micro grass care help

[jeff63851]

Is the Micro Sword ( Lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae) hard to take care? I donno the lighting in the 60 gal...but is it hard to take care? In tropica.com , it says that it's hard to take care?? If that won't work, is there a easy foreground plant that is easy to take care of? i don't like riccia or java moss...

Thanks!

-Jeff

[jhoetzl]

Micro swords will require strong lights @3wpg to keep low, and, if you do get them, you will want to almost plant them in individual strands about a blades width apart, or they will most likely develop algae in between them.
Most carpeting style plants are best planted with a lot of patience...

I had some micros in my main tank, but is now in what I have deemed my algae recovery tank. I pulled all the micro swords and bleach dipped them because of the algae. It is recovering nicely at the moment.

Have some dwarf hairgrass now, but also have two pots of glosso I think I am going to put in tomorrow on water change. Need lots of patience to do glosso the way I like it too look.

[jeff63851]

[IMG][/IMG]

thanks jhoetzl!! Is the dwarf hairgrass hard to grow? This is also my plant plan...can you tell me how much of these I need to get and if they work out in the 60 gallon? Also, if you think I should add more plants, can you tell me were to put it and what type? Thanks! Here are the plants im going to use

-Bacopa Caroliniana
-Micro Sword
-Amazon Sword
-Rotala Indica
-Stargrass (guppy grass)


Thanks!!!

-jeff

[jeff63851]

allright...I just got the 60 gal...and it's HUGE!!! So should I get tripple of the amount of plants? Thanks!

-Jeff

[Urkevitz]

It wouldn't hurt to load up on stem plants at first, but the swords will eventually get huge, so you will probably want to keep the number low. You have a new tank, experiment to see what plants you like.

[Crs2fr]

i've been through so many types of plants.. you'll weed out the plants that dont work for you. but you need to try them first. Its like i can get some plants growing in my tank that other's have the hardest time to and visa versa. trial and error... just buy and try.. thats all you can do..

chris

[jeff63851]

O ic. Can you grow micro sword at a 2 wpg? What plants work great with low lighting (except Anacharis)? I think I might be able to get a 2 wpg if I replace my shop lights with some plant fluorescent tubes.

Thanks!!

-Jeff

[Aphyosemion]

There are a number of plants that do great in low lighting, but I think you already mentioned a few you don't like. They are:
Anubias
Cryptocoryn (just about any crypt)
Java fern
Java moss
Hygrophilia Polysperma (seems to grow fast under any lighting)
I'm sure there are more, but those are what jump out at me right off the bat, since I have all of them. I'm not sure about anacharis, since I have kept that under medium lighting. It might not do well under low lighting, much like Hornwort. That stuff grows like mad under high light, but under low light it just wastes away.
-Aphyosemion

[jeff63851]

I think I might get the pc lighting so the lighting won't be a problem. I'm just afraid that the micro grass will die on me and then I won't be able to have any forground plants. Can anyone list the forground plants that have thrived? I'm just afraid that the micro grass will not thrive in my tank but i like the micro grass look. Has anyone ever had the micro grass thrive in their tank? Can you give me some advice on it?

Thanks

-Jeff

[New 2 fish]

How about some pygmy chain swords? I got some from Gomer and they've been doing really well for me. They're getting nice and bushy, grow low and have a nice arch to their leaves. They're my favorite foregrounds for now. If you do get them, just keep in mind they are root feeders, so you'll need some root tabs. ThatPetPlace has a box for around $4.00.
Good luck!
(You'll love the PC lighting, btw!)

[jeff63851]

ok lighting won't be a problem. I'm going to get 2* 95 cf from ahsupples.com . It's going to give me about a 3.2 WPG. Is their anything else besides the lighting a problem to rasing micro grass?

Thanks!

-Jeff

[unirdna]

Microsword is slow compared to hairgrass. You need patience and attention to make sure it does not get smothered by other species. It takes a longer time to make a dense carpet because it only send up one leaf per plant, whereas hairgrass sends up multiple blades per plant.

But manoman, a dense carpet of microsword is absolutely georgeous, and demands respect.

[jeff63851]

ok, I think I'm pretty close to ditching the idea of a micro sword carpet. Here are the list of plants I might try...

Echinodorus tenellus
Glossostigma elatinoides
Echinodorus angustifolius
Eleocharis acicularis

Well, I'm only going to choose one of them. Like I said, I don't think that the light or the Co2 would be a problem. I am also willing to spend time making the forground.

Thanks!

-Jeff