# Newbie Dwarf Hairgrass



## Toilet (Jul 17, 2007)

I need help or advices. I read the thread on before starting a planned tank http://www.piranha-fury.com/pfury/index.php?showtopic=131579

I'm new to this and I don't have much knowledge. But I would like to grow Dwarf Hairgrass in a 20gallon aquarium. That's mainly what I would like to start with as I am new to this hobby. My goal is to have it spawn all over the 20g floor.

Can I used Flora Base as my Substrate, keeping my temperatures between 72-79 degrees and provided a ac110 filter with a 50watts light and airpump help the growth of Dwarf Hairgrass or Am I going the wrong way? I won't be using C02.

Sorry for not knowing how to plant a tank. Still learning. Help please.


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## Guest (Jul 18, 2007)

Welcome to Piranha-Fury







! Everyone has to learn at some point and this forum is meant to help people. So if you need the help go ahead and ask questions. I don't know much about planting either but you dont need a air pump because your filter provides plenty of oxygen through water agitation. Also you might need CO2 because your wattage is 2.5wpg.


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## skubasteve! (Feb 14, 2007)

I agree with getting rid of the air pump, it will reduce the amount of Co2 in your tank. Your lighting should do you well, what kind of bulbs are you using? What the Kelvin rating? Plants will do best growing in the 5000-10000k spectrum. You could probably get away with DIY Co2 in a 20g, or you could just dose Flourish Excel but that can become expensive. Im no pro but I hope this helps a little bit.


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## plantbrain (Jul 3, 2007)

I've done numerous hair grass lawns.
I think using ADA's aqua soil and CO2 is about the best way to go.
I have done very well using plain sand and water column ferts as well, but again, with CO2.
I've been able to grow hair grass in non CO2 tanks, however, not fast and not a larger % and certainly not the entire tank.

You can use Excel by seachem, but you'll do far better using CO2.
For a 20 gal, you can use DIY CO2 and DIY venturi reactor I designed jesus, 15 years ago I suspect now.

Here's the link to the DIY reactor, these cost about 2-3$ mnus the Rio 180 powerhead(7-12$ on line).
http://www.barrreport.com/articles/41-diy-...-co2-users.html

Several knockoffs appeared a few years after, but they forget to add the venturi and add sponges and other thing that do not work as well. Change your DIY brew bottle weekly, add 1/4 teaspoon of yeast, 1 cup of sugar, and 6 cups luke warm tap water.

That will take care of it for the CO2 for this tank.
The rest will be nutrients from there.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## Toilet (Jul 17, 2007)

For my light I'm using a Hamilton Tech 50Watts 4,000K Double Ended Bulb. It should be fairly good because I'm going to start with 3 to 4 pots of Dwarf Hairgrass and see where this goes.. I haven't decided on the Ferts yet, I will be researching it more.

At first, I was thinking about using ADA's aqua soil with a DIY C02 like this one on this site http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumap...es-recipes.html but I changed my mine because the ADA's aqua soil has to be order online because my lfs doesn't sell that here. I myself like materials that are nearby to purchase and pick up. My lfs carries other brand and they happened to have Red Sea Flora Base. Now with the DIY C02, I was reading that you could manage to grow Dwarf Hairgrass without it but not to it's fulliest outcome that you could of gotten if you did use a DIY C02.

I'll give this all a thought again because I'm just planning it out now until this weekend to where I have time to actually get started on.

I really appreciated the comments on the air pump and the links you provided. It means alot to me because this could lead to greater planted tanks if I sunk any of this into my empty brain


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