Hair Grass

[wombat1100]

Hi guys, I have bought some hairgrass, a punnet of it, and was wondering how quickly it grows? should i plant it straight in the substrate or leave it in the punnett so it doesnt overtake the tank??
Dazz

[GoGuppy]

Hi guys, I have bought some hairgrass, a punnet of it, and was wondering how quickly it grows? should i plant it straight in the substrate or leave it in the punnett so it doesnt overtake the tank??
Dazz[/b]
Hi Dazz

I was wondering about the same thing when I bought three small punnets of hairgrass about six weeks or so ago. In the end I decided to pull the grass out of the punnets and separated each of the clumps into about 5 or six smaller lots of hairgrass and planted these separately in the substrate. Not much happened for the first three weeks, then I changed over to the larger tank and replanted the grass and I noticed only last night that the grass seems to be establishing itself now. Not that it has gone rampant, but I notived it is looking like the gaps are slowly filling up between the separate clumps.

I may regret this in the future, but at the moment I'm still pleased with it.

Cheers

[wombat1100]

Thanks for the reply GG, I guess its a suck it and see situation, i might start in each corner of the tank and just try to keep it under control.
I cant believe how well my plants are growing with the new t5 light and some fertilizer, I've always killed plants b4!
Dazz

[joz]

Good to hear Dazz,I've never had luck with hair grass.
Have you tried a CO2 mix?

[wombat1100]

Good to hear Dazz,I've never had luck with hair grass.
Have you tried a CO2 mix?[/b]


No I havent Joz, all seems to hard for a lazy bugger like me!!!!
Dazz

[medwards86]

i have three of them and put them straight into the substrate... in their basket things that they come in and they are growing very well i must say.

[Prowse]

Is hair grass the same as dwarf grass?? I've been looking every where for it and cant find it. They keep try to sell me java moss instead :angry:

[GoGuppy]

Is hair grass the same as dwarf grass?? I've been looking every where for it and cant find it. They keep try to sell me java moss instead :angry:[/b]

g'day prowse

Hair grass belongs to the Eleocharis family of plants (as you indicated java moss is Vesicularia dubyana and bears no resemblance to hair grass!!), but I'm not famliar with dwarf grass (possibly they're referring to dwarf mondo grass??? which of course is not an aquatic plant).

Cheers

[Prowse]

Cheers Go-Guppy,

Just wondering if you knew where i could get some from and how much for? I found some on ebay yesterday for $3.50 a pot plus postage though.

Cheers,

Andrew Prowse

[GoGuppy]

Hi Andrew

Three fifty for a pot of hair grass is a pretty good price, here in Sydney they charge five fifty or more a pot.

Acouple of other sources for plants I've used over the years:
http://www.aquaticdreams.com.au/search.asp

http://www.aquagreen.com.au/index.html

http://stores.ebay.com.au/ALPHA-DEALS

http://stores.ebay.com.au/elleniaea

As you mentioned, ordering by email is more expensive because of the postage costs, but sometimes you can pick up hard to get plants. Also if you get more than just one plant, it usually becomes more worthwhile.

Cheers

[Prowse]

Cheers Go-Guppy!

[wombat1100]

I paid $9 for a punnet,not a pot , its a punnet about 5-6inches long and 3 or so inches wide,from Baronia Aquarium, best price I have seen anywhere and very healthy

[GoGuppy]

I paid $9 for a punnet,not a pot , its a punnet about 5-6inches long and 3 or so inches wide,from Baronia Aquarium, best price I have seen anywhere and very healthy[/b]

Pots, punnets, middies, schooners...local variations :wink:

cheers

[Prowse]

I paid $9 for a punnet,not a pot , its a punnet about 5-6inches long and 3 or so inches wide,from Baronia Aquarium, best price I have seen anywhere and very healthy[/b]

I'll have to go check it out! Cheers for that, I was only a pot of it the size of a 50 cent piece for 3.50 plus postage.
Thanks again mate.

Andrew

[wombat1100]

Pots, punnets, middies, schooners...local variations :wink:

cheers[/b]


Hi GG, I have never seen punnets that big before, only small pots about 50mm round, so are you saying $9 for a punett the size i said is expensive? I'm pretty sure the pots i saw at 50mm were about $5 each if i remember right.
Dazz

[GoGuppy]

Hi Dazz

LOL, only joking.

The punnets I know are about 25 or 30mm diameter, so the ones you've mentioned (3inches across) are definately a bargain!! :biggrin:

Cheers

[wombat1100]

OK ., Update:
all of my hair grass is DEAD. only thing i can put it down to is lack of light, I have a heap of floating plants at the moment and the light might not penetrate them well enough, o well i would have loved to have it go mad on the bottom of my tank!

[GoGuppy]

OK ., Update:
all of my hair grass is DEAD. only thing i can put it down to is lack of light, I have a heap of floating plants at the moment and the light might not penetrate them well enough, o well i would have loved to have it go mad on the bottom of my tank![/b]

G'day Dazz

Sorry to hear about yr hairgrass, and I think y're right it is probably the lack of light you know.

My hairgrass, which I think I got around the same time as you, is still OK and it has spread a bit. I'm having a bit of an algae prob at the moment (aren't we all??) and have moved the grass a bit out of the light zone, as the grass seams to capture all the loose algae floating around and gets smoothered. I've used the fine hair comb suggestion from someone on the web somewhere to clean the grass and this actually works OK, if yr careful, as it's easy to pull the grass out of the substrate!
Cheers

[Woodsy]

Lots of those grasses and mosses require more red wavelength as they usually grow very close to the surface if not, semi-submersed. From what I've read, those wavelengths don't tend to penetrate very far into your water, especially if you have a high TDS. How deep is the tank, and what globes are you running in your T5's?

[volenti]

My hairy grass;

http://users.bigpond.net.au/volenti/scape.jpg

This is an 18'' high tank with 36W of T8 lighting (plus 6w of luxeon led), pressurized CO2, daily fertilizing with a highly diluted hydroponic mix (from bunnings)

[Woodsy]

I'd be VERY interested to get a run-down on the composition of that fertilizer and the brand name if you're willing to share :p
Impressive to say the least, possibly the luckiest fighter I've ever seen...

[volenti]

I'd be VERY interested to get a run-down on the composition of that fertilizer and the brand name if you're willing to share :p
Impressive to say the least, possibly the luckiest fighter I've ever seen...[/b]

Yea he's a lucky sod allright :D


This is everything laid out on the table;

http://users.bigpond.net.au/volenti/fert.jpg

http://users.bigpond.net.au/volenti/fert2.jpg

The sulphate of potash came from Big W, the hydroponic mix came from Bunnings, get the 2x 2L demineralised bottles from any where convenient.
I'm using a digital scale here but since most of the measurements are reasonably large a small kitchen scale that's accurate to a couple of grams should do.

The hydroponic mix comes in 2 parts and needs to be kept seperate in solution (hence the 2 solution bottles);

http://users.bigpond.net.au/volenti/fert3.jpg

Pour out around 200ml of water from each bottle into a clean container (you'll be using this again) measure out 120g of part 1 and 20g of potassium sulphate and add it to one of the bottles, do it fairly slowly so it dissolves fully, top up the bottle with the water poured out earlier and give it a shake to make sure it's all dissolved. Measure out 80g of part 2 and add it to the other bottle, top up and shake to dissolve.

You end up with this;

http://users.bigpond.net.au/volenti/fert4.jpg

The container with the greenish tint is the NPK/trace mix, the clear is the calcium nitrate, you can mark them if you want but I don't bother, both are dosed at the same rate.

Dosing; (per bottle) For a "high tech" setup, (medium/high light, CO2 injection) dose at 10ml per 100L daily.
Medium light, no co2, dose at 10ml per 100L weekly
Low light, no co2, dose 5ml per 100L weekly

Note that these aren't hard and fast dosages and you can alter the rate depending on your particular tank/plants needs (for example if you have high ph water with a large bioload (high nitrates) then you wouldn't need to dose as much of the calcium nitrate solution)

With my various planted tanks (all high tech) totalling over 800L a mix lasts me about a month. A packet of hydroponic fertilizer lasts about 2 and a half months, the potash will last me years, by far the cheapest (and effective) way to get brilliant plant growth.

[Woodsy]

The detail you've gone to is very much appreciated mate ;)

[wombat1100]

Lots of those grasses and mosses require more red wavelength as they usually grow very close to the surface if not, semi-submersed. From what I've read, those wavelengths don't tend to penetrate very far into your water, especially if you have a high TDS. How deep is the tank, and what globes are you running in your T5's?[/b]

the tank is 18 in deep and the t5s are 2x3foot 21 watt globes

[Woodsy]

the tank is 18 in deep and the t5s are 2x3foot 21 watt globes[/b]

I was more referring to the brand/model, i.e are they Aqua Medic Plant's or Arcadia Marine White's ect, ect. If they came with the boxes, then they should have the wavelength output on the side in a little spectra diagram, or you should be able to look them up on the respective websites. Obviously Volenti's the one to talk to about keeping it healthy, I simply ask out of interest :p

[wombat1100]

sorry woodssy i have no idea!

[joz]

My hairy grass;

http://users.bigpond.net.au/volenti/scape.jpg

This is an 18'' high tank with 36W of T8 lighting (plus 6w of luxeon led), pressurized CO2, daily fertilizing with a highly diluted hydroponic mix (from bunnings)[/b]


Your just showing of now :blush:

Great Fert recipe thanks..

[wombat1100]

I think that recipe should be a sticky in this or the tech forum for easy access, what u think fellas, very informative
thanks
Dazz

[GoGuppy]

Hi Volenti
Great recipe and the results look fantastic.

Do you know what's in the two parts of the hydroponic mix, I mean the composition? It may be stated on the pack?

Also, how long have you been running the tank using the fertiliser mix?

Cheers

[volenti]

Hi Volenti
Great recipe and the results look fantastic.

Do you know what's in the two parts of the hydroponic mix, I mean the composition? It may be stated on the pack?

Also, how long have you been running the tank using the fertiliser mix?

Cheers[/b]

Thanks, the pack has the full composition listed on it for both parts, unfortunatly I've only been using it for a little over a month (previously using a commercial aquarium trace mix with bulk dry NPK) Though I'd think if it was too far out I'd be seeing negative results by now. I'm also using this on a newly set up 6' planted tank (also about a month old) and the plants in there appear to be progressing* normally.

*growing like crazy

[GoGuppy]

Hey Volenti, thanks for that.

I should have mentioned that the reason I asked was that I too have only just this week started using a self made blend of dry fertilisers, bought from Aquagreen. I'm using a recipe off the web with that consists of Monopotassium Phosphate "KH2PO4", Potassium Nitrate "KNO3", Potassium Sulphate "K2SO4" and Potassium Bicarbonate "KHCO3" mixed in demineralised water. A second mix I'm using includes Chelated Iron and Chelated Micronutrients "Aquarium Mix" also mixed in demin water. Both of the mixes are also dosed daily, but about half an hour or so apart. I've carried out nitrate, phosphate and iron level tests last weekend and intend to do so again this weekend to see what's happened and whether the levels I'm dosing are OK.

It'll be interesting to compare notes say two or three months down the track.

Cheers

[hotwinter]

jeez, I feel like such a noob. I didn't know you had to fertilise them. We bought some hairgrass last week, it's one little punnet which I just stuck straight into the pebbles. I have a stiring feeling I'm going to kill it...even though it looks quiet healthy with the couple of other plants that are in there.

[aquafarian]

Hair grass will grow to big for the pot in the end. You can see the runners coming out all over this pot of hair grass. It will need space for the runners to take so plant your hair grass well before it starts to look like this pot.

http://www.e-aquarium.com.au/gallery/d/37-4/hairgrass

http://www.e-aquarium.com.au/buy/plants/hairgrass