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Tom Raffield

Member
Joined
18 Apr 2017
Messages
175
Location
Coulsdon, UK
Hi everyone,

I have recently planted a new carpet plant in my Juwel Vision 260. I have been looking for an 'easy' carpet and have seen Micranthemum Monte Carlo raved about online. So I purchased two pots of the plant, divided it up and planted it with a small amount of wool to act as an anchor. I believe this plant can take a while to settle in but it has been three weeks so far and the results can be seen in the photo.

Has anyone had experience of this carpet plant? I am trying to work out if mine is doing what it should or whether it is struggling. Whilst it has definitely grown and put out runners, the older leaves appear to be melting. It is also not as bright green as it was when it was planted although the new leaves do start out a nice green. It has become darker and could possibly be considered slightly green-yellow in colour. I am EI dosing the tank 75ml or Macro and Micro nutrients each day to ensure that there is enough nutrients for the whole tank, even though it is advised that dosing only occurs every other day. I do a 25-35% water change each week. I am also adding pressurised carbon at a rate of 5 (ish) bubbles per second giving a good green colour on my drop checker. The lighting is standard Juwel tubes, 2 x 54w HiLite T5 (Nature and Day) and they are roughly 10 months old. I am tempted to replace these anyway as Juwel are expensive; does anyone have any suggestions for which light tubes might be best?

Finally I came down this morning to see the damage as shown in the pictures to the top of some plants. I thought a while ago that this was a deficiency and melting. However on this scale I have decided that this must be snail damage! I was unaware I had any snails as my plants come from a snail free producer. If there are some little blighters hiding in my tank I never see them, the damage is done overnight, what can be done about them? The only plant being impacted on is the one in the picture. There is no other evidence of snail damage or in fact snails anywhere in the tank.

What do you guys think?
 

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Adding both macros and micros at the same time can 'lock up' the intake of iron as it reacts with the phosphates. Personally I think you've got too much ferts in your tank as with EI dosing you're meant to do a large/50% or more water change each week to rid the build up of any excess nutrients within the water. So I think it's down to nutrient deficiency and scorching from the mass amounts of ferts. Alternate your macros and micros and do larger water changes each week.


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Thanks Matty. Is that with relation to the monte carlo or the 'snail damage' or do you think too many ferts could be doing both? I've only been in this 'heavy planted high tech tank' game for a less than a year so its been a steep learning curve. I'll lower amounts i'm dosing and up the water change perhaps.

And for reference my EI mix (from this site: http://www.aquariumplantfood.co.uk/fertilisers/dry-chemicals/dry-salts.html) is:
Chelated trace - micro
Potassium Nitrate - macro
Potassium Phosphate - macro
Magnesium Sulphate - macro
 
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Perhaps your overloading on ferts have damaged the plants and the snails are mopping up the dying parts.

Monte Carlo is indeed a very easy plant. I planted some like 3 months ago in a dirted tank with no water flow and murky water, ignored them and they're still alive till today. Not propagating much but definitely very much alive.
 
I'd say it's the same in both plants, as soon as the plant is damaged it's easy fodder for the snails. I use aquariumplantfood.co.uk EI dosing. I am using just half the amounts they recommend after micronutrient toxicity. EI dosing isn't written in stone and should vary to each persons tank, I have since learnt this from the very helpful members on this forum. Am I right in saying your substrate is Eco Complete?
 
Matty, the substrate on the left is Eco Complete and on the right is just one gravel. I have mixed in nutrient tabs throughout. As you use the same website as me what would you recommend as my daily dose (alternate for micro and macro) for a 260l tank?
 
I have since halved the dosage, instead of 10ml per 50 litres I'm now doing 5ml. I will look out for any deficiencies and will take it from there and tweak where necessary but I'm sure it'll be fine. I've since learnt from the help I received on here that as Eco Complete has a high CEC rate (holding onto nutrients) the substrate can become toxic with heavy metals from micronutrients. I'm seeing signs that my tank is recovering from my first spate of toxicity. So with Eco Complete you've got to be conscious to the amount of fertilisers you dose. it's a fantastic substrate but you've got to be careful. EI dosing was never written in stone to amounts you need to dose and to regularity of it as Tom Barr has said it was just s guideline. As you're probably aware EI is technically a form of overdosing with nutrients and with the CEC you've got to be careful. Ensure you keep up with the weekly 50% water changes. Hope this helps.


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Excellent advice, I hadn't heard of Eco Complete doing that and I know full well I have been 'over' dosing heavily. Due to the number of plants I thought I was doing the right thing. I will scale things right back and dose on alternate days and see what happens. Thanks again Matty.
 
No problem Tom. I've learnt that these forums are an enormous help and happy to pay back the advise I've been given when I can. Happy tanking!


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