aquamancanada

First planted tank eh. Interesting way to go about something like that. I think it looks very cool well done I say.

hoppycalif

That hairgrass is looking very good. Not having any good experience with hairgrass I don't know if planting it deeper would have worked better or not. When I planted it submersed it did the same thing - tried to form new plants above the substrate instead of in the substrate. Now, I wonder if you should try giving it a haircut to encourage it to grow thicker? Somebody here must know.

orion2001

I have been cutting some of the plantlets down, but it is extremely hard to cut them and then pick out the little grass blades from the substrate. When I researched hairgrass, I read a few posts where experienced users said that cutting it short definitely promoted runner growth. So as you mentioned, I really do want to cut the hairgrass short but I don't know if it is OK to have the cut blades of grass remain on the substrate and rot. Of course when I submerge the setup, these bits will float up and should be easy to remove.

What do you guys think?

PS - Thanks aquamancanada. I hope this tank turns out the way I have it envisioned in my head...and minus the scary GW, algae ridden nightmarish worst case scenarios that I also tend to envision at times

mott

I would say cut them,fill it up a lil then get the blades out and drain...

orion2001

That's a good idea...but a painful one . I'm dreading filling the tank because the black sand seems so light and flimsy...I'm worried I'll end up uprooting a lot of the grass. Anyways, I'll probably give it a shot sometime soon.

NeonRob

Nice job! How did your Java Fern do?

orion2001

Hey Rob, the Java fern didn't do well at all. I had to get rid of it a week or 2 after initial planting. However, I don't think this means that you cant grow it emersed...some have, with great success. I think in my case the main problem was that I wasn't keeping the tank humid enough. I did not completely seal it off (Didn't have a glass piece to use as a lid). I think if I had done that it might have done better.

orion2001

Well here is my final update regarding my efforts growing Dwarf Hairgrass emersed:

Over head shot of tank 6 weeks ago:



Overhead shot of the tank 4 days ago:




All-in-all I'm pretty happy with how things went. The hairgrass did grow quite tall once I upgraded my lights to 2x20 Watt CFLs. I think I'd have had better spread if I had given haircuts more often, but cleaning the bits of cut hairgrass in emersed tanks is really painful and I chose to be lazy and just not give any haircuts.

My plants from Robert get to me tomorrow. So it is going to be a long busy day as I struggle with my first aquascape/hardscape .

orion2001

Just a final update on this experiment. The hairgrass did amazingly well once submersed. With Excel and modified EI dosing for a low-tech excel tank the hairgrass took off right away and was sending runners all over the place. This is a pic of the tank right now (roughly a month after being submersed)



All in all this was well worth the time and patience it took to grow the hairgrass. Having the roots established makes a big difference in how the plants respond/grow once submersed. In the case of hairgrass I could definitely tell that it seems to grow much faster submersed (Atleast in the conditions I provided it) but only because the roots were well established.

I think the best way to try growing a nice foreground is to plant some hairgrass and grow it out emersed for a month or two so that the roots are well established and that the hairgrass has spread some. After that you should submerse them to get some explosive growth and fill out your foreground.

hoppycalif

Very successful experiment, and a beautiful aquascape too. Congratulations!