Dwarf Hairgrass browning slightly in cycling tank

[Linkandnavi]

Hi all,

Hoping for some advice. My 120 (US) gallon (450 litres) planted tank is nearing the end of its cycle. The plants went in four days ago. There is a layer of Tetra Complete (plant) substrate, covered by a layer of 1mm fine black gravel. There are root tabs evenly distributed throughout and the tank is co2 injected to approximately 30ppm.

Lights are currently running for six hours a day (10am to 4pm) although it will be getting some sunlight too. Co2 is running for five hours a day (9am to 2pm). The intention is to up those hours in two or three weeks when the plants are more established. I'm fertilising with Seachem Flourish every 3-4 days.

Everything seems broadly fine except that some of the dwarf hairgrass (I'm aiming for a carpet) seems to have browning leaves. The hairgrass is Tropica`s "1-2-Grow". I`ve included some pictures of what I mean. There is algae in the tank at the moment - some of which is visible in the forefront of the pictures. I`m not too worried about that, given a bit of an imbalance in the tank is expected while it is cycling and there will be some algae eaters in there once the cycle is finished. I've read some conflicting information online about browning dwarf hairgrass. Should I be increasing the light and co2? I accept that may increase the algae problem but I'm ok with that if it solves the problem as the algae will be temporary.

Thanks.

 

[Wills]

I would say you have diatoms rather than the plants doing badly. They come and go in most new tanks.

You might need some fast growing stems in there which will help with the algae but could also help with getting fish in faster as you could look at doing a silent cycle.

 

[Linkandnavi]

I would say you have diatoms rather than the plants doing badly. They come and go in most new tanks.

You might need some fast growing stems in there which will help with the algae but could also help with getting fish in faster as you could look at doing a silent cycle.

Thanks. I`ve had diatoms in previous tanks when cycling and this didn't look like that. This looked like the actual leaves going brown as if melting.

I do have some hair algae growing which is a pain but can deal with that.