# Can you put a stone on Monte Carlo to hold it down?



## tannerg (Nov 3, 2017)

Hello everybody,

I recently acquired some monte carlo from a fellow hobbyist in the city I live in. It had uprooted in his tank and he offered to give me a very sizeable portion for free! I was so excited. Planting it in my aquarium however, proved to be quite the task. I currently have a 20 gallon/75 liter long aquarium planted with various anubias, dwarf clovers, christmas and jova mosses as well as some cryptocoryne parva. I'm using ADA Aqua Soil for substrate, run my Finnex Planted Plus 24/7 light on max setting for 8 hours a day. Will be adding compressed co2 next week after the holidays. I currently dose Nilocg's thrive and Seachem Excel every other day. I do 6 gallon water changes every Sunday. Fauna includes several tiny ramshorn snails, 2 larger mystery snails, and a tiny spotted bushy nose plecostomus. All flora & fauna are healthy and growing 

I've noticed some of the larger sheets of monte carlo I planted are rising up in the middle. Roots are holding the cluster down on the edges, but towards the middle they are raised up. I was wondering if placing a small stone on top of the middle of the cluster would encourage the roots to grow downward into the substrate or will this cause more damage than good? Has anyone ever done this? I also have a quite rigid rock used in my hardscape and I wedged some of the monte carlo into that as well as wrapped a long string of it around some of the driftwood I have. Has anyone had monte carlo grow successfully on top of rocks or around driftwood?

It would be lovely to hear from all of you!

-Tanner


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## KrypleBerry (May 23, 2017)

I burried mine under a thin layer of sand. Worked like a charm and grew in beautifully.


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## tannerg (Nov 3, 2017)

Interesting! So you just sprinkled sand on top of the leaves and it was able to weigh it down enough to press the roots to the substrate but still allow them to obtain light?


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

No there's no reason to do that. If the mat your planting is coming up, just break it up more and pant fewer in one spot. The AS should hold it fine.


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## tannerg (Nov 3, 2017)

@houseofcards I figured this method would come up and really calls on me to not take the easy way out. I did this with one other area of the of the aquarium and should dedicate the time for the whole tank. Do you have any advice with the MC I wedged in the rock and wrapped around the driftwood? Do you think it will even grow or would you recommend just planting it elsewhere? 

Thanks for your response.


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

I mean it will grow if it's not covered by the rock, but it's just not the best way to do it. 

Carpets come in much better if they are thinly planted (a few stems per area), more light reaches each stem and you can push their roots down further. What you do is you take the small grouping (a few stems) and push it down into the AS with the twizzers further then it should be. Then pull it up slightly with the twizzers and some of the AS will fall in and around the roots/stem to hold it firmly.


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## tannerg (Nov 3, 2017)

Right. I'm using some Fluval tweezers right now and they have these like rubbery casings on the ends, have you seen those? They seem to be pretty garbage for these delicate planting jobs.


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## paulbert (Jan 22, 2017)

I second what Houseofcards said. Just cut it up and plant individual stems in the substrate. It will spread.


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## tannerg (Nov 3, 2017)

Thanks @paulbert ! Gonna take care of this after work today!


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## KrypleBerry (May 23, 2017)

tannerg said:


> Interesting! So you just sprinkled sand on top of the leaves and it was able to weigh it down enough to press the roots to the substrate but still allow them to obtain light?


 it caused a ton of root growth and the plants sent new growth up everywhere. Many have different methods, I had high flow in that tank so this is what worked for me. I did break mine up into hundreds of sprigs too...


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