# trimming browning monte carlo carpet



## crazydaz (Mar 18, 2007)

The brown portions will probably end up dying, isonychia. Eventually, they will rot and be broken down. The Monte Carlo really doesn't put out an enormous amount of roots, so I wouldn't be too worried about the old roots rotting and causing some sort of big issue (hydrogen sulfide gas build up, etc). I would be more concerned about ending the algae issues so the healthy plants don't end up getting covered in it. If you can figure that out, you could try to remove what you can easily snip or tweeze out, and the healthy plants will simply grow over the old, dying growth.


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## isonychia (Nov 19, 2013)

crazydaz said:


> The brown portions will probably end up dying, isonychia. Eventually, they will rot and be broken down. The Monte Carlo really doesn't put out an enormous amount of roots, so I wouldn't be too worried about the old roots rotting and causing some sort of big issue (hydrogen sulfide gas build up, etc). I would be more concerned about ending the algae issues so the healthy plants don't end up getting covered in it. If you can figure that out, you could try to remove what you can easily snip or tweeze out, and the healthy plants will simply grow over the old, dying growth.


Thanks crazydaz.

I think I am going to remove all of it, I am not sure yet.

I already removed half of it. I was thinking of testing things and replanting the other half with new MC and leaving the existing, but that may just cause my new MC to get algae on it. I have plenty of backup MC in my emersed growout tanks to redo my carpet attempts. I just hate to restart it if I don't have to as it has been 3 months. But I am starting to think a replant will speed the carpet up faster than waiting for the existing to work itself out.

I have my tank dialed in as best as I can. In worrying my CO2 was still not enough or not distributed properly I accidentally gassed 2 harlequins. I am done with worrying my CO2 is the problem. It's not.
I thought I could increase it one marker on the needle valve by raising my spray bar and adding in more O2, but that was a recipe for disaster, because when I did the water change I added too much water and forgot about the O2 addition with the spraybar, thus I gassed the tank. So I backed it down to the original amount and will leave it there.

I have my par reduced to 40 but I think the algae is still progressing. I will wait it out 2 more weeks (1 week at 40 so far) for a total of 3 weeks and see how things are in terms of algae and plant growth. I will revisit reducing it further at that time.

Here are some thoughts I have right now concerning the status of my tank.

1. If I reduce the PAR further, to 30/35, I am worried it will be too low and stunt the progress of increased HEALTHY plant growth. I envision the plant growth will slow down and the algae will continue to progress.

2. I have not experienced the process of seeing a retreat of existing algae due to a tank that has COME INTO balance midstream. So I have doubts that my existing algae will die off/disappear when the tank enters the so far unattainable balance zone holy grail. 

So I guess now it's just time and tank maintenance, cleaning, water changes, removing existing algae when possible etc.

I do have another question.

How detrimental is it to a stem plant to cut off algae covered leaves?
Is there a percentage of leaves that when trimmed causes more harm to the plant than if I left the leaf on it with algae? I have some Limnophila Aromatica with some bba/staghorn on the leaf edges. I trim them occasionally but am hesistant to trim too many leaves.

I have not entertained spot treating any of these plants with excel or H2O2 yet.

iso


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## crazydaz (Mar 18, 2007)

Limnophila is pretty fast growing. In my opinion, it would be easier and better if you simply topped the plant, replanted the tops, and threw away the ratty, algae-ridden remainder. Spot treating plants is at least pretty tricky for me.....I always end up burning the leaves along with the algae, and almost always find that the finer the leaf of the plant is, the easier it is to burn them. Even Bruce and Anubias species that I've treated seem to be able to handle only a few treatments. Typically, I just remove those leaves with algae, and the plant comes back fine.


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

It's a trace toxicity. Trimming won't help.


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