new to hair grass, what am i doing wrong?!

[951socal]

hey guys, i bought some hair grass at a local store a few days ago. after a successful venture with some very easy/no maintenance aquatic plants from petco.

it was a pain in the *** in get into my substrate (had to use twezers and had to keep re-doing them as id get a few in some would work their way loose and float back on up to the top

i read on a few forums and guides to rip apart a few of the strands, and to place it in a soft loose substrate. and that sand is ideal.

i also read that DIY co2 kits are the best way to go with small scale pant growing tanks. so i made an air stone based kit. i removed it as i found problems when i woke up today.

all of the bigger clumps and some of the smaller clumps are getting BROWN and have turned from a dark green vibrant color to almost a yellow-green whispy color. leading me to belive all of my BRAND NEW grass is dying.

helpful? details:
half gallon tank
crushed sea shell substrate
CFL light bulb, "medium" socket, 60W equive, spiral type.
co2 DIY, removed today as plants were dying?
no fertilizer
no additives what so ever
kept on my desk in doors

pics below.
im really new to this plant keeping stuff other than just a few easy to maintain ones purchased from a big box pet store

thanks guys

 

[dustinfeint]

I'm pretty sure that that is not near enough lighting. It is a very light demanding plant and you will need to upgrade it to grow it.

 

[951socal]

I'm pretty sure that that is not near enough lighting. It is a very light demanding plant and you will need to upgrade it to grow it.

what type of lighting system should i be looking at here?

the "grow light" is off for these pictures, the lights on are just the room lights that i have on normally, when the grow light is on the camera just showed white reflections in the tank due to the sand

 

[dustinfeint]

what type of lighting system should i be looking at here?

the "grow light" is off for these pictures, the lights on are just the room lights that i have on normally, when the grow light is on the camera just showed white reflections in the tank due to the sand

Divide your gallons by how many watts your lights are putting out. I think hairgrass needs around 3wpg.

 

[dragonfisher33]

i would recommend you take out all of them and start the walstad method. basically what you do is have a bowl of fertilizing soil and put just enough water in it to wet everything. put the dwarf hairgrass in the bowl. put a plastic film wrap over the bowl to keep the humidity high and shine a strong light directly.

 

[dragonfisher33]

what kind of substrate is that? looks like sand, if that's the case you're not going to carpet it, not even close. beside changing out the light, you can also dose your dwarf hairgrass with carbon liquid if you're not already doing some sort of co2 injection.

 

[951socal]

Divide your gallons by how many watts your lights are putting out. I think hairgrass needs around 3wpg.

actual watts consumed. or watt equivalency to what a similar halogen light would output?

i have a lumen meter in the garage if that is a more scientific manner of doing things.

equiv watts: 60/.5 = 120W/pg

actual:14/.5 = 28w/pg

 

[dragonfisher33]

honestly, i really don't think you're up for dwarf hairgrass yet. they're not exactly the beginner level of plant and the setup so far is only going to take you down the road of disappointment.

 

[951socal]

honestly, i really don't think you're up for dwarf hairgrass yet. they're not exactly the beginner level of plant and the setup so far is only going to take you down the road of disappointment.

i want to carpet it,

when i take the grass out of the water they're limp. like they are wilting or something so i don't think they're in the shape, health wise yet for the method you posted.

yes, the substrate is sand. i was told that sand is the best substrate to use for carpeting hair grass since it needs something soft and loose to propagate runners?

this is the american "spike rush" plant not the imported parvlus sub-class of hairgrass does that change anything?

 

[dragonfisher33]

i want to carpet it,

when i take the grass out of the water they're limp. like they are wilting or something so i don't think they're in the shape, health wise yet for the method you posted.

yes, the substrate is sand. i was told that sand is the best substrate to use for carpeting hair grass since it needs something soft and loose to propagate runners?

this is the american "spike rush" plant not the imported parvlus sub-class of hairgrass does that change anything?

that's not true. as long as the roots are alive the condition of the leaves doesn't matter as much. with the walstad method the roots will give rise to new leaves, so that's my recommendation and experience.

sand is actually the worst substrate for any plants, unless you have a layer of nutrient rich substrate underneath the sand. sand is silicone or mostly silicon that is deprived of nutrients. since they're inert in everyway it won't give the dwarf hairgrass the boost they need. as far as something "soft and loose", that's a non-matter. plants, regardless of how weak they appear, will push everything out to get out of the substrate or they will seek to the weakest spots between the space of gravels and grow out. unless you have a huge piece of boulder on top of the grass, the dwarf hairgrass will grow and carpet regardless of the substrate. i have my hairgrass in potting mix and they grow to be fine.