# dwarf hairgrass vs Staurogyne Repens



## stonedaquarium

hi im in the process of reevaluating my foreground, and i have been thinking which would do better dwarf hairgrass or staurogyne repens? i just currently have regular river gravel substrate mixed in with a little bit of fluval stratum. I dont have any of those ada type substrates. so i was wanting to know which would work best 

Thanks


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## neven

I actually use both in a tank, staurogyne works great to soften edges around driftwood or stem plants, dwarf hairgrass looks great in open areas imo. With my experience with dwarf hair grass, its not forgiving if your tank is imbalanced, it'll grow algae in no time


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## stonedaquarium

would both carpet in ordinary gravel substrate though? coz my glosso at home seems to be having a tough time carpeting out in regular gravel.


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## neven

ordinary gravel is a bit vague, if its a larger size, then yes there will be trouble, if its finer than no it shouldn't be.


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## stonedaquarium

its about the size of the decorative colored gravel but a bit smaller slightly. mixed in with a bit of fluval stratum.


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## CRS Fan

I think your best bet would be Staurogyne repens. Here's a pic of more or less a carpet of it.










I find hairgrass to be an algae magnet as Neven mentioned above . I am currently growing Staurogyne in my low-tech Nano planted as well with basically 3M sand as substrate. I currently have a bunch of stems of Staurogyne repens for sale. PM me if interested.

Best Regards,

Stuart


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## 2wheelsx2

If you want a weed that's super easy to grow, I would go with E. tenellus. Can't stop it from spreading. If you're set on one or the other, I'm with Stuart. I haven't been able to grow any foreground since my pleco obsession as they see it all as lettus (except E. tenellus which grows too fast), but I have found the hairgrass to be algae magnets also.


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## jobber

For another alternative, you could consider Sagittaria subulata. 
Between hairgrass and s.repens, i'd go with s.repens as it is a more forgiving plant compared to hairgrass....aka. algae magnet.


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## stonedaquarium

hi guys here is a sample pic of my tank. can you let me know if the s. repens would be able to carpet out in my substrate?


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## 2wheelsx2

Weird. I thought I posted but I don't see my post.

Anyway, I don't think S. repens or any carpet plant will be successful in that coarse substrate. At least I haven't been able to do it. Maybe Stuart and others will have more insight, who have more experience with carpet plants. Maybe Glosso?


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## jobber

Here's examples of someone growing staurogyne repens on river bed gravel. So i'm sure you can have a good ground cover as long as the plant's requirements are met. There would be a big melting of leaves until the roots start growing. Give it some time and the plant stems will recover and begin growing side shoots.
a small one.... - Practical Fishkeeping Forum


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## jobber

CRS Fan said:


> I think your best bet would be Staurogyne repens. Here's a pic of more or less a carpet of it.
> 
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> 
> I find hairgrass to be an algae magnet as Neven mentioned above . I am currently growing Staurogyne in my low-tech Nano planted as well with basically 3M sand as substrate. I currently have a bunch of stems of Staurogyne repens for sale. PM me if interested.
> 
> Best Regards,
> 
> Stuart


nice bush of staurogyne repens.


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