Re: Starting a new tank

[June Olberding <jdolb1 at attbi_com>]

Will,
I recently started two new high light tanks with dwarf hairgrass in
foreground. One was very heavily planted with stems in back half and other
had much larger portion devoted to the hairgrass and was lightly planted
with stems. Outcome was that the sparsely planted one never could get ahead
of the algae.  Even combing couldn't save the hairgrass. The tank with lots
of stems had very little algae in general and quickly developed a healthy
foreground of hairgrass. It grows very quickly with good light and
nutrients.
Consider starting your hairgrass in the foreground and using LOTS of fast
growing plants which you can take out as tank develops. I would also wait
for tank to get established before adding the crypts.
Regards
June

> I want to plant Elocharis acicularis (dwarf hairgrass)in the front and
> elocaris vivipara(larger hairgrass) in the back and I want to add
> Cryptocoryne species. Nothing more.

> Does anyone have some experience with hairgrass? I think the tank will get a
> lot of algae so I have a fierce battle on my hands.