Hi, I am considering in planting my tank with dwarf baby tears to create a greeny carpet on my tank floor. But, I am not really sure if the DBT will thrive on a gravel. I am using a 2 -3 mm black quartz gravel and about 5 - 6 cm thick on my tank floor. will it be ok for the DBT to established its roots on this kind of gravel or should I still need to replace it with a flourite substrate? I do not want to cycle again my tank as much as possible due to removing the gravel. My thank is now well cycled and the fishes are thriving well. Can anyone give me some tips and advice on this please. Thanks in advance everyone. Happy Fishkeeping.
Anyone can advice me about planted tanks?
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Dwarf baby Tears are a fairly high demanding plant, as are most carpet type plants.
Meaning it will likely require fairly high lights as well as regular dosing of co2 and fertilisers.
Hemianthus callitrichoides 'Cuba'
If you click on the right hand side where it shows plant info and on the + icon, it gives out a tiny bit more but crucial information.
In the case of co2 it mentions -
" CO2 : High
A medium need in CO2 is 6-14 mg/L. A high demand in CO2 is approx. 15-25 mg/L."
So that tells me if plants requires that amount of co2 the light demand will also be high as mentioned on the same site -
" Light demand: High
The average or medium light demand of an aquarium plant is 0,5 W/L."
Means you would need over 0.5 watts of light per litre
This is becoming somewhat an old method of measurement now due to advancement of LED lights which is still pretty much in its infacy and improvements are continuing to happen).
But nonetheless you will still require lights thats above the standard or normal light units thats bought for the average aquarium in order to grow baby tears successfully. But belive me any lights that is above 0.5 watts per litre is a very bright light and algae issues can easily overcome the tank if you're not careful with the overall balance of ferts and co2 along with lights.
I have tried this on a high tech tank myself a couple of years ago with limited success but in the end I had to close the tank down due to algae issue, not an easy thing to keep a thriving high tech set up without a lot of time and research given but once successful and experience gained is a worthwhile thing to do.
Meaning it will likely require fairly high lights as well as regular dosing of co2 and fertilisers.
Hemianthus callitrichoides 'Cuba'
If you click on the right hand side where it shows plant info and on the + icon, it gives out a tiny bit more but crucial information.
In the case of co2 it mentions -
" CO2 : High
A medium need in CO2 is 6-14 mg/L. A high demand in CO2 is approx. 15-25 mg/L."
So that tells me if plants requires that amount of co2 the light demand will also be high as mentioned on the same site -
" Light demand: High
The average or medium light demand of an aquarium plant is 0,5 W/L."
Means you would need over 0.5 watts of light per litre
This is becoming somewhat an old method of measurement now due to advancement of LED lights which is still pretty much in its infacy and improvements are continuing to happen).
But nonetheless you will still require lights thats above the standard or normal light units thats bought for the average aquarium in order to grow baby tears successfully. But belive me any lights that is above 0.5 watts per litre is a very bright light and algae issues can easily overcome the tank if you're not careful with the overall balance of ferts and co2 along with lights.
I have tried this on a high tech tank myself a couple of years ago with limited success but in the end I had to close the tank down due to algae issue, not an easy thing to keep a thriving high tech set up without a lot of time and research given but once successful and experience gained is a worthwhile thing to do.
Hi there, thanks for that enlightenment. I never thought that DBT was that demanding. It's disappointing to know that I might not be successful in doing that project. But, do you have any alternative to Dwart baby tears? That will work on my current setup?
Carpet type plants tend to be fairly demanding no matter what to be bluntly honest.
But you can attempt baby tears anyway, it may be very slow growing and survive in moderately set up aquariums without co2 but not really advised for lower tech set ups. Just kinda depends really.
As for alternative to baby tears, not much springs to mind but could be worth trying Staurogyne repens, quite a nice growing plant in fairly low set ups, the additions of ferts will help this plant though.
Staurogyne repens
I have not tried growing this plant personally but may very well do so soon in one of my new (ish) set ups to see how that fares. Nice little plant really.
But you can attempt baby tears anyway, it may be very slow growing and survive in moderately set up aquariums without co2 but not really advised for lower tech set ups. Just kinda depends really.
As for alternative to baby tears, not much springs to mind but could be worth trying Staurogyne repens, quite a nice growing plant in fairly low set ups, the additions of ferts will help this plant though.
Staurogyne repens
I have not tried growing this plant personally but may very well do so soon in one of my new (ish) set ups to see how that fares. Nice little plant really.
Java moss is not a bad suggestion for the low tank set up for sure as Java moss grow well in just about any conditions and shrimps love this, especially the young shrimplets as its good natural cover to hide from hungry fish.
I actually tried this Java mos carpeting a few years back and actually got a pretty good sort of carpet with this using aquascaping mesh squares.
The only thing with Java moss is it's annoying to trim, bits of moss goes everywhere in the tank during trimming. Using a syphon hose and ensure the filter is off whilst trimming does somewhat work but it's one of these jobs where you wish to have a third hand
I actually tried this Java mos carpeting a few years back and actually got a pretty good sort of carpet with this using aquascaping mesh squares.
The only thing with Java moss is it's annoying to trim, bits of moss goes everywhere in the tank during trimming. Using a syphon hose and ensure the filter is off whilst trimming does somewhat work but it's one of these jobs where you wish to have a third hand
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