nokturnalkid

Got the go ahead to setup another tank. I scratched the whole "quarantine/el natural tank". The next idea is gonna be an el natural low tech 10 gal. It'll receive a few hours of late afternoon sunlight. Already got the lights that can take 2 cfl bulbs. Just a couple of questions:


1) My main question is can I grow dwarf hairgrass in an el natural low tech tank?

2) Wattage? How much lights do I need to get DHG to survive? Keep in mind that I could barely keep DHG alive in a high light/high tech tank.

Thanks...

clearleaf

Good question and I think the answer is yes, but I hope there will be more input. I started a 10g low-tech tank in late May, topsoil capped with gravel. I dose Excel and some potassium and calcium to correct deficiencies that I notice, so it's not technically el natural. I haven't finished building my hood, so for now I have a twin tube 36" fixture with 60 watts of T8 but have the fixture pointed at the wall behind the tank, so its mostly just reflected light to counteract the intensity. This weekend I'll be switching to one 14watt CFL in the front and a 9watt CFL in the back.

I just put in some dwarf grass about two weeks ago, and some e tenellus about a week ago. So far nothing has melted (though the tenellus is showing signs). While the dwarf grass hasn't melted, it isn't exactly growing, either. I have a feeling that the plants will survive low-tech/el-natural just fine, but it won't exactly fill into a dense lush carpet in a matter of a couple months, like you might see with high-light CO2 injected tanks.