Grass and baby tears help!

[LadyR]

Hey all, I've got a huge questions and I'm not sure how to fix it. The snails in my planted tank keep going across my grass and baby tears to the point of rooting them up. I'm sure the loaches are helping too, but still. I've seen in one of Amano's videos and the UK guy, small grasses or tears planted onto a mesh frame like before they are planted to give them a chance at growing. My question is what is it made of and how to get it? We're trying hard to finish the new stand today so we can set up the new snail tank and get some of them out of the planted tank, but the damage is done to yet another patch of baby tears and grass! Like the 3rd time! I've got some pieces still there I'm leaving but I'd like to re-plant some of the floating stuff.
Also does anyone know about adding a piece of the cactus shell? I don't remember the name but it's very hard almost like wood and has holes in it. We have a big piece a freind brought us a long time ago, that we've never used in anything and we're wondering about adding it to one of the tanks.

 

[OrangeCones]

What type of snails do you have? Can you post a pic of one? Some snails will eat plants, but most do not. But they WILL eat decaying plants.

Do you know what 'grass' you have been trying to grow? Could you post a pic of it if you don't have the scientific name?

By 'baby tears' I am guessing you have Hemianthus callitrichoides.

What size is your tank (gallons and height from top to bottom)?

What type of lighting do you have? How long is your lighting period?

What do you use as substrate?

More information would help us help you!

 

[LadyR]

We have both mystery snails, nerites and malaysians in the tank. My substrate is flourite with a little gravel on the top. I've had drawf hairgrass, amazon sword as well as the tears. And yes they are the HC ones. It like they are not giving the plants a chance to root down, they just keep going over and over the same spot. My hubby loves the snails hence the new 29g we are tring to get up, but it's still going to be another 2 days. So when I take out some of them I'll have a chance to re-plant the grasses and HC, just think there's got to be a better way to try it. I just got some 4 leaf clover stuff and it seems to be surviving the traffic, but it was a huge bunch I put in. But I had a good 1x1" sq of HC this last time and it's questionable right now. Although I'm not giving up on it! But I do have a 75g coming next week and I want to be able to plant the grasses and HC in it as well, but give them a chance to survive it. Here's a pic of the tank, you can see some of the snails. I know there's a bunch, again hubby loves them and the ghost shrimp. And they did get the tank in awesome shape algae wise. I've been fedding algae wafers for them and the 3 loaches since things are so clean, but never close to the grasses. I place them at the bottom of the wisteria, or sides of the wood. Anywhere out of the way.

 

[OrangeCones]

Fertilization (including a good carbon source) will help both types, along with decent light. Do you use any ferts and do you inject CO2? What about the light source? You didn't say the tank size/height...

The plants are easily dislodged until the roots begin to grow to anchor them down. None of the snails you mentioned should bother healthy plants, but their movements could uproot them. Also, even with good lighting, shorter plants are often unintenional shaded by taller and faster growing plants, driftwood, and other decor.

The shorter and often slower-growing plants are also more prone to getting some algae on them, which attracts the snails, which can cause them to uproot them by accident...a vicious cycle sometimes.

 

[LadyR]

Sorry, it's a 26g bowfront, so it's 21 high. I've got a Ray high output LED bar on it. I also dose Excel every other day, micro ferts 2x week, potassium and iron 2x week. All the other plants are doing great, even the newest dwarf four leaf clover. It's got new growth coming up through the old stuff, so I'm just at a loss. I had some frog bit at the top, but then I realized how much light it was blocking so I took all that out like 2 weeks ago, the clover was there too. The last HC and clover got planted at the same time. My, I think it's rotala at the back, I've been letting it grow so I have plenty to cut for the 75g and the 29g snail tank. I make sure to move it around every time I feed at least, so it's not hogging all the top. It's now looking like I'm not cutting that back until Tues night, as the new stand is not ready yet. Still have a little paint and stain and then verithane to dry. I've decided the snail tank is not getting HC or grass until I get some in the current tank to grow better. But I do want it in the 75g when it gets planted. Since everything else is doing really good this is really bugging me I soooo want a little hairgrass, micro sword something and the HC in the front, just how to do it??

 

[LadyR]

Here's a pic from today. It is not a great pic, but you can see the plants at least. So can't wait for an iphone this month, lol! But anyway what's left of the HC is in the lower right by the cream colored snail.