Dreams of Dwarf Hairgrass plains

[Alec2cool]

In my last "Dreams of" post in this category, I was asking how to make Vallisneria thrive and I was finally successful!I'm still have browning issues here and there but despite that, it's still on a determined journey to envelop that entire tank! Before, I had it in a sand substrate (in a 55g) and used plenty of root tabs but it never really thrived. It seems to do phenomenally better in a smaller tank (20g Long) with river pebbles and NO root tabs, I'm using liquid fertilizer instead. It has gone from 6 plants to 17 in 4 months. I took advice on clipping the leaves for faster carpeting but it didn't seem to like that. A few are still sending runners but most of them have stopped and some leaves are turning a brownish tinge.

Now my next project is Dwarf Hairgrass. I kept it before last year and it never really thrived. I started with 3 very large bunches that I had spread out across a tank only for fish and snails to constantly be disturbing them. In a desperate effort to save what remained, I put the scrappy looking survivors in another tank only for one of my dwarf gouramis to decide he wants that particular plant for his bubble nest. He tore it up and carefully placed the pieces at the water's surface.

Well, I recently bought another bunch and I'm gonna try again! I have it waiting in another tank while I set up it's permenant tank. I plan on using a soft substrate, pool filter sand and I have a big stock of root tabs ready to go. I won't be using a Co2 setup. While the Hairgrass settles in, I plan to have no inhabitants in that tank during that time. After I see it start to spread and carpet itself throughout the tank, I plan on getting a school of zebra danios. (The tank is a 10gallon)

What tips do YOU have that made your Dwarf Hairgrass thrive?

[Mmiller2001]

1 hour ago, Alec2cool said:

It seems to do phenomenally better in a smaller tank (20g Long) with river pebbles and NO root tabs,

Blasphemy! 😁