# Melting monte carlo



## chautrung (Aug 30, 2005)

I got 3 patches of monte carlo recently. They were growing well but all of a sudden one patch started melting and within 3 days it was almost completely gone; I removed it from the tank. Now the two remaining patches are showing signs of the same problem. What's going on? All the plants in the tank are fine; only the monte carlo seem to be affected.


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## Cokers (Aug 15, 2011)

You might wanna start with giving us your tank specs and if you changed anything recently.


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## chautrung (Aug 30, 2005)

It's an established tank (3-4 years); was a low tech amazon sword tank with goldfish for a while; I converted it back into high tech tank with high light and pressurized co2 a little over a month ago. I don't do much when it comes to testing, just 20-30% water change a week. I haven't changed my routine; woke up one day and noticed one patch of Monte Carlo half melted with pieces of it floating all over the tank.


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## The Dude (Feb 8, 2011)

Everytime I plant Monte Carlo there is a little that doesn't root and floats off. I've never seen it melt though. I just bury as much of it into the substrate and let it grow up and spread from there. Whatever doesn't take or floats off I just remove.


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## gus6464 (Dec 19, 2011)

Monte carlo leaves are different in emersed and submerged form. If the monte carlo you bought was grown emersed all the leaves will melt and grow back looking a bit different.

I am guessing all your leaves are turning pale green almost see through right?

Emersed









Submerged









The leaves in submerged form are half the size. I like to grow monte carlo emersed first as it puts out a massive root structure super easy and I just cut it in squares and drop in the tank. The weight from the substrate in the emersed roots keeps it down on a flooded tank. It takes about 2 weeks for the melting to happen and submerged leaves to grow out.


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## Xiaozhuang (Feb 15, 2012)

gus6464 said:


> The leaves in submerged form are half the size. I like to grow monte carlo emersed first as it puts out a massive root structure super easy and I just cut it in squares and drop in the tank. The weight from the substrate in the emersed roots keeps it down on a flooded tank. It takes about 2 weeks for the melting to happen and submerged leaves to grow out.


That's interesting, thanks for sharing your method~


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## mattcham (Mar 7, 2014)

I bought an 8x8 inch large patch of emersed Monte Carlo. I planted it in 22" deep water with high tech CO2, 0.5 ml per gallon daily metricide-14, EI dosing, and 100 PAR light at substrate depth. It's been 3 weeks since submersion and my Monte Carlo never melted. The emersed leaves were very small from the start, due to very high humidity during its emersed propagation. Most of the melting that people see from emersed to submerged transition could be related to drastic change in CO2 and/or humidity. This drastic change can be reduced by keeping very high humidity in the emersed environment and keeping very high CO2 (for a couple of weeks) in the submersed environment.


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## haruko05 (Jan 23, 2013)

Everytime I transfer monte carlos between a tank with CO2 and without CO2, there seems to be a 50% chance of it melting. All I do is bury what's left and leave it. It grows back out fine, usually growing under the substrate for a while before showing above.


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## chautrung (Aug 30, 2005)

I ones I got were grown submerged (i'm pretty sure); still not sure what the problem was but it seems to have stopped; maybe it was just transplant shock. Can't wait for damaged areas to recover; the outer edges are growing fine. Thanks for the feedbacks guys!


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