Monte Carlo struggling after about 10 months

[Slick_Nick]

I was wondering if anybody could give me some advice on bringing my Monte Carlo back to good health. I have a 29g with pressurized co2 I set the aquarium up and planted it about 10 months ago I made a bunch of changes to the hardscape but never touched the Monte Carlo other than trimming it. Over the past months I’ve noticed after a trim it doesn’t ever bounce back like it once did and it has less leaves and looks not as full. I have a finnex planted plus hlc 80% power 8 hours a day and co2 starting an hour before the lights come on and shutting off an hour before the lights turn off. I dose 3ml of fertilizer daily rotating between easy green and apt1 my plants are free of algae and growing good except the Monte Carlo. Here’s pictures of what it used to look like 

And…. Here’s what it looks like currently 

any tips or help is much appreciated! Forgot to mention the tank runs at 80degrees and always has

[CJs Aquatics]

I would try root tabs, maybe try in a corner to see if fertilization is the issue, from looking at this it looks like a nutrient deficiency, perhaps the easy green is getting used up by the other plants. Put a root tab in eighter corner and see if where u placed it if the Monte Carlo appears to grow better then everyone else then u will know if that’s your issue or if it’s something else. This would be what I tried first, I should preface this by saying not an expert by any means just been through a lot of trial and error lol

[Patrick_G]

Nice looking tank! Sorry about the Monte Carlo, I've heard of others having the same problem. @Bentley Pascoe did a talk at the GSAS last year and mentioned that's its the only plant he's had long term trouble with so you're not alone. 

My guess is that the nutrients in the aquasoil are starting to get used up. Could be something else but that's a good place to start. 

[Slick_Nick]

On 6/19/2022 at 12:59 PM, CJs Aquatics said:

I would try root tabs, maybe try in a corner to see if fertilization is the issue, from looking at this it looks like a nutrient deficiency, perhaps the easy green is getting used up by the other plants. Put a root tab in eighter corner and see if where u placed it if the Monte Carlo appears to grow better then everyone else then u will know if that’s your issue or if it’s something else. This would be what I tried first, I should preface this by saying not an expert by any means just been through a lot of trial and error lol

Thanks for the tip you may actually be right because since I rescaped it I added a bunch more stems like rotalas they are probably consuming all the nutrients! Gonna pick up a pack of root tabs 

[CJs Aquatics]

Let us know how it goes, best of luck 

[Slick_Nick]

On 6/19/2022 at 1:14 PM, Patrick_G said:

Nice looking tank! Sorry about the Monte Carlo, I've heard of others having the same problem. @Bentley Pascoe did a talk at the GSAS last year and mentioned that's its the only plant he's had long term trouble with so you're not alone. 

My guess is that the nutrients in the aquasoil are starting to get used up. Could be something else but that's a good place to start. 

Thanks Patrick glad to know I’m not alone hahaha it used to look so nice and full and it’s just been withering away. I believe you’re right about the nutrients being used up this is my first tank with pressurized co2 so I guess I’m not as used to how quickly the plants take up the nutrients. I’m gonna add root tabs around my other plants see if they take off as well the aqua soil must be sucked of it’s life. Here’s a pic of the whole tank little cloudy at the moment. I also plan to trim the rotalas nicely here eventually 

On 6/19/2022 at 1:52 PM, CJs Aquatics said:

Let us know how it goes, best of luck 

Absolutely will do thank you again!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@CJs Aquaticsroot tabs are helpful. Another strategy would be to make little cubes of laterite, other soil amendments and fertilizer and jam it under the soil kind of a super root tab. The aquasoil probably still has a high CEC just no longer has it own nutrients to give. One clue to the aquasoil “dying” off is a pH change. Caridina shrimp keeper usually see this around 12 months and know they have to change out the soil. 
May I ask which aquasoil you used? 

[Slick_Nick]

On 6/19/2022 at 2:02 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

@CJs Aquaticsroot tabs are helpful. Another strategy would be to make little cubes of laterite, other soil amendments and fertilizer and jam it under the soil kind of a super root tab. The aquasoil probably still has a high CEC just no longer has it own nutrients to give. One clue to the aquasoil “dying” off is a pH change. Caridina shrimp keeper usually see this around 12 months and know they have to change out the soil. 
May I ask which aquasoil you used? 

I actually have noticed the ph has gone up a bit. At the end of my photo period the ph used to be 6.4 now it is about 7. I’ve heard hard water causes it to happen quicker not sure if that’s true but I do have hard water. I used Fluval stratum for the substrate 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

So I think we have some fairly good evidence that your hard water caused you to eat up the nutrients in the Stratum. You’ll need to make amendments to the soil and pump up the nutrients and utilize the soils high cation exchange capacity to help your Monte Carlo.

When I’ve done this before I got the medium sized ice cube trays. I put in laterite, dry ferts -Osmocote plus, diatomaceous earth,  and I think I stole something else from someone on plantedtank.net may have been father fishes recipe for all I know. At that time I was using sand and regular aquarium gravel. Now I’d use some new aquasoil if I was to do it again. I put in some Flourish (this was before I knew about Easy Green) to get it to form a cube. Then I put it strategically throughout the foreground. It got me a carpet can’t recall what it was that I was growing don’t think it was MC might have been star repens or dwarf sag, this was the early to mid 2000s with T5s and DIY CO2. 

When you decide to do another planted tank I’d add laterite and root tabs below the aquasoils and I’ve been using lava rock and crushed coral with the cc because most of my tanks are for livebearers. 

[Slick_Nick]

On 6/19/2022 at 3:07 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

So I think we have some fairly good evidence that your hard water caused you to eat up the nutrients in the Stratum. You’ll need to make amendments to the soil and pump up the nutrients and utilize the soils high cation exchange capacity to help your Monte Carlo.

When I’ve done this before I got the medium sized ice cube trays. I put in laterite, dry ferts -Osmocote plus, diatomaceous earth,  and I think I stole something else from someone on plantedtank.net may have been father fishes recipe for all I know. At that time I was using sand and regular aquarium gravel. Now I’d use some new aquasoil if I was to do it again. I put in some Flourish (this was before I knew about Easy Green) to get it to form a cube. Then I put it strategically throughout the foreground. It got me a carpet can’t recall what it was that I was growing don’t think it was MC might have been star repens or dwarf sag, this was the early to mid 2000s with T5s and DIY CO2. 

When you decide to do another planted tank I’d add laterite and root tabs below the aquasoils and I’ve been using lava rock and crushed coral with the cc because most of my tanks are for livebearers. 

Very interesting I’ll definitely have to look into that! Thank you for all the info I appreciate it. I’ll keep you guys posted on how the root tabs work out for me in a month or two!

[gjcarew]

If the rest of you plants are fine I'd guess it's not a fertilizer issue, or you would see some other indication in the rest of your plants. It's probably something affecting the Monte Carlo specifically. 

How is your flow? Sometimes plants grow out and block circulation around the tank, which prevents CO2 from reaching the carpet.

After a while, Monte Carlo stems can become matted. Maybe you could try uprooting a section and replanting it to see if it grows in healthier.

 

[Slick_Nick]

On 6/19/2022 at 11:18 PM, gjcarew said:

If the rest of you plants are fine I'd guess it's not a fertilizer issue, or you would see some other indication in the rest of your plants. It's probably something affecting the Monte Carlo specifically. 

How is your flow? Sometimes plants grow out and block circulation around the tank, which prevents CO2 from reaching the carpet.

After a while, Monte Carlo stems can become matted. Maybe you could try uprooting a section and replanting it to see if it grows in healthier.

 

Thank you that could be a possibility I may have to try if the root tabs don’t work. I’m thinking it is a nutrient problem though because when I rescaped the tank and changed out the hardscape I added more soil to everything back behind the Monte Carlo so all the stems actually had some fresh aqua soil and I left the monte carlo carpet because it was doing great at that time