my guppy grass isnt doing good, but my other plants are..

[Easydoesit]

in my 20 gallon tank i had guppy grass, tiny corkscrew vals, dwarf sag, and some frogbit.

i have a sand substrate and some crappy DIY co2 diffusion for now until i get my powerhead (i have HOB filters in there, 1 penguin 200 for 50 gals, 1 topfin 20).
temp of the tank is 80* in the day, about 77* at night
lighting is 3 WPG, but the fixture has a "light diffusor", so maybe a little less
no ferts yet

so, the plants are doing good besides the guppy grass. it would start turning brown and the little leaves would come off.
i transfered the guppygrass that was healthiest to a 10 gallon tank with schultz aquatic plant soil as the substrate, 80*, same crappy co2 diffusion, and an HOB filter. lighting in the 10 is 3 wpg too, but i think theyre incandescent bulbs.. changing to compact fluorescent bulbs today.

i dont know why the guppy grass is the only plant having problems. do you think the temperature is too high? i dont know what it could be.

 

[Squawkbert]

I keep my 5g shrimp tank at that temp and it's pretty well packed w/ guppy grass. It took a little while to get going.

It is very brittle, easy to break. It does well floating (probably better to let it float, especially if you have any fauna capable of breaking off planted stems).

I tend to go very lean w/ ferts in this tank, though I do use Excel instead of DIY. It is a Quartz bulb 40W desk lamp & some sunlight for the lighting.

 

[excuzzzeme]

Everyone says guppy grass is a floating plant, but mine just sits on bottom of tank and moves with any circulation. Is that normal?

 

[Easydoesit]

well excuse me for asking questions about your tank in my thread
jk, i dont mind lol
i honestly didnt know that guppy grass was a floating plant though. i guess that could be the problem.. i have it planted. ive only seen pics of it planted ...

 

[Fordtrannyman]

well excuse me for asking questions about your tank in my thread
jk, i dont mind lol
i honestly didnt know that guppy grass was a floating plant though. i guess that could be the problem.. i have it planted. ive only seen pics of it planted ...

Maybe what you have isn't really Najas guadalupensis.. ??
I have it floating in my fry tank, (Along with Hornwart) the denser portions of the stems do sink and the lighter leafy parts rise. So it actually floats just below the surface down to the substrate. Grows like crazy under a 15W Aqua Glow T12, no ferts, no C02, 50% PWC weekly. It's a great All Natural plant.

 

[Easydoesit]

im pretty sure it is guppy grass or najas guadalupensis lol
i pulled the roots out of the substrate and theyre floating now. they seemed to go downhill from the other day when i transferred them to the 10 without any fish. hopefully itll work out now that theyre floating.
thanks guys.

 

[Inka4040]

Najas can grow floating, but will put out roots to the substrate and can grow planted but is very brittle. The temp is the only think I can think of causing a problem. That stuff grows like weed in my tanks (no co2, no more than 2wpg on any of them) and I can't get rid of it, as it has intertwined with everything else. Wish I never bought it.

 

[Yadokari]

I had no luck with guppy grass either. As many of the posters above stated before, it's too brittle. I tried planting it and all it did was float off and get stuck somewhere else. Having it "float" around will also get it stuck on moss or something too. In the end, I just let them rot for my snails to eat. Not worth the trouble unless you really like that thing.

 

[Easydoesit]

idk, i kind of like it lol. maybe i could find some plant that id have better luck with in place of it. hornwort? idk.