# Trouble growing Monte Carlos



## IntotheWRX (May 13, 2016)

James101 said:


> I'm new to all of this. A couple of months ago I got a tissue culture of monte carlo and a bunch grown submerged. While they are both alive, they ain't growing much if at all. I have a fluval flex 15 with extra lights. pressurized co2 and all the seachem ferts and dosing the seachem method. I'm also battling diatoms. What do you guys think???
> 
> pH: 7.2
> nitrites: 0
> ...


monte carlo is the hardest plant for me to grow. they took a long time in my tank to get comfortable and start growing. they dont grow that fast and they got out competed by my other carpets. 

i like HC cuba aka dwarf baby tears a lot better. they grow quicker, dominant and give a softer texture in your aquascape.


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## aotf (Dec 19, 2016)

IntotheWRX said:


> monte carlo is the hardest plant for me to grow. they took a long time in my tank to get comfortable and start growing. they dont grow that fast and they got out competed by my other carpets.
> 
> i like HC cuba aka dwarf baby tears a lot better. they grow quicker, dominant and give a softer texture in your aquascape.


I had the opposite experience, I put both in a tank and for the life of my could not grow HC. After months of human tears for my baby tears, I ripped it out and let the MC run loose. It formed a nice 2" carpet everywhere while the HC just slowly melted and fed GHA. Every tank is a special, frustrating, finicky snowflake.

OP, are your lights strong enough? MC is still not a super easy plant to grow. The rest of your setup sounds good but it won't do much if you aren't giving them enough light.


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## James101 (Nov 9, 2017)

I guess all plant sellers lie about how easy this or that plant is to grow.


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## MissCris (Mar 7, 2016)

James101 said:


> I guess all plant sellers lie about how easy this or that plant is to grow.


Would you give them your money if they said "this will irritate you for months with slow growth, and then you'll maybe have to buy a better light, and then it still might just not work in your tank"? It's a business. They want to sell things. Some are better about labeling than others, and some buyers know what they are getting into better than others (not implying anything about OP, sounds like they have a decent setup going), but in the end, nurseries want to sell plants.


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## gus6464 (Dec 19, 2011)

Funny when I had monte Carlo it grew like a weed. This is 6 months of growth with barely any co2 and 6 hour light cycle.
















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## NueoK (Oct 24, 2017)

I’m on my first tank so I won’t be the expert. But I do have experience in reefs.

Diatoms typically disappears in a month or so. Just gotta siphon our what you can. I have never seen diatoms come back in an established tank, unless the biological stuff got rebooted somehow. 

For plants, do they grow in such hard water? In my tank my levels are 4kh and 4 gh and all plants growing like weeds. 

What seachem ferts are you using? They sell every nutrients in different bottles. I heard people have better luck with all in one solutions sometimes.


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## gus6464 (Dec 19, 2011)

Monte Carlo is a root feeder not water column. Putting ferts in the water doesn't do much if at all. Nutrient rich soil is the key.

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## James101 (Nov 9, 2017)

Thanks. I got root tabs and I dose seachem NPK, Fe, excel & flourish.


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