Keeping HC 'Cuba' tidy

[Mark Evans]

With each tank that I do which contains HC, I'm always learning something new.

I thought I'd share a tip that i learned from a good friend @ Tropica. Michael is Tropica's man that tests out new plants etc.

He showed me not just trim HC but to use the back of your hand to 'push' it down. For some reason it helps keeping it compact.

In the nearly 4 months this has been running, this HC has been trimmed just 2 times. The rest comes from pushing down.

This can also be done with other plants such as moss and hydrocotyle. With time, I'm sure you can manipulate the undulations, by trimming and pushing down.


HC-1 by saintly's pics, on Flickr

HC, Riccia, and moss mixing together....


HC2 by saintly's pics, on Flickr

overall impression....


hc3 by saintly's pics, on Flickr

 

[Piece-of-fish]

Good tip. I remember Paulo was saying that same push down technique helped him to achieve very fast and compact HC carpet

 

[Mark Evans]

very fast

I'm not so sure about the speed. Bottle his hands if thats the case

Sure! compact yes, speed, no.

 

[Ian Holdich]

nice pics Mark. Good tip as well, saying you've only trimmed it twice.

 

[Gill]

Very good advice, will try this method

 

[Piece-of-fish]

very fast

I'm not so sure about the speed. Bottle his hands if thats the case

Sure! compact yes, speed, no.

Well he did use 6 t5 bulbs on his 125 tank. Insane
So that was fast 😀

 

[George Farmer]

Top tip! Also works with glosso and Hydrocotyle sp. 'Japan'. Saves lots of time and effort!