aquarium advice *help needed*

acitydweller said:

Becareful of algae with dwarf hair grass. If you are wishing to carpet ,you ate going to need several more pots than what is siting in the tank.

Your substrate looks like fine akadama... What is it?

Since the tank is livestock free, consider doing a dry start to help establish the root system prior to filling the tank with water.

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Bananariot said:

Lighting question should probably be posted in lighting section......and dry start is simply filling the tank up and keeping the gravel moist to grow hair grass like it's grass on land. Details should be found in the plant section

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acitydweller said:

The fact that the hair grass isn't turning yellow means the light is sufficient for sustaining it. Carpeting will require that you take it out of the pot though, incase that wasn't obvious.

Your gravel is pretty attractive. I would keep it and add some root tabs or osmocote pellets into the substrate for nutrients. Use it sparingly since your tank is a nano.

If you went with ada aqua soil or the equivalent, or even miracle grow organic, it would already have the nutrients within. Both options would work. Just know that dwarf hair grass requires trimming, or mowing, maintenance so if you are a fan of lawn care, have at it and get yourself a long pair of scissors. Just trim before water changes so you can clean up the loose debris each time. No mulching in these tanks. Good luck and hope your tank takes off soon.

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Shrimpaholic said:

5 hours? Don't most plants need around 12? I run mine 12 hours but I see that many run there's for 10.

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Shrimpaholic said:

Well my plants are all healthy, all I have is sand for substrate and that's what I do. Look at it this way, how many places where most of the plants we keep in aquariums originate in nature get 5 hours a day of sunlight? Perhaps one of the veteran planted tank members care to chime in?

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Dany08fa said:

I used hairgrass in my 10gal with very low light, regular gravel substrate, no co2 and just dosed flourish weekly. DHG stayed green and alive but no runners and super slow growth. My tank where i use pressurized co2, high light, fluval stratum, florish and root tabs carpeted pretty quick. I saw runners in less than a week after planting. I leave my lights on for 12hrs a day

Yellowing doesnt always mean insufficient lighting. Could be lack of minerals/nutrients. I believe DHG needs lots of iron someone correct me if im wrong.

Try using crushed root tabs($5-$10), dosing liquid ferts($5-$10) and DIY co2($0-$5) are all cheap good options. You might not need them but theyre cheap and WILL help a ton IME with DHG.

For carpeting some tips would be to plant it small clumps and have them grow/fill in the spaces in between. Youtube and google search "dwarfhairgrass carpet" there should be lots of info on how to.

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aweeby said:

you'll probably want to post this in the correct subforum next time. You'll get better answers and more attention, even if this subforum seems to get more views.
anyway, your issue is likely due to nutrient deficiency. Pick up some dry macros and micros online and mix up a solution, there's a fertilizer calculator in the fertilizer subforum. Like someone else said, your shrimps can handle fertilizer. if you dose properly and you have something with decent cation exchange capability (which you seem to have) you won't need aquasoil. IMO I wouldn't crank the light for 12 hours, you don't seem to have much in the way of plants, so there's a good chance you'll just get an unwanted algae bloom. Rather, aim for somewhere in between. 8 hours seems to work on my low tech tanks. get a timer, if you haven't already. also if you expect it to carpet, I'd take it out of the pot and separate them into as small bundles as can. good luck and welcome to the forum from a fellow 808er.

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Shrimpaholic said:

My tank is dedicated to shrimp. I have one Aqueon 15w full spectrum flourescent and one single bright LED. The single bright LED isn't very bright however, between the two of my lights it seems to be enough light for my tank. I have a bunch of different plants in my tank as it is heavily planted. I dose Aqueon Plant Food twice a week. (APF isn't considered a complete plant food but my plants are green and are growing) I only dose half the amount that is recommended each dosing which is why I do it twice a week rather than once. I do this to give the plants a more consistent nutrient source, and so it isn't as hard on my shrimp.l I don't mess with Co2 because I don't want to gas my shrimp to death and I don't want the pH fluctuatilons.

I also like to give my shrimp 12hrs of light a day because most of the dwarf shrimp we keep in aquariums come frome places that in general receive more or less this much daylight in a day.

The previous poster has a point, you don't have a lot of plants at the moment so excessive light and to much ferts will lead to excessive algae. I've never been completely overrun with algae running for 12hrs a day on a timer.

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