# hairgrass melting/dying?



## Lee92 (Oct 12, 2010)

i bought some eleocharis acicularis (dwarf hairgrass) a week ago at it was lovely and green now a week on the tips seem to be browning and some stems dying off, i seperated them into smaller clumps, i trimmied the brown tips off most of them earlier on today. i presume the tips are going brown because is was grown emersed and now its submerged but it doesnt explain the stems.
its a new tank 10 gallon tank only 30cm high with 2 inches of aquabasin and manado substrate (by jbl)
i have pressure co2 at a bubble every 3 secs which on the coulour chart (measured by 2 or 4 drops of regeant turning either yellow(low ph high co2), green, d.green, l.blue, blue(high ph low co2)) which on the chart is in the middle so dark green which is also a ph of 7. 
i used a ro water at a temp of 24/25 c with minerals and i am doing daily doses of ferropol24 and weekly doses of ferropol(again by jbl) with 2 arcadida arcpods oringal tropical 11 watt lights making 2wpg(if you still go by this rule)
any ideas heres as ive been looking on the net but everywhere i look has a different opinion than the other. here are a couple of bad pics if you can see it in them but it might be a struggle.
i know some people say with the right condtions they can grow very fast and become invasive and need medium light others say they grow very slow and need a very high light so i dont know who to believe aha
cheers


----------



## HarryRobinson (Oct 29, 2010)

It does this mate  It was grown emmersed so the emmersed growth dies off and submerged growth begins  This happened to mine so a waited it out and now i have a nice lush green carpet  Once it grows long trim it to about half an inch then it will grow back more green and lush. Wait it out it'll look great  Nice tank


----------



## Lee92 (Oct 12, 2010)

ah cheers. so is im my lighting enough in the long run? how long did you wait till you saw the 'new' growth in your tank?


----------



## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

When transitioning to submerged growth, the whole blade will rot, not just the tips. It should start putting up new leaves in short order though.


----------



## sAroock (Oct 26, 2010)

those bunches look a little too big. i would of divided them to individual roots, this will speed things up and you'll get healthier faster growth. 

Too late know i guess, but good information for nxt time if you decide to play with hairgrass or other carpets.


----------



## Lee92 (Oct 12, 2010)

ok yeah some stems are dying off so hofully the new growth will come through.

yeah aha, i bought six bunches and split them into around 40 separate clumps i guess i could of made them smaller but it was not a easy task with the substrate chosen and i guess i got a little lazy, i was worried that because the clumps are to thick that the middle was dying off from to little light but i do not want to disturb it now and hopefully the new growth should come through, fingers crossed


----------



## Jaggedfury (Sep 11, 2010)

You should split them into thinner pieces, it will spead out quicker that way. Thin fine patches is the best way to go. Clumping them that much together will slow it's growth and won't spread as quickly as if it was thinner.


----------



## JCoxRocks (Mar 22, 2005)

I also just planted some emersed hairgrass, although mine hasnt begun to melt or brown at all. It is still a lush green, however very difficult to tell if there is any new growth.

HarryRobinson - did I read correct to trim it down to a half inch above the substrate? I had read that frequent trimmings often stimulates new growth and runners. Is this what you recommend to acheive a nice carpet once planted?

J


----------

