Best carpet plants

[electromango]

I've heard that many carpet plants require high and intense light to thrive because of how distant they are from the aquarium lights. For example, would dwarf hairgrass be a hardy plant that grows well under a Finnex Fugeray Planted+ 30" for a 29 gallon? Also how fast do they grow and how easy are they to care for when compared to other carpeting plants? New aquarist here so all advice and info is greatly appreciated.

 

[aquarium 308]

I've heard that many carpet plants require high and intense light to thrive because of how distant they are from the aquarium lights. For example, would dwarf hairgrass be a hardy plant that grows well under a Finnex Fugeray Planted+ 30" for a 29 gallon? Also how fast do they grow and how easy are they to care for when compared to other carpeting plants? New aquarist here so all advice and info is greatly appreciated.

I had a planted plus on a 20 gallon tall. Would not support dwarf hairgrass. I also use root tabs, leaf zone and add carbon to the water. I asked the same question awhileago and I think a few suggestions were that it would benefit from co2. .

 

[fishenthusiast]

Dwarf Hairgrass does much better with CO2 injection and good flow, plus high lighting is good for it too in my experience...it might grow well in medium lighting too if you have good flow and CO2. I had it without CO2 injection for a couple months and it did nothing and died back. I just added some new Dwarf Hairgrass a month ago, and this time around I have pressurized CO2 and better flow--it is now starting to produce runners and is green and healthy. Also, if you get this plant, buy it potted. The tissue culture variety doesn't have as large of a root structure, so buying it potted is your best bet.

 

[Mebbid]

Star repens is a fantastic plant for carpeting. It's easy to care for and only requires medium light unlike most of the carpeting plants. It also does good on liquid carbon.

 

[electromango]

Would the finnex fugeray planted plus 30" be considered low or moderate lighting?

 

[aquarium 308]

Would the finnex fugeray planted plus 30" be considered low or moderate lighting?

Im not sure im not an expert. I was told that it would be medium to high depends on tank depths

 

[Fresh2o]

I have a 30" Planted+ over a 20L (12") and the PAR is about 61 which is medium lighting (assuming a range of 30-80 PAR). I could not find a PAR chart but guessing at 18" it would be in the 40s; low end of medium.
Of course that is PAR reading for directly below the fixture and it drops off the further away from that spot.
I was running the planted+ with the regular FugeRay and enjoyed the light coverage. However, I limited the amount of time both lights were on using separate timers because the sum of the PAR exceeded 100. Due to shifting equipment I am back to one fixture on my 20L at the moment.


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[Brookster123]

I grow dhg in 2 tanks. A 20 tall and a rimless 7.5. Both have a finnex planted plus. Both grow the dhg, does better in the shorter tank though. I think substrate plays a major roll.in this as well as the lighting intensity. Both tanks have identical co2 and ferts so limiting factors are substrate and lighting. Aquasoil seems to support plants far better than sand with root tabs.

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[irdajoh]

Currently growing DHG with 36 inch planted+24/7, and injected co2 in a 45g tall. I'm not 100% sure if I should keep my light on the 24/7 cycle or do 6 - 10 hour a day of max light?
Either way what ever I'm doing it's working since I can see it's lush green and spreading sideways, and new roots. I'm not dosing liquid firts anymore since I have shrimp and they're about to give birth. I got floramax and gravel substrate. One problem I'm sure is the light causing diatoms...

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[candymancan]

Gert some S. Repens from Petsmart, thats what i got and im carpetting my 92g with it, its doing pretty good except the green spot algae i had on it, but i fixed that problem and its growing fine again. I dont dose CO2 either, just some liquid ferts and thats it

 

[fishenthusiast]

Gert some S. Repens from Petsmart, thats what i got and im carpetting my 92g with it, its doing pretty good except the green spot algae i had on it, but i fixed that problem and its growing fine again. I dont dose CO2 either, just some liquid ferts and thats it

S. repens technically isn't a carpeting plant, but one can make it appear to be a carpet by planting the individual stems in a bunched way. It truly is a nice plant for many and would work in many planted setups (I personally don't like it since I had it twice and both times it just melted away).

If you want to go the higher tech route, Dwarf Hairgrass is the plant for you. Medium to high lighting with pressurized CO2 and good ferts are the best for it. It spreads via runners, and with time, it will form a carpet. Here is some of mine in my 30 gallon planted with duel T5 HO lighting, pressurized CO2, and PPS-Pro fertilization (I will be switching to Estimative Index soon, which might make is spread faster):