# Hairgrass melting terribly



## chinjaysquare (Aug 6, 2012)

I bought some eleocharis acicularis (dwarf hairgrass) 10 days ago and it was so green and lovely. Now, it seems to be dying off-- turning brown and melting all over the place. It simply look battered up and mangled. 
My tank is 29.5cm(L) by 14.5cm(B) by 19.5cm(H). In other words it's is only 8.341125 liters or 2.20349211 US gallons. Nevertheless the tank is not a new one. The system has been up since late 2009 and thus to a certain extend already stable. The lighting is by Dymax's Robot LED Clip Light (rated 1.6W) I do not dose any fertiliser nor have any injection of carbon dioxide. Nonetheless I do add approx. 1 ml of SeaChem's Flourish Excel every other day. As for my water temperature, it has been always constant at 29 degrees Celsius despite not having any heater in the system. 
It is disheartening to see the hairgrass, which is said to be easy to grow, turn brown and melt in the tank.


----------



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Plants have a minimum threshold for light and the 1.6w bulb simply doesn't meet that threshold. The plants are using up their food supply faster than they can produce it. This is what is causing the deterioration. 1.6w is equivalent to total darkness as far as those plants are concerned. For your tank you need at least 20 watts of light if not closer to 30 or 40w. 

Do not use incandescent bulbs, you need fluorescent or many LEDs, but fluorescent will be the cheaper option between these two.


----------

