# Dwarf Hairgrass



## patrick76 (May 21, 2007)

I have ordered some Dwarf Hairgrass what is the best way to get this out of the pot and be able to plant it in my tank?


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Very carefully!... Just remove the plant with wool from the plastic pot. The roots may be entangled around the bottom of the pot. If so you can cut some of the roots off and then cut the pot to remove it. After it is removed then start to peel away the wool from the plant. When the majority of the wool is removed, then run it under some tap water to loosen the rest up. This way most of the wool can be gotten out between the blades. Then separate the blades and plant. A royal PITA!


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## NAL (Feb 27, 2007)

I thought you planted it in clumps like it comes. So I should pull every blade out individually and plant?


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## messy_da_legend (Feb 18, 2006)

Well it should seperate out into small clumps of maybe 5 blades to one root ball. Then spread them out over the foregorund


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## NAL (Feb 27, 2007)

ok I will do that then
will it take over the foregrounds then?


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## patrick76 (May 21, 2007)

How long will this take to take over and make a nice carpet? I order 3 pots for my 29 gallon tank. I am running a USA Light with 130 watts.


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## patrick76 (May 21, 2007)

No responce?


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## Yoshi (Apr 7, 2007)

It grows fairly fast in my experience... after the initial planting, I'd say within 3 weeks you will see dramatic growth.


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## patrick76 (May 21, 2007)

K thanks for the comment.


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## Terra Incognita (Jun 12, 2007)

I also have a question about hairgrass, which I didn't see nessecary to start a new thread for: I've planted my dwarf hairgrass in a 2.5g tank, with DIY C02, and 20watts of light, but my filter (A cheap-o Tetra Whisper 10) seems to be uprooting the grass, as I continously see strands in the intake. I was wondering if it was alright to turn off the filter for a while, in order to let the roots sort of take hold?


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## Tyrant (Oct 29, 2005)

filter bacteria will die when shutting down the filter due to lack of oxygen i believe.


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## Terra Incognita (Jun 12, 2007)

Let's suppose that's not a problem? In that case, if I shut off the filter for maybe 2-3 days until the roots totally took hold, would it cause any further problems?


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## Aquaculture (Feb 15, 2007)

Tetra Incognita, I would not suggest to turn the filter off as your need to circulate the water and the minieral in it. 

nicklovgren, yes, hairgrass would populate and reward you with a lush lawn. Plant them sparsely and they would spread in no time... if you have CO2 injection and highlight, you'll see baby blades of hairgrass in a matter of weeks. I'm using the EI method of fert dosing. Works fine with me...


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## Yeaulman (Jun 23, 2005)

Whats considered high light? I have about 2.9 wpg.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

I consider 2.9 wpg medium/high light on a standard size tank.


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## skubasteve! (May 22, 2007)

Terra Incognita said:


> Let's suppose that's not a problem? In that case, if I shut off the filter for maybe 2-3 days until the roots totally took hold, would it cause any further problems?


I wouldn't shut off your filter. You could try putting some sort of sponge around the intake to slightly reduce the flow, and prevent plants from getting sucked up into the impeller/filter area.


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## Yeaulman (Jun 23, 2005)

> I consider 2.9 wpg medium/high light on a standard size tank.


So is that enough light for hair grass?


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## patrick76 (May 21, 2007)

Its been two week from when i planted my dwarf hairgrass and there is no sign of growth. Look exactly the same any ideas?


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

patrick76 said:


> Its been two week from when i planted my dwarf hairgrass and there is no sign of growth. Look exactly the same any ideas?


From my experience it takes a while to get started. Did you cut back the original leaves? I have always found be cutting the original leaves to about 1/2 an inch it started to produce new runners much quicker.


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## patrick76 (May 21, 2007)

Yes i cut them back to about 1/2 inch. Still no sign of anything.


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

patrick76 said:


> Yes i cut them back to about 1/2 inch. Still no sign of anything.


Are there other plants in there? Are they growing? Try picking a group and see if there are new roots.


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## patrick76 (May 21, 2007)

I have dwarf hairgrass, Glossostigma, Moneywort, Anachris, Java Moss, Cryptocorynes, African bolbitis fern and Rotala rotundifolia. The glossostigma i got the same time i got my dwarf hairgrass and it has not shown any sign of growth either. The money wort i got about a month ago i think it has grown about half a inch thats it not much growth either. Yet the money wort has grown a lot of roots on it. Anachris is growing great and fast. Java Moss i got at the same time as Dwarf Hairgrass and i have not noticed it growing either. I have some Cryptocorynes and they are going great and fast. The fern has not grown at all but i hear it grows very slow. Rotala rotundifolia i just got so i can't tell you how it is growing at the moment. I pulled a group of the Dwarf Hairgrass last night and didn't look like roots were growing any.


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## NAL (Feb 27, 2007)

I planted mine around 3 weeks ago, and see lil sprouts coming up. Nothing much though, but I haven't cut any of the original leafs. I also ordered it overseas and alot of it was brown when I got it. I think i see progress though.


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## patrick76 (May 21, 2007)

Looked today and saw i think one sprout comming up. Nothing much though. How about my money wart with no signs of growth there?


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## Yeaulman (Jun 23, 2005)

What do you people do about algae or other debris getting caught on the hairgrass? It looks terrible if you look up close.


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## patrick76 (May 21, 2007)

I agree i have some on mine right now. When i change my water i just run my hose over the grass and it gets everything off though.


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## Terra Incognita (Jun 12, 2007)

Yeaulman said:


> What do you people do about algae or other debris getting caught on the hairgrass? It looks terrible if you look up close.


I use a really fine toothed comb, a toothbrush, and sometimes a fine paintbrush. All of them seem to work on getting debris out.


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## Yeaulman (Jun 23, 2005)

> I use a really fine toothed comb, a toothbrush, and sometimes a fine paintbrush. All of them seem to work on getting debris out.


wouldnt that take a lot of time if you have a big tank?


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## patrick76 (May 21, 2007)

Why is my money wart not growing or anything? There is ton of root growth.


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## Terra Incognita (Jun 12, 2007)

Yeaulman said:


> wouldnt that take a lot of time if you have a big tank?


I suppose it would, I was sort've thinking of my own tank, which is only 2.5g. In the larger tank a fine toothed comb might still work, though. Just a very long one :-D


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## patrick76 (May 21, 2007)

My hair grass has still not grown hardley any!!!


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## phanmc (Jun 21, 2004)

Are you injecting CO2 and dosing ferts? With the amount of light you have you're going to need quite a bit of both.


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## patrick76 (May 21, 2007)

20-40 Gallon Aquariums 
+/- ¼ tsp KN03 3x a week
+/- 1/16 tsp KH2P04 3x a week
+/- 1/16 tsp (5ml) Trace Elements 3x a week
+/- 1/16 tsp K2SO4
50% weekly water change

Im using 2 CO2 Bio Systems


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## aquariuslad (Jul 3, 2007)

I'm new in this. Will manual CO2 injection work, instead of CO2 system cos I can't afford a CO2 system at the moment.


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## Tyrant (Oct 29, 2005)

Patrick 76, the bio co2 might be the problem. I know it's costy, but try using pressurised co2. Looking at everything you insert the ferts cant be the problem, although eleocharis is a swamp plant which considerably consumes via the rootsystem. I guess ferts in the water dont do all that much.


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## patrick76 (May 21, 2007)

What a good co2 pressurised system to start off with? Not looking to spend a lot.


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## Yeaulman (Jun 23, 2005)

I picked up a JBJ regulator with solenoid and bubble counter for $70 on ebay. Also picked up a Ceramic/glass co2 diffuser from aquaticmagic.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

aquariuslad said:


> I'm new in this. Will manual CO2 injection work, instead of CO2 system cos I can't afford a CO2 system at the moment.


DIY CO2 does work, but it is a lot of routine work to keep it generating enough and steady enough CO2. If you use two or more bottles, with the start times staggered, so there is never a time when you have no CO2 at all, it works the best. Eventually we all get very tired of mixing sugar, water and yeast, and dumping what was in the water, but eventually stinks. If you can't afford pressurized CO2, the multiple bottle DIY CO2 is second best.


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## patrick76 (May 21, 2007)

How many bottles do you think i need? I have the 2 Bio Generators right now think i need to make a coke bottle one?


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## anonymity (Mar 27, 2007)

This is my experience with dwarf hairgrass after failing at it the first time around.

I had a bunch of hairgrass to start planted it cut it short but it was growing very very slowly if not at all. Also thread algae started to consume it while nothing else in my tank had thread algae.

After watching it slowly die from the algae I gave up and pulled as much as I could out and ordered a couple more pots of dwarf hairgrass. All my other plants were growing like weeds aswell so it wasn't ferts or CO2. What I learned was I had planted my hairgrass too deep and that was causing it to die/grow algae/ and see no growth.

My second attempt I planted the hairgrass with tweezers deep then pulled them up so that *only* the roots are under the soil. The hairgrass is now growing nicely with no signs of any algae.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

My hairgrass experience was disappointing. I also got some of it planted too deep and it didn't grow well. Some was planted just right and it grew rapidly, but then it grew up out of the substrate, like it was a stem plant, with roots just dangling in mid water as the plant grew up towards the surface. I found I didn't like the plant all that much so I pulled it all out yesterday. By contrast my marsilea did extremely well, forming a mat of plants on the bottom. That one is a keeper for me.


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## patrick76 (May 21, 2007)

Maybe thats my problem its too deep i might try to repant them.


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## Fortuna Wolf (Feb 3, 2007)

This is my dwarf hairgrass experience: 
I bought a basket of it for $5 from petsmart. In it goes into a 120 gallon aquarium. The substrate was an inch of iron rich clay gravel mixed with mulch with another two inch and a half of sand mixed with a bit of mulch (if I could do it again, I would always top off with only pure sand and no organics in the sand layer!). I spent an hour teasing the pot apart and cutting the hairgrass into sections of 3-5 leafs. These were then "rolled up" and stuck into the substrate with tweezers. 
Lighting across the entire tank consists of approximately 400 watts of compact fluorescent - this was my dad's salt water tank before he gave up on aquaria. 

Within a week the hairgrass started sending out new leaves, and the evenly spaced plugs across half the tank soon began filling it in. About 3 months in the hairgrass had filled in its side of the tank. 6 months in so far, and its very very thick. I have had occasional outbreaks of blue green algae in spots, but these are solved with single spot treatments of H2O2. I once had a problem with cladophora, and systemic treatment, morning and light, of 2-3ml H2O2 / gallon killed it off (and my shrimp, and really hurt corkscrew val), but everything else and the fish were fine. 

I gave my girlfriend some, and put it in a 2.5 gallon tank with 16 watts of CF lighting with a similar substrate except we didn't put organics in the sand layer. She never completed working on her hood (no glass divider between the tank and the light hood), which meant the airstone bubbles splashed water up into the hood and totally blew out one of the ballasts, so now she's down to 8 watts of CF light. During the high light period it grew light gangbusters, along with some really annoying fuzz algae. Even with the lowered lighting the fuzz algae tried to grow, but we solved that with some H2O2 applications (3ml/gal). 

I have since been using it in my other tanks, including a 10 gallon female betta tank with 2x 13 watt T8 lights, and a 5 gallon hex explorer with a 10 watt screw in CF light. 

So my thoughts on it? I love it. I don't dose the water column, I don't do CO2, I don't do jack except use H2O2 because its so freaking cheap. Mulm will accumulate in it unless you have bottom feeders, who stir up sediment and algae in the hairgrass so that the filtration system can eliminate it. Algae likes the way that the water flow at its base is very still since its like a brush, but once you have a tank stabilized its fine.

It grows very quickly for me in high light situations forming a beautiful carpet. It grows very slowly and survives in medium low light situations. 

I -believe- that the species I have is Eleocharis parvula. 

Also, regardless of the level I plant it at, it seems to go straight for 1.5 to 2.5 cm, rather deep. Under caves and low light areas the blades grow up to 2.5 times as long as they do under bright light. It is very good at sending out runners between rocks, glass, partitions... I find that if I want to corral it I need to use a piece of stiff plastic about 4cm wide by however long, and slide that into the substrate, and then top it off with a line of rocks so it doesn't try to grow over it. Even then, it'll try to slide around the partition and glass if it can. Its also very hard to remove if its gotten into say, Marsilea, since it grows deeper than the marsilea and trying to pull it up by a blade just breaks the blade off and leaves the step in the substrate to continue growing.


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