Carbon for dwarf hairgrass

[kellyyoungmoney]

ive decided that im getting dwarf hairgrass(hopefully) because i absolutely LOVE the look of it. but i know it needs more CO2 than other plants, so whats the best way of providing enough of it for the plant to grow? without buying an expensive CO2 system, because its only a 5.5 gal tank.

[kfryman]

First more importantly, what kind of lighting do you have? It needs medium light and CO2. Is your light bulb placed horizontally as well? For a carbon source Seachem Excel will work.

You may have zero luck with the plant, as it is a harder plant and it may just do noting in the tank, if you aren't super familiar with plants I would advise against it and try something easier at first like pygmy chain sword. It doesn't have the fine leaves, but it acts the same way and is easier to grow. Also note, these plants will most likely do nothing if planted in ordinary gravel or sand, you are going to need a fertile substrate.

[aokashi]

I would go with high light and see how it goes.... your best bet is to plant it in a basket full of substrate near the surface of the water where CO2 and light levels are higher.

[starrlamia]

high light without co2 is kind of worthless, as the plants wont be able to use the extra light without co2 (they need an equal part of all requirements to make it worth while, ferts, light and co2), you are likely to just get a lot of algae with high light and plants not utilizing it. You could research diy co2 setups, you can do cheap ones using yeast.

[aokashi]

having plants near the surface of the water gives it access to higher amounts of atmospheric co2. hence the suggestion.
Or she can grow it emmersed. I'm doing that right now as I'm not a big fan of belem

Oh and that is providing OP wants to keep it in a carpet. belem grows fine without CO2, unfortunately it sends upward runners

[JackisLost]

in my old tank i was running high light no c02 and was growing HC REALLY REALLY slowly. once i added liquid c02 it somewhat grew faster. i ended up tossing the HC and gave up on it

[aokashi]

you should start HC on emmersed. it's much much easier that way

[kfryman]

DIY isn't very powerful and rarely gets enough CO2 in the tank, I found that doing a 2x dose of Excel daily (Work your way up to 2x the dose slowly) is quite good. Though having pressurized CO2 is pretty much the way to go. You can get a cheapish system for about $110 or so. I can link it if you want, but you need a local place that fills paintball CO2 tanks, Sports Authority is one.

[aokashi]

how about this, I'll put some dwarf hair grass in my highlight 2.5g and tell you how it goes...