hair grass

exhumed07

Superstar Fish
Apr 30, 2006
1,774
0
36
Illinois
#1
i'm mally not one for questions but i'm having issues with hair grass. i'm trying to get it to grow and it all melted when i put it in my tank and is now coming back quite nice. but the issue is i can't get it to spread. it's on a 5X6 inch mat of something i'm not sure what it is. but anywho as it sends out runners it wont root in. i have tried cutting the runners and placing it under the gravel but it seems to always pop out and about every other day i have it back on the surface. i'm running a dirt tank with about an inch of gravel on top of the dirt. i'm wondering if maybe the root system is just to shallow to root in. any info anyone can give me will be appreciated. thanks everyone :)
 

exhumed07

Superstar Fish
Apr 30, 2006
1,774
0
36
Illinois
#3
about 2.75 wats per gallon t5ho lighting in a dirt tank with no co2 but using flourish excel as a suppliment. all my other plants are doing great. it might be that it's still new in the tank and still needs time to realy establish itself. the bit the lfs gave me was in a 5x6 fiber mat so it's not like when u get it in a pot with the mineral floss so i couldn't remove it without destroying the roots. i just used some wire i formed into a screw and screwed it down into the dirt to hold the mat in place. maybe thats the issue. i'm not realy sure.
 

exhumed07

Superstar Fish
Apr 30, 2006
1,774
0
36
Illinois
#5
guess it will just take time. i think the pieces i have taken from the surface and planted into the substrate here and there are getting knocked up out of the gravel by my loaches. the roots are only about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch long and the gravel is about an inch deep on average before it gets to the dirt. so the roots are not getting down into the dirt to hold the plant in place and as my loaches scavenge i think they are digging up the grass. thats the only thing i'm having issues with right now besides my ludwigia is dying off for some reason. the stems are rotting off like mid way up and they are loosing alot of leaves. they were going absolutly nuts sending off tons of shoots and runners, roots growing everywhere but now they are acting realy funky and have been since i trimmed them. and i can't remember the name of the plant but my broad leaf ones are loosing alot of leaves. not sure if they are getting to shaded and dying off as the upper leaves mature or if the plants are just not doing real well. i am experimanting with swamp mud so that could be the issue. will see what happens cause my jungle val and bacompa are still going strong. one of my val has leaves stretching all the way across the top of the tank and has sent off alot of runners. from the one plant i got about 9 coming off it now and about 5 of them are sending off 2-3 runners each. guess only time will tell what happens.
 

exhumed07

Superstar Fish
Apr 30, 2006
1,774
0
36
Illinois
#6
i went to get a new exhaust system put on my truck today which sounds awesome but the guy got done sooner then we figured so i had some time to kill before going to work so i went across the street to my lfs and as soon as i walked in Phil the owner saw me and told me to check out the new plants he got in yesterday. he went from having maybe a dozen to having 5 40 gallon tanks full of plants and i was in awe lol. just all kinds of plants and i can't even name 1/4 of them. and i happened to buy a clump of some i can't remember the name off lol. it is realy nifty though and i'll get some picks later but it grows like ludwigia but as it grows the leaves fall off the stem and get replaced by this brownish purple fuzzy hair is the best i can explaine it. just a realy nifty looking plant and the clump had about 18 or so stems for 3 bucks. can't realy beat that. also he got in a bunch of purple lace plants. i am tempted to pay the 15 bucks for one cause it would add a beautiful splash of color to the tank. i also like that the holes in the leaves are super tiny instead of really big.

i know i should have started a new post but figured this was just as good a place as any lol :p