clump of them, so I've been lazy at their trimming. 

I also have C. spiralis, luckily haven't had any issues with that one.


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## bigstick120 (Mar 8, 2005)

Hmmm, I must have gotten the backward version of this plant! Ill have to tell it to die at the top!


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## PHalas (Dec 5, 2005)

I'm just up the road from you & had the same problems when trying to grow this. Bio load was out as there were no fish in the tank I was dosing Flourish Ex & I had plenty of CO2 going in they just turn to mush.
I now use 50/50 RO & tap water & alot of the plants I have had trouble with in the past, no longer are a problem. Maybe it is time to try Helferi again??
As for my SAE's, I am yet to see them clean any Algae..


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