# Question about dwarf hair grass turning brown



## mmfish

My carpet of dwarf hair grass is turning brown in spots and looking pale in spite of pressurized CO2 and plenty of nutrient dosing especially with iron.It is very dense and I assume it does not do well for long fully submerged. It grows dense and water flow is limited. I also have plenty of light with a 4x t-5 30" bulbs on a 20 L aquarium.

Any thoughts? Ideas? I may just watch it evolve.


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## Homer_Simpson

mmfish said:


> Any thoughts? Ideas? I may just watch it evolve.


The same thing happened to mine, but that is while I still had it in rockwool and placed it in my tank unplanted. I was going to use it for an emersed setup but did not realize it would so suffer when left unplanted. Anyway, I did some Google search on the issue and someone mentioned that the problem reversed when they inserted a root fert tab in the areas where the dwarf hairgrass was planted. Since I have no experience trying this, I cannot guarantee it will work, but what have you got to lose. My guess is that if you do nothing and ignore the issue, eventually all your dwarf hairgrass will turn brown and die. I also read that too high phosphates will cause this, but I find that really hard to believe.


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## eyebeatbadgers

Do you have cories or plecos by chance? I have a few blades turn brown every now and then if an algae wafer gets dropped into the grass carpet. When the fishes are fighting over it, they always break a small patch of grass, and it turns brown afterwards. At least that's what I had always chalked it up to.


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## mmfish

The tank has no fish, snails, or worms. Just hair grass. I was planning to add shrimp and then fish when the hair grass was dense enough to provide cover.


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## ShrimpMan

I always add some root tabs under it to enhance the color, every 1 or 2 months and it really does great.
I don't know your water parameters or what type of substrate you have or light or fertilizer regime, so it will probably be difficult to troubleshoot.
Also when there is too much duckweed and it blocks too much the light I notice some loss in color so I remove a lot of it.
Hope it can give you some pointers.


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## mmfish

pH 7, 0 nitrates, seachem nutrients all 5: trace, fluorish, iron, nitrogen, potassium, and no other plants

Thank you for helping


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## eyebeatbadgers

If your nitrates are 0, then you're starving the plants. More than likely, it isn't really 0, your test kit is just off, but either way, if you are dosing nitrogen (even with the expensive Seachem line), you should register some nitrates.


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## rhytemaker

i had the same problem using seachem nitrogen and fertz. i would register 0 nitrates all the time. my hairgrass was seriously pathetic. I switched to the EI method with fertz from greenleaf aquariums and now my nitrates test out at 40PPM. The hairgrass has never looked greener, denser or grown as fast as it does now. In less than a month I had a major change. Plus the dry fertz last longer so you get more for the $, cheaper than seachem.


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## mmfish

I placed root tabs from API 2 days ago and some early signs are positive.


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## fishandshramp

I've experienced this as well, and each time its been solved by adding fertilizers to the substrate. I have pool sand as my substrate and I use osmocote flower and veggie fertilizer by just dropping about a teaspoon of the balls all over the tank and then poking them down into the sand using a long stick/pole thing. This has been entirely effective for me in growing a dwarf hair grass carpet which started as 3 1x1inch pieces and now spans across my entire 16 gallon bow front tank in just a matter of 3 months. As soon as I notice a few pieces turning brown I add another teaspoon of the balls, poke them down, and within a few days all the grass is completely green again. I have to do this usually every 6ish weeks. Always make sure you have PLENTY of lighting as well, I have 40 watts for my 16 gallon because my main concern was my dhg, however all of my other plants literally grow like weeds and require weekly trimmings. (My actual weeds, water weed, will grow 8 inches in a single week). Best of luck!


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## TMP

fishandshramp said:


> I've experienced this as well, and each time its been solved by adding fertilizers to the substrate. I have pool sand as my substrate and I use osmocote flower and veggie fertilizer by just dropping about a teaspoon of the balls all over the tank and then poking them down into the sand using a long stick/pole thing. This has been entirely effective for me in growing a dwarf hair grass carpet which started as 3 1x1inch pieces and now spans across my entire 16 gallon bow front tank in just a matter of 3 months. As soon as I notice a few pieces turning brown I add another teaspoon of the balls, poke them down, and within a few days all the grass is completely green again. I have to do this usually every 6ish weeks. Always make sure you have PLENTY of lighting as well, I have 40 watts for my 16 gallon because my main concern was my dhg, however all of my other plants literally grow like weeds and require weekly trimmings. (My actual weeds, water weed, will grow 8 inches in a single week). Best of luck!


With the Osmocote did you have any issues with Ammonia spikes? I have read that it can do that.


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