Microsword

[JE47]

Quick question has anyone grown this without CO2 and gotten it to successfully carpet or did it die without the CO2 injection?

[TheSwissAquarist]

I’ve been able to grow & propagate it without CO2, but if I was going for the carpet look I’d definitely try CO2. 

[nabokovfan87]

I had it in the same tank with and without CO2.  I also had it on sand.  It's a pretty forgiving and easy plant and I miss it!  I would love to try again and see how it goes now that I have a bit better substrate.  To your question though, yes... you can grow / carpet it with and without CO2.  Root tabs are your friend and the main difference there is just time.

[nabokovfan87]

One very brilliant aquascaper, Filipe Oliveira gave some advice about planting and he said that they need space at the roots to be able to get circulation.  When you hear about carpets dying, that is most often one of the major issues.  The roots are so densely packed that they can't properly function and that leads to issues which leads to the carpet dying.  It's something you'll see in the glass where the bottom of a carpet looks dead because it just isn't maintained and trimmed properly.
 

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 10/23/2023 at 12:23 AM, JE47 said:

Quick question has anyone grown this without CO2 and gotten it to successfully carpet or did it die without the CO2 injection?

Yes for sure, it has spread out runners and I don't do anything to it.  Occasionally some Easy Green (when I remember).  I do have to tack down the runners with plant weights; otherwise the runners will grow up into the water column.