# HC emmersed question



## valen1014 (Jan 20, 2013)

I would like to try growing HC emmersed in a 2.5 gal tank. I was just wondering for those of you who have done it, do I need to spray them with excel? On another forum, the person that did it was using excel. I would like to just grow it emmersed (with root tabs and my substrate is topsoil capped with black fluorite). Eventually when I fill it with water I will be doing DIY CO2 with the yeast method. Would this work?


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## ao (Feb 29, 2012)

noooo dont spray with excel! hahahah. I have HC emmersed in my 6.6 gallon.

you need to keep the top covered...

but that's about it. my personal ex with this is that they grow pretty fast in emmersed...
here's mine


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## valen1014 (Jan 20, 2013)

Yay I'm so excited to try this out! Yours look amazing! What's the plant on the right? chain swords?? what substrate are you using? (if you don't mind me asking...)

This is my third time trying this plant... I want to get it right ^^;


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## sarahspins (Sep 5, 2012)

No, don't spray with excel - plants are not starved for CO2 when their leaves are exposed to air. It's under water where it becomes a concern because water naturally has very little dissolved CO2, so you need to supplement with something like excel or injected CO2.

My experience with a dry start with HC is that planting 1/2"-1" apart it only took about 2 weeks for the little clumps to start to grow together. I flooded the tank at that point and with using C02 it had formed a full carpet in just another 2 weeks - I've had to trim it several times since October and it's currently about 1 1/2" thick - you can't let it get too dense or the bottom starts to die off and it can't stay rooted.


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## valen1014 (Jan 20, 2013)

sarahspins said:


> No, don't spray with excel - plants are not starved for CO2 when their leaves are exposed to air. It's under water where it becomes a concern because water naturally has very little dissolved CO2, so you need to supplement with something like excel or injected CO2.
> 
> My experience with a dry start with HC is that planting 1/2"-1" apart it only took about 2 weeks for the little clumps to start to grow together. I flooded the tank at that point and with using C02 it had formed a full carpet in just another 2 weeks - I've had to trim it several times since October and it's currently about 1 1/2" thick - you can't let it get too dense or the bottom starts to die off and it can't stay rooted.


 
Thank you for the explanation =] That's what I was thinking but since the person was saying he used excel, I wasn't sure ^^;; I'm glad I asked! Do you think that DIY CO2 will be enough to maintain it? It's a small unfiltered tank (2.5 gal). Also, I have to put enough water to cover the substrate right?


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## sarahspins (Sep 5, 2012)

Maintain it, sure... make it grow well, it's hard to say. I have some in a low tech tank (used to have CO2, but I took almost all the plants out, the HC and some ludwigia is all that is left) and it's not dying, but it's growth has really slowed down.


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## ao (Feb 29, 2012)

valen1014 said:


> Thank you for the explanation =] That's what I was thinking but since the person was saying he used excel, I wasn't sure ^^;; I'm glad I asked! Do you think that DIY CO2 will be enough to maintain it? It's a small unfiltered tank (2.5 gal). Also, I have to put enough water to cover the substrate right?



you should look for tom barr's guide to low tech carpets. can't link it here but I think if you google it should show up. ^___^ maybe carpetin plants will take well to high light and no CO2 once established.

my favorite carpet right now is HM. it is hugging my substrate nicely in my low tech tank.


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## Aluka (Dec 25, 2012)

ohh i wanna try it =< i want to do one of those scape with a full HC carpet but with a little sand river.

Still the HC carpet emersed and then fill it after it grows in =<

I wanna make a smaller version of the one in the picture =<


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## ao (Feb 29, 2012)

lol! people do it all the time!
google ADA iwagumi >.>
it'll show up  HC carpets everywhere!


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## valen1014 (Jan 20, 2013)

Alright... here is what I managed to set up. 

The gravel is fluorite. It has root tabs under and a fine layer of ferrous sulfate heptahydrate, and potassium nitrate beneath the fluorite (hmm... I might regret having done this later on). 

I bought a glosso mat because at the time I thought glosso was the same as HC. BUT when I look at the plant, it doesn't look like glosso... the leaves arrangements look more like HC. I will post a close up pic tomorrow and maybe the experts here will be able to tell ;-)

I think I may have "thinned" out the dwarf hairgrass too much. I hope it will grow anyways....


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## valen1014 (Jan 20, 2013)

It doesn't appear to be growing  why am I such a failure with plants?? -.-


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## ao (Feb 29, 2012)

its only been 2 days! give it some time to settle in!


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## valen1014 (Jan 20, 2013)

Yes you are right ^^; I guess I'm being too impatient


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