# Why does my Monte Carlo doesnt grow ın High Tech?



## mgeorges (Feb 1, 2017)

I see some deficiencies in your tank. When you say drinking water, are we talking purified/RO/distilled...because if that's the case, you need to be remineralizing that water with GH and KH booster. Holes in the leaf can be caused by a deficiency, or by snails eating unhealthy parts of the leaf. 

Do you know your GH and KH(looks like you may be using ADA so KH will be buffered)?


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Jun 15, 2008)

Hi @Qmaster

Welcome to TPT!

Do you see how white the new growth on your Ludwigia (?) is in the background? That gives us a clue, the two most likely causes are low nitrates (K)NO3 or iron (Fe). It looks like you are using ADA Amazonia Aquasoil as a substrate.....is that correct? If so, and the tank is only a couple of months old I suspect that there should be sufficient nitrates however a Nitrate Test Kit would confirm that fact or not. That leaves us with an iron deficiency.....but why? ADA Amazonia does contain iron (Fe) but possibly not sufficient to keep up with the needs of the plants if you have a high light intensity (PAR). Another reason that sufficient iron may not be available to the plants would be the pH of the water.....do you know the pH of your tank?


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## Vinster8108 (Sep 1, 2016)

I agree with Seattle_Aquarist, although the plant at the back looks to be a rotala sp. to me. The MC could have been grown emersed and is still adjusting. Better defining your water parameters and water change water will help diagnose.


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## IntotheWRX (May 13, 2016)

Qmaster said:


> Hello everyone,
> 
> My Monte Carlo hasnt been growing for a couple of months and I see holes in leaves too. (maybe snails?)
> 
> ...


they been the hardest for me to grow

they take a long time to get comfortable

when they are finally comfortable and start growing they dont grow crazy


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## Qmaster (Dec 11, 2017)

Hello again, 

I am very delighted to see all of the responses, the soil I believe is to be of Dennerle's one of active soils.

Sadly I have no test kits available but the correct assumption would be that a KH and GH booster would be welcome, or I could instead use tap water, dechlorinated over the week until the next water change. Tank is at least 5 months old, and the strange thing is that I saw how these emersed MC's slowly faded and sent out new green leaves so I am pretty sure that process is long over. 

But then again I was thinking that growth was happening and it came to a sudden stop. (my Rotalas were reaching the top of the aquarium in much shorter times that they needed trimmings.)

I am not exactly sure of pH I have to measure it somehow. The RCS I know to be very pH sensitive but that's all I know.

One thing I did was that I noticed I was dosing Micro ferts too low. My last 2 doses were much more adequate. (3ml x2 per week of Sera Florena) I was only doing a couple drops before. I realized this once I decided to go over the dosing again.

Today I planted some root tabs and added 3ml of Micros.

Hopefully the cause is due to one of the deficiencies there.

Would growth come to a halt if one resource got depleted even though N-P-K Macros are readily available?


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Jun 15, 2008)

Qmaster said:


> Would growth come to a halt if one resource got depleted even though N-P-K Macros are readily available?


Hi Qmaster,

Yes, even though the macro-nutrients like N-P-K are adequate you can still have slow growth if another key nutrient is missing. I do not know what the Dennerle soils contain so we do not know that the nitrogen level is adequate or not.

What nutrients are your dosing?
How much per dose?
How many times per week?


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## Qmaster (Dec 11, 2017)

Seattle_Aquarist said:


> Hi Qmaster,
> 
> Yes, even though the macro-nutrients like N-P-K are adequate you can still have slow growth if another key nutrient is missing. I do not know what the Dennerle soils contain so we do not know that the nitrogen level is adequate or not.
> 
> ...


Hello again,

here is what I am dosing per week,

Over the week you will be adding the following nutrients to your tank :- 

Nitrogen N: 
6.5 ppm

Boron B: 
0.11 ppm

(Nitrate NO3: 
29 ppm)

Copper Cu: 
0.023 ppm

Phosphorous P: 
2.9 ppm

Iron Fe: 
0.84 ppm

(Phosphate PO4: 
9 ppm)

Manganese Mn: 
0.18 ppm

Potassium K: 
35 ppm

Molybdenum Mo: 
0.015 ppm

Calcium Ca: 
6.7 ppm

Zinc Zn:
0.12 ppm

Magnesium Mg: 
0.98 ppm

Sulphur S: 
12 ppm

But Im not sure of micros listed as I use a premade solution Sera Florena.

Dosing is 3 ml x2 of Macro and 3ml x2 of micro through the week. My prepared macro solution includes Potassium nitrate (KNO3) and Monopotassium phosphate (KH2PO4). Actually 3 tablespoon of KNO3 and 2 teaspoon of Monopotassium phosphate in a 500ml solution. (water)


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Jun 15, 2008)

Hi @Qmaster,

Since you are running 0.5 watt of LED per liter (approx 2 watt LED/ U.S. gal) which is likely 'high light', your substrate is not ADA Aquasoil, and you are dosing about 0.84 of iron, then I am going to suggesting upping the dosing of nitrates first. Leave everything else the same. Increase you nitrates by 20% per dose and what your new leaves on all of the species for the next two weeks, *the existing leaves will not change*. Are the new leaves growing faster, greener, healthier? Progress reports for the next couple of weeks and pictures are always appreciated! -Roy


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## Qmaster (Dec 11, 2017)

@Seattle_Aquarist

Will do Roy, lets see how it goes!


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## Qmaster (Dec 11, 2017)

@Seattle_Aquarist

Hello Im back to drop some updates.

Changes done: Added some Rotala to see effect on fresh plants. (Added 2 days ago)
Kept some of old ones to observe that effect too.
Decreased distance of light to aquarium surface to almost 2cm. (Made it closer)

However I see some browning on (slight browning) on some leaves of Rotala. Not sure if it was there but it happening around the perimeter of the leaf. Its mostly brown maybe a bit black.

Almost tripled my EI dosing. I know it sounds crazy but I was able to see pearling upon adding more.(at least on rotalas) I dont know what is wrong here? 
Had some green algae on the glass, experimentally scraped half on them and left the other half. It didnt come back 2 days later on the cleaned half.

Hoping to hear your comments, pictures below!

https://ibb.co/hkH3Nc
https://ibb.co/mreHhc
https://ibb.co/e8WcFx
https://ibb.co/gy5hhc


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Jun 15, 2008)

Hi @Qmaster,

Since we don't know if the Rotala was emersed grown or submerged grown the browning could just be emersed leaves dying.



> Almost tripled my EI dosing. I know it sounds crazy but I was able to see pearling upon adding more.(at least on rotalas) I dont know what is wrong here?
> Had some green algae on the glass, experimentally scraped half on them and left the other half. It didnt come back 2 days later on the cleaned half.


Yes, it does sound a little crazy but more importantly have are the plants looking? It's hard to tell from the photos but I think I see new, green leaves on the 'Monte Carlo'....it that correct? What are your thoughts is there improvement?


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## Qmaster (Dec 11, 2017)

@Seattle_Aquarist

Im sorry but I have forgot to mention, the plants I recieved were planted in some sort of sponge (as there was no substrate) but were submerged inside the same aquarium for some time. (AFAIK)

Indeed, I am seeing some green growth on the MC, which makes me happy. I have aciddentally uprooted a couple, I believe that must have halted the development by a fair bit.

Do you think there is some problem with my EI schedule? Did you in any cases had to dose more than EI? Maybe the light is too strong and the nutrients cant catch up?

Also the rotalas, as much as I have thought that they would be heading towards the light, they are bent. Isnt this odd?

Thanks!

Edit: Also I think the pictures should be able to provide higher resolution upon clicking on the image once more.


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Jun 15, 2008)

Hi @Qmaster,

Which of the nutrients you dose contains the calcium and magnesium that you listed above? Also, what is the pH, dKH, and dGH of the tank if you have that information.


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