Dawrf Hairgrass aquascape. Will this even work.

[VulgarWander]

I'm trying to get a Hairgrass carpet for this aquascape I'm making.  But I have no idea if this is enough room for it to work. 

The sand is from Petco with eco complete plant substrate. The water is mostly the eco complete fert and a little tank water from my main planted tank.

 

So will this work, if soo what should I be doing to really get it going 

If this will not work, is there a way to make it work.

Also I will soon be adding easy green once everything is settled.

Edited August 15, 2021 by VulgarWander

[Daniel]

If you have plenty of light the hair grass should take off. I live in North Carolina and dwarf hairgrass (Eleocharis) grows everywhere. Here is a picture I took this morning of some growing emersed on the side of my driveway.

It is tough as nails as long as it get plenty of light. The stuff from driveway turns into a weed when I put in an aquarium.

[gardenman]

The biggest issue you're likely to have is keeping a narrow dish with a large surface area watered. Evaporation will require you to top off the dish daily (at least. Maybe faster depending on the light source you use and the humidity level in your house.) The plants should grow fine as long as you can keep them adequately hydrated but that may be more of a challenge than you're anticipating. Miss a day and you could find everything withered and dead. As the plants take hold and start to grow emersed, the loss of water will increase as the plants will also shed water through their exposed leaves. There's no easy way to cover a dish garden like that so evaporation will be faster than one finds in an aquarium with a cover. It should look neat, but the maintenance could be challenging. Algae control will also be an issue for you. Snails will crawl out of a shallow dish and other algae eaters need more water.

[Jimmy Cleveland]

On 8/16/2021 at 8:53 AM, gardenman said:

The biggest issue you're likely to have is keeping a narrow dish with a large surface area watered. Evaporation will require you to top off the dish daily (at least. Maybe faster depending on the light source you use and the humidity level in your house.) The plants should grow fine as long as you can keep them adequately hydrated but that may be more of a challenge than you're anticipating. Miss a day and you could find everything withered and dead. As the plants take hold and start to grow emersed, the loss of water will increase as the plants will also shed water through their exposed leaves. There's no easy way to cover a dish garden like that so evaporation will be faster than one finds in an aquarium with a cover. It should look neat, but the maintenance could be challenging. Algae control will also be an issue for you. Snails will crawl out of a shallow dish and other algae eaters need more water.

I would think you need at least an inch and a half of substrate the little patches you have is ideal because it will propagate with runners and it will propagate fast under the right conditions I would go with strong medium light and easy green with at least an inch and a half of substrate

Edited August 17, 2021 by Jimycle
I always miss spell🤷