# How do I carpet my pygmy chainsword?



## junebug (Aug 5, 2013)

I'm getting 6+ pygmy chainsword plants in a few days and they're going to be added to my livebearer walstad method tank, which I'm hoping to convert into a SA Biotope soon. Naturally pygmy chainsword came up because it's supposedly the easiest carpeting low light plant aside from mosses.

This tank is a breeder, so I do need a decent carpet eventually to save the fry. How far apart should I place these plants in order to encourage a good carpet? The only plant I've successfully encouraged to carpet was a crypt parva and it was unintentional... it just happens to get more light than I intended and it grows horizontally now 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Assuming that the plant is _Helanthium tenellum_, I don't think you could stop it from carpeting the entire tank under decent conditions. Give the plants a few weeks to establish and they will send out runners like mad.


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## junebug (Aug 5, 2013)

It'd better be lol. I bought it from a user here though and I know he knows his stuff, so I have faith.

Well that's good to know. With my soil and lighting, I can see it going nuts in that tank (yay).


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## alanle (May 8, 2013)

I used to water and that thing grew like craxy

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk


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## Bryeman (Aug 24, 2009)

My tank is only about 6-7 days old and my chainsword is already spreading like crazy so it shouldn't take long if the conditions are even close to acceptable!


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## Method (Aug 18, 2011)

Root tabs would help since all swords are root feeders. Of course that depends on how nutrient rich your sub is.


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## junebug (Aug 5, 2013)

The substrate is potting soil, unmineralized, and the tank is pretty heavily stocked, so I'm not worried about nutrients reaching the roots  I'm already seeing some carpeting action, even with all of the other plants competing for food, so yay


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