# how long would it take for HC to carpet



## stonedaquarium (Jun 8, 2011)

hi there,

its my 1st time with HC and i have been having some issues with it... been blasting the tank with Co2 (4bps) and 4 x 24W T5HO for a 20 gal tank and my HC has not been carpeting as what it should. EI dosing as well and my riccia and glosso have been growing well.. but my HC and UG have not been growing like crazy... 

any tips or suggestions?


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

How long has it been in the tank? How far apart did you plant clusters of them?

HC and UG spread really well emersed (look up dry start method), but are fairly slow to grow once under water.


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## willknowitall (Oct 3, 2010)

4 bps is meaningless to me
do you have a drop checker
have you tried degassing tank water outside of tank for 24 hours
and taking ph
then compare to ph in tank later in day
i put 4 bps in my 75 gal
how are you diffusing it
keys. co2, light, nutrients, trace trace trace, substrate
avoid peroxide, excel overdose

possible too much light so they are staving of co2 and nutrient


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## Bahugo (Apr 18, 2011)

stonedaquarium said:


> 4 x 24W T5HO for a 20 gal tank


I have a feeling you will get a algae carpet before a HC carpet with that much light.


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## EnigmaticGuppy92 (Jan 31, 2012)

i use 2 24w t5ho 10000k bulbs on my 37 gallon with 2bps diy c02 and mine is coming along nicely i agree with willknowitall about to much light and to little c02 and nutrient


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## zergling (May 16, 2007)

HC is definitely stupid slow if you're going to compare it to glosso. Unless your lights has a very good ballast (or two) and very good reflectors, do not expect crazy fast HC growth.

You need reef-worthy lighting if you want stupid crazy fast HC growth. Check this 2-week progress of HC under ATI 4x54W T5HO (ATI makes the best T5HO available here). IIRC, there's probably 150-200 umol at the substrate area.

Sep 11 - 








Sep 25 - 









Don't get too excited. Shortly after that "after" pic, GSA took over and destroyed the HC carpet. 4 months later, I'm still tweaking things to get rid of GSA without having to cut my lights in half.


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