How to clean monte carlo?

[CT_]

So in my 3 week old 15g tank I planted half with monte carlo that I'm hoping will grow out into a carpet.  Last week I started getting the typical-new-tank-diatom-bloom but my  new otos took care of it right after introduction, all of it but my monte carlo which as of today is brown from diatoms.  Its not as easy as I had hoped to "just wipe off" and I'm afraid if I just leave it be the monte carlo will just die.  Also, frankly I hate how brown it looks and I can't properly vacuum that area either. 

 

Does anyone have advice on how to clean it off?  My shrimp pick at it but don't make a dent, the otos also pick at it a bit but i'm not sure they're actually eating it. 

Alternative I could cut my losses, pull up the monte carlo and put down a broader leaf carpeter.  Does anyone have a suggestion on a replacement.  I don't want it to grow much taller than 1". 

[Koi]

I like to use a turkey baster to "dust off" my carpeting plants. After a month of two of letting it grow it and attach itself to the substrate you can go back siphoning it directly with the gravel vac. I won't go as far as shoving the vac into the substrate and let the rocks tumbling through it but I can put my vac directly over the plant and it will pull all of the mulm from the top. 

Could you post a picture of the plant?

It sounds like your having hardships of a newer tank and your monte carlo is still within a transitioning period. To clarify what I mean, I give most of my plants 2-3 months as a transitioning window to adjust to lighting/ nutrient levels and for it to lose all its older leaves. If all that is true, most of that plant the came with the pot will eventually die off or get covered in algae due to different water parameters. If it is still growing I'd suggest now would be a good time to start propagating the new growth and get rid of some of the plants that are smothered with algae.

As far as an alternative I've been really liking glossostigma elatinoides. I will say each kind of carpeting plant have their own quirks to keep them healthy and clean. Most likely you will be trading off one hassle for another so if you really like montecarlo over other carpeting plants It might be better for your to learn through trial and error with the same plant. But if its not growing to how you like, by all means definitely peep some other plants.

 Staurogyne repens is very cool carpeting plant. It is the slower growing side which has its pros and cons. The pro is, you don't have to maintain and trim the plant as often. In my non-co2 fish tank I haven't had to touch my s repens for atleast 6 months just because it has really grown. The con is it takes quite sometime for it fill out and it doesn't look too hot during transitioning. Another con I have for this plant is that it is a rather difficult to plant since mine grow really stubby, it doesn't offer much root to get anchored by the substrate. Compared to other carpeting plants where you just keep trimming the top and watch it fill, Ive had better luck by uprooting and splitting the stems off and replanting. so for this plant I feel the maintenance is a little bit more compared to others.

Depending what is available to you look up hydrocotyles, pennyworts, and marsileas

[CT_]

WOW thanks for taking the time to write all that out!

 

Here's what I've got going at various levels of zoom.  Don't mind the stressed tetras they're only an hour old to this tank in these photos.  The monte carlo came from an ADA culture cup and I followed a youtube video instructions on how to break it up and spread it around.  There's also co-op root tabs every 5ish inches under the monte carlo.  This is also a day after I vacced over the monte carlo swirling the water and actually picked up a lot of poop and mulm but the substrate and monte carlo and still diatom brown. 😕

[Koi]

First I'm gonna say nice job on the planting! That is super flush to your substrate and I'm surprised you even got it to stick in between such large grains of gravel.

So by looking at the monte carlo, scrap the propagating idea aside for now. It definitely looks like its still transitioning assuming that this picture is a recent one. It looks like there are diatoms but it also looks like its dying back a little(this part is to be expected).

How long has the plant been in the tank? From the picture it looks like less then a month so the problems you are having are within the realm of issues you should expect to see if that is the case. It looks like the plant still needs more time to adjust so at this point I think all you can do is offer a suitable environment for the plant to thrive.

Are dosing anything into the water column or are you mainly relying on the root tabs? Depending on how deeply you planted the monte carlo it could take a while for the roots to even reach the tabs. If you already using something like easy green in your tank then you pretty much have this part covered no need to dose. Until it reaches the root tabs, montecarlo will have to pull nutrients from the water so having some ferts available in the water will be helpful, but not necessary.

Its gonna be rather hard to try to "clean off" the diatoms, I would say just leave it alone for a few weeks and keep an eye out for new growth. A lot of the runners will die/melt off too don't worry about that because new growth should be coming out of the gravel. This is the point where its crucial not to disturb the substrate in those areas. You want your montercarlo to get nice and established into the substrate so that way after a few months you can siphon mulm from there without worrying about pulling up plants.

I would also say experiment with a couple of your other patches. I find that constantly cutting carpet plants promotes growth and helps train the plant to grow sideways. So in the meantime while waiting for the other patches to grow, I'll pick at least one patch where I cut  basically down to the substrate leaving just the roots inside the substrate. You don't have to go that extreme but definitely cut anything that is dying so that the plant stops using energy to keep the leaf alive and grow new ones instead. 

 

[CT_]

Yeah those are photos are today and the monte carlo is 3-2 weeks old now.  They are actually in the substrate pretty good.  The "trick" I saw was from a Japanese video where the guy actually burred each bit of it down much further than I would have expected and at plunged them at a 45 degree angle. 

I'm dosing easy green one pump a week.  Once I get my floaters propagated out how I want and the val fills in my plan is to add a second pump/week.

My biggest concern is that I'm somehow killing the monte carlo, but it sounds like the best course of action is to wait and see how it looks in another few weeks/month.  I love the monte carlo (assuming it does well) so I'm going to give it time then. 

[Koi]

19 hours ago, CT_ said:

The "trick" I saw was from a Japanese video where the guy actually burred each bit of it down much further than I would have expected and at plunged them at a 45 degree angle.

By far my favorite way of doing carpets, I completely bury my plants though. 

If you could...try to go for 2 pumps a week spread out or at least a pump every 4 days. Although your plant stocking is low I think the montecarlo would benefit with some more nutrients in the water. I always like to err on the safe side and offer more nutrients to the plants than try to walk the razors edge just cause its hard to determine how much a of a certain nutrient a plant will use.

You are still well within range of time the plant needs to recover. Don't stress yourself too much about killing the plant best thing you can do now is to have a nutrient rich environment to give it the best shot of pulling through. It also sounds like you got a good bit of it under the substrate. That might be all you need, I often cut everything off down to the substrate and the roots will still shoot leaves up.

[CT_]

Thanks for the advice.  I'll try a pump/4 days.  I have a strong urge to "do stuff" so I have to fight my self to prevent over feeding (fish or plants).