# help with carpet plant to cover thick gravel



## Remmy (Jan 10, 2007)

Ive had s. repens grow fine in larger gravel, what kind of problems are you having with it?
hydrocotyl tripartita may also work, i feel like its one of those weeds that could grow in anything


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## Willcooper (May 31, 2015)

Pearl weed would probably work. Plant in a patch and it creeps


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## brook39 (Aug 12, 2016)

Remmy said:


> Ive had s. repens grow fine in larger gravel, what kind of problems are you having with it?
> hydrocotyl tripartita may also work, i feel like its one of those weeds that could grow in anything


S.repens doesn't grow, and hair grass died after few weeks, not much grow on this gravel except cryptocoryne, but still very slow grow


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## Kubla (Jan 5, 2014)

brook39 said:


> S.repens doesn't grow, and hair grass died after few weeks, not much grow on this gravel except cryptocoryne, but still very slow grow



It sounds like you've got something else going on. All inert gravel does is hold the roots in place. Your plants don't need substrate to grow.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

honestly if you are having trouble with S repens then I don't know if there are any easier options. S repens should still grow just fine

redoing your tank with a sand-type substrate would be a good idea overall though


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## Remmy (Jan 10, 2007)

brook39 said:


> S.repens doesn't grow, and hair grass died after few weeks, not much grow on this gravel except cryptocoryne, but still very slow grow


Can you give details on your light, fertilising, bioload and co2 if any
I'd agree that changing it out for something finer will make your life easier. The issue of poor growth is likely unrelated to the substrate though


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## Kalyke (Dec 1, 2014)

Kubla said:


> It sounds like you've got something else going on. All inert gravel does is hold the roots in place. Your plants don't need substrate to grow.


This is very true. I have gotten great root systems in gravel (My so called substrate is Sea Chem black fluorite, and caribsea gravel, so although it is not silt or dirt, it is highly plant-able). It can take a year or more to really get a great set of roots on a plant like an Amazon sword depending on light and other factors. 

These little carpet plants really need high light. I think Monte Carlo is the only one that you can do without all the high tech stuff like dosing, Carbon Dioxide and real high lights. 

What is the effect you are going for? If you want certain plants to grow, you need to change your media, your lights and all the rest. The growing stuff needs to match the environment you have, or are able to give. That is basically the trick to all of this. It is better to look at what you have and plan your planting accordingly, or change the environment to match the plant.


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## brook39 (Aug 12, 2016)

Remmy said:


> Can you give details on your light, fertilising, bioload and co2 if any
> I'd agree that changing it out for something finer will make your life easier. The issue of poor growth is likely unrelated to the substrate though


I don't use any co2 or fertilizer, it's a shrimp tank, can't add many things to it, since shrimp are very sensitive to any additives

Bump:


Kalyke said:


> This is very true. I have gotten great root systems in gravel (My so called substrate is Sea Chem black fluorite, and caribsea gravel, so although it is not silt or dirt, it is highly plant-able). It can take a year or more to really get a great set of roots on a plant like an Amazon sword depending on light and other factors.
> 
> These little carpet plants really need high light. I think Monte Carlo is the only one that you can do without all the high tech stuff like dosing, Carbon Dioxide and real high lights.
> 
> What is the effect you are going for? If you want certain plants to grow, you need to change your media, your lights and all the rest. The growing stuff needs to match the environment you have, or are able to give. That is basically the trick to all of this. It is better to look at what you have and plan your planting accordingly, or change the environment to match the plant.


I would like to have a plant which could cover barren space of gravel, the only plants I have is cryptocoryne wendtii and floating water sprite


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