Anyone buries the cotton bud that HC comes with?

[andrewtyr]

Just wondering if it is feasible to plant the cotton bud that emerse HC comes in? Will the cotton decay in future?

[robin]

I used to bury it but discovered that my shrimps started dying.
Might be the ammonia seeping out

Robin

[Salphur]

Hi,
i think it would be better if we remove the cotton that the plants are wrapped in and plant the roots straight into the substrate so that overtime the roots wouldn't rot.

cheers!

[neon]

My answer will be yes and no.

Depends what is put inside the rockwool or filter wool . I found a lot "staff" is put in between the filter wool and the HC (from C32.

I am still learning how to grow HC well :
- emerse (failed miserably at corridor , except downstair of HDB block)
- emerse (successful) floating on the water in the tank
- submerse (could not sustain very long) in high tech tank with lapis sand
- submerse (successful) in cube tank with ADA

My experience of getting HC from different forms :
- semi-submerse with a cup wrapped with rockwool (many times)
- emerse with mud from the farm (countless time)
- emerse with filter-wool and tie to cement block (countless time)

For established tank with shrimp, my advice is "NO" . The "staff" in between the filter-wool will leak out and caused ammonia spike .

My experience would say "yes", if you don't any fauna, as I find this method is very effective. I washed some of the dirt out of one full piece HC with filter-wool (from C32 and put inside my office 1 ft cube. The result was very good. The HC is growing very well. My 1ft cube has 18w PL light. Initially I started with DIY CO2, and used EI dosing, and the HC is bubbling mad !! After 2 months , I stopped Co2, reduced the dosing NPK to just once a week , and dose Excel every few days.

Just to share :

[Shadow]

Hi Bro neon, the tank on your photo, is that 1ft cube with 18watt PL light? I'm looking for light that suitable for my 12"x6"x7" tank. Curently I had 13W but not sure if 13W enough to make the HC creeping.

[andrewtyr]

very informative neon, you too love this plant very much
I suppose those HC in your 1 ft is still laden with the cotton?

[neon]

Hi Bro neon, the tank on your photo, is that 1ft cube with 18watt PL light? I'm looking for light that suitable for my 12"x6"x7" tank. Curently I had 13W but not sure if 13W enough to make the HC creeping.

mine is 12"x12"x12" cube from NA. If possible, I prefer to get 18" long with more room to scape.

18w light is considered strong , HC is spreading but very slowly even though EI with DIY CO2 . I should say it grows densely. Bubbling crazy within 10mins.

Frequent greenspot algae on the wall, until recently some duckweed visited my tank and grew tremendously , and suddenly green spot all gone (partly credit to my pleco) and water was crystal clear.

Now I stop DIY co2, dose NPK once a week, dose excel few days, water change every 2 weeks.

Let see how it goes !

[neon]

very informative neon, you too love this plant very much
I suppose those HC in your 1 ft is still laden with the cotton?

Yes, untouch !

[neon]

Also , one thing to share , the soil I used is called "Red bee sand". The sand supposely is for CRS and water clear up very fast from first day. I even put in my shrimp on the second day with no casualty (I had a cycled filter). I heard from NA Chan that this soil has very little nutrient for the plant, but other component good for the CRS. Not sure how true it is.

[benkho]

HC is what? haha..oops noob

[StanChung]

It's a plant! Hemianthus callitrichoides 'cuba'

[williamng]

EI is what huh?