HC?

[jenatron]

I was hoping to grow a carpet/lawn of Hemianthus callitrichoides in my 6g fluval edge.
My plans would be to use ecocomplete, dose with ferts (Excel, Iron, Potassium, Trace: what's really necessary?), and upgrade my lighting to, hopefully, 2.8w/g.
Would this be enough?
Normally I would just research the crap out of it, but the information on HC that I've found is so scattered. I'd really like to hear from you all.
Also, would it need to be pruned? Frequently?
Thanks.

BTW, if this is deemed plausible I'll have more questions about the planting process..

 

[fort384]

Jen,
I grew it for awhile in my 5 gal ada tank. I think that 3WPG (18W) won't be enough to grow it in a 6 gal tank. I had about 30W over my 5 and it took forever to take off. Once it finally did though, it really came in thick.

That is a pic of it about 2 months in. A few months later it was very thick. It does eventually require pruning as it starts to grow on top of the older plants and can kind of float up... it makes like a very fluffy pillow type surface when it really grows in thick. However, frequent pruning is not necessary.

I think besides light, your other limitation will be CO2. With lower light and no CO2, it may grow, but will tend to grow up towards the light, instead of out (so you will have a bunch of longer little stems, but not the carpet effect you are looking for).

I used pressurized CO2, N/P/K/trace target dosing, and ADA aquasoil.

However, it is not very expensive. Buy a couple little pots and see what happens would be my advice.

Planting it is easy but tedious: the trick is to bury it pretty deep, all the way up to the leaves. This keeps it from floating up and lets it get established. When I first planted it, I tried to just plant the roots, and it was impossible to keep it in the substrate. Once I buried it deep, it established itself rather decently.